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Jemima Nomunume Baada is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography. Her research examines how individuals and groups across diverse settings are affected by climate change, development processes, health inequalities, and migration in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and other parts of the world. She is particularly interested in learning about the experiences of rural dwellers, women and those whose livelihoods depend on environmental/natural resources (e.g., farmers). She is also interested in understanding how factors such as gender, climate vulnerability, and migration status may act as social and political-ecological determinants of health. Last but not least, her research aims to highlight the adaptation strategies, for example, traditional ecological knowledge, that local communities employ to mitigate the impacts of climatic stressors on their lives.
As an interdisciplinary climate–migration scholar, how do gender, health, and development equity come together in your research and teaching?
I started off researching the lives of migrant women in Ghana. However, I quickly realized that in the rural farming contexts where I was working, I could not study migration without understanding its connections to climate change, development inequities, and gendered differences. Therefore, in my research and teaching, I emphasize how mobilities in Ghana and similar contexts stem from climate impacts such as poor rainfall and soil fertility. I also underscore how these environmental factors cannot be understood outside of the limited livelihood opportunities, rooted in poor infrastructural and social development, that necessitate migration as a survival strategy. Lastly, I show how the ability to move or stay, and experiences in sending/receiving areas, are all shaped by gender norms, with differential impacts on diverse gender groups.
What have your research experiences in rural communities across sub-Saharan Africa revealed about climate change and mobility?
My research has brought me several insights. First is the fact that most of the people moving due to climate-related factors are the ones most impacted by climate breakdown, for example, those reliant on rainfall for livelihoods, and who have the least economic resources. Second, consistent with critical scholarship on climate mobilities, the majority of movements are happening within the same country, largely due to limited access to economic and social resources needed to migrate across countries. Last but not least, my research has revealed that climate change may be losing its effectiveness as a coping strategy in some sub-Saharan African contexts, mainly because climatic impacts are worsening across the region. For this reason, I think it is important to prioritise urgent mitigation strategies alongside adaptation ones.
How has your work with NGOs and development agencies shaped the questions you ask and the impact you hope your research can have?
My work with NGOs and other non-academic organizations has led me to ask questions that have the ability to provide both theoretical and practical answers. It has also made me appreciate the minute and everyday wins. I think my academic research tends to focus more on big-picture structural changes for improving livelihood, health and other outcomes within affected local communities. While such structural changes are crucial, they take time to materialize. However, because NGOs work with grassroots communities on specific issues towards specific solutions, it is easier to see how research can translate into everyday lives more quickly. My work with NGOs and development organizations has also reinforced for me the importance of considering contextual nuances in the research questions that I ask.
As coordinator of the CMS Climate Migration Research Group, what kinds of conversations or collaborations do you hope to foster across disciplines and between scholars and community partners?
My goal is to provide a space where everyone working on climate-related migrations/mobilities across diverse disciplines and sectors can share their work and learn about other people’s work. I hope to foster conversations about the similarities and differences in climate mobilities work across different actors and sectors. I also want the group to serve as a platform for relationship and collaboration building, to see how the tools of each discipline could be leveraged to answer questions around climate change and migration in a more comprehensive manner, and how we can draw from community partners’ work on lived experiences of climate migration to better refine academic areas of inquiry. Lastly, I hope that by approaching climate migration from an interdisciplinary lens, our research can offer community partners more relevant insights in carrying out their work.
What advice would you give to students interested in ethical, community-centred, and policy-relevant climate migration research?
Based on my work and experience, the most ethical community research, for me, is the one that brings the most benefits and the least harm to the communities I work with. Sometimes, this means subverting theoretical/disciplinary ethics, or working within institutions considered oppressive or hegemonic—for example, patriarchal institutions that shape gender norms. As I mentioned earlier, structural changes take time, and so sometimes, we need to take the little wins, even if they do nothing to change the structure in that moment. I would also encourage students to build meaningful relationships with communities, let communities lead the research based on areas of inquiry most important to them, centre the voices of the most marginalized within these communities, and accurately represent community voices while recognizing contextual complexities.
What gives you hope as you look to the future of climate migration research and practice?
I’m always excited to see more people going into climate migration/mobilities research. This signals interest in this area of work, and it also introduces new tools, methods and perspectives to the field. Another thing that brings me hope is the grassroots and other forms of activism happening both locally and globally: climate change is experienced locally, but its causes are rooted in global corporate extractivism and exploitation. Given what I’m finding in my work, that adaptation has its limits and we therefore need urgent mitigation, solidarities in holding global actors accountable keeps me hopeful. Lastly, I’ve witnessed the innovation, resilience, and optimism that climate-affected communities employ in working through their challenges, despite their limited resources. This certainly fills me with hope.
