Assessing the Role of Social Networks in Women’s Access and Use of Climate Services in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Literature

This paper assesses empirical knowledge on the role of social networks in women's access and use of climate information services (CIS) across Sub-Saharan Africa's agricultural sector. Broadly, literature that analyzes the success of CIS as an enabler of climate adaptation focuses only minimally on the role of contextual social dynamics in achieving CIS uptake. This gap prompted the subject of this paper, which illuminates how the spread of CIS is a function of ground-level communication processes and social ties, as conceptualized by social network theorists. This is particularly evident in literature examining the gender implications of CIS, which reveals how the power dynamics of knowledge-sharing and women's weaker social networks hinder their access to climate information. This review contributes to the social science on climate change a novel triangulation of climate information, gender, and social network literatures. It aims to highlight CIS scholars' calls, albeit infrequent, for greater attention to the influence of social networks on the flow of information to women. This is illustrated through two case studies in which authors use social network analyses to reveal barriers to women's CIS access and continued use. Connecting these disparate bodies of literature uncovers potentially viable, though seldom explored, pathways for improving the gender responsiveness and overall effectiveness of CIS, such as delivering information through existing ground-level social structures.