Vulnerable and poor people are the most affected by climate change.

Women make up 70 percent of poor people, and climate change is only expected to magnify existing patterns of gender disadvantage.

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), women spend more than 10 million ‘person-years’ carrying water from remote sources each year.

Yet women earn only 10 percent of the world’s income and own less than two percent of property.

As climate conditions change, women will be left with even less time available to take up income-generating activities and diversify their livelihood strategies.

CARE International's climate change strategy is geared towards the empowerment of poor and marginalized communities where CARE works, especially women vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

For example, in the drought-prone, pastoralist area of Borana zone in Ethiopia, CARE has rehabilitated traditional wells and constructed water infrastructure such as hand dug wells to help store water, so that women do not have to spend so much time finding water and can spend that time instead on income generating/productive activities.

This has given women more options for coping when confronted by increasingly unpredictable rainfall, and for long-term adaptation if trends continue.

Take a look at our gallery of images showing the faces of the women we work with and the landscapes in which they operate.

Photos in the slideshow © CARE / Sylvia Pecio / Stuart Dunn / Tamara Plush