DEPLETED BY DEBT? FOCUSING A GENDERED LENS ON CLIMATE RESILIENCE, CREDIT, AND NUTRITION IN TRANSLOCAL CAMBODIA AND SOUTH INDIA

小规模信贷在主流发展思想中受到推崇，认为它是支持妇女及其家庭应对日常、持续且往往缓慢发生的气候灾害的关键手段。面对来自干旱和洪水的日益严重的农业生产力危机，并对其家庭的营养福祉承担主要责任，妇女成为全球信贷借款人的目标。因此，提供信贷有助于推动应对气候灾害的“复原力”，这是可持续发展目标13的核心，“采取紧急行动应对气候变化及其影响”，并对可持续发展目标5“实现性别平等和赋予所有妇女和女孩权力”产生严重影响，该目标优先重视和承认妇女的无偿照料和家务劳动。那么，我们如何确保‘气候适应能力’不会以妇女通过家庭营养供应过程造成的情感和身体耗尽为代价？这是推动这个为期两年的项目的关键问题，该项目问：(1)作为气候适应能力的一种形式，信贷以什么方式影响营养供应？(2)在不断变化的气候中，营养供应和信贷的动态是如何体验和可视化的？(3)气候-信贷-营养关系的性别和社会生殖动态是什么？(4)可以学到什么教训，以向受缓慢发生的气候灾害影响的家庭和社区提供更好和更公平的信贷供应和营养结果？该项目的方法以环境科学、视觉艺术、和社会科学方法相结合，形成一个综合良好的研究设计，有效地探索这些复杂的问题。在柬埔寨和印度泰米尔纳德邦的政治经济背景下，实地工作包括收集环境概况、社会经济和营养指标、能源支出的测量以及口头和视觉分析；所有这些都通过突出性别动态的镜头进行。在每个国家，将在3个农村村庄和2个工业工作场所进行研究，因为农村家庭往往由从事非农村工作的移徙工人维持生计。由来自柬埔寨、印度、英国和欧洲大陆的20名调查人员、顾问和一名借调的联合国妇女署工作人员组成的跨学科团队将与非政府和私营部门项目合作伙伴以及由(非)学术专家组成的顾问委员会合作，提供这项开创性的研究。该项目还将促进7名早期职业研究人员的研究和发展，其中大多数是女性和/或黑人、亚洲人或少数族裔(BAME)。导师制包括两次职业生涯初期的常驻写作务虚会，一次在柬埔寨，一次在印度，以支持出版物写作技能和信心的发展。这项研究将发表在10篇期刊文章、一份易于书写的项目报告和6份政策简报(英语、高棉语和泰米尔语)中，这些报告将汇集来自6个利益攸关方研讨会的(非)学者，以扩大综合研究成果并增强政策影响。一个独特而引人注目的参与者和艺术家摄影展也将在金边、金奈和伦敦展出，以向更广泛的观众推广这项研究。展览将作为发布项目报告的场所，激发媒体的兴趣，并将在利益攸关方研讨会期间举行，以最大限度地影响政治、发展和私营部门决策者。归根结底，鉴于给予小规模信贷的地位是落实2030年可持续发展议程的重要杠杆，我们的研究对于指导其思考和实施性别平等的气候复原力至关重要。

Small-scale credit is exalted in mainstream development thinking as a key means of supporting women and their families in dealing with daily, ongoing, and often slow-onset climate disasters. Facing growing crises of agricultural productivity from droughts and floods, and taking primary responsibility for the nutritional wellbeing of their households, women are targeted as credit borrowers globally. Credit provisioning therefore speaks to the push for 'resilience' against climate disasters that is central to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13, 'Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts', and which has serious implications for SDG 5 'Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls' that prioritises the valuing and recognition of women's unpaid care and domestic work. How do we ensure, then, that 'climate resilience' does not come at the cost of women's emotional and bodily depletion through processes of household nutrition provisioning? This is the key concern motivating this two-year project which asks:(1) In what ways is credit, as a form of climate resilience, shaping nutritional provisioning?(2) How are the dynamics of nutrition provisioning and credit-taking in a changing climate being experienced and visualised?(3) What are the gender and social reproductive dynamics of the climate-credit-nutrition nexus?(4) What lessons can be learned to deliver improved and more equitable credit provisioning and nutritional outcomes to households and communities affected by slow-onset climate disasters?The project's methodology is anchored in environmental science, visual arts, and social science methods which are combined into a well-integrated research design to effectively probe these complex questions. Set within the political economy contexts of Cambodia and Tamil Nadu, India, fieldwork encompasses the collection of environmental profiles, socio-economic and nutritional indicators, measurements of energy expenditure, and oral and visual analysis; all through a lens that foregrounds gender dynamics. In each country, research will be carried out in 3 rural villages and 2 industrial worksites given that rural households are often maintained by labour migrants engaged in non-rural work. The 20-strong interdisciplinary team of investigators, consultants, and a seconded UN Women staff member, from Cambodia, India, the UK, and continental Europe, will work together with non-governmental and private sector project partners, and an advisory board of (non)academic experts, to deliver this ground-breaking research. The project will also foster the research excellence and development of 7 early career researchers, the majority of whom are women, and/or black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME). Mentorship includes two early-career residential writing retreats, one in Cambodia and one in India, to support the development of publication writing skills and confidence.The research will be published across 10 journal articles, an accessibly-written project report, and 6 policy briefs (in English, Khmer, and Tamil) which will bring together (non)-academics from 6 stakeholder workshops to amplify the integrated research findings and enhance policy impact. A unique and compelling exhibition of participant and artist photography will also be shown in Phnom Penh, Chennai, and London, to promote the research to a wider audience still. The exhibition will act as a space for the project report launch, galvanise media interest, and will be timed during the stakeholder workshops to maximise impact on political, developmental, and private sector decision-makers. Ultimately, given the status accorded to small-scale credit as a significant lever in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, our research is crucial to informing its thinking on, and operationalisation of, gender-equitable climate resilience.