Climate Disasters, Internal Displacement, and Adolescent Girls’ Education in the Honduran Sula Valley

• In Event: Access to Education Amidst Displacement, Conflict, and Climate Emergencies: A Qualitative Lens

Proposal

Climate disasters have historically driven displacement in Honduras. Hurricane Mitch, the second-deadliest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin, hit in 1998. Twenty-two years later, Tropical Storm Eta and Hurricane Iota wreaked havoc amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Widespread flooding impacted the Sula Valley alluvial region, home to Cortés, the most populated state in Honduras. These disasters affected numerous facets of people’s lives, including housing, water, sanitation, food, healthcare, transportation, security, jobs, and education. It is unclear, however, how the compounding effects of Eta and Iota have influenced long-term access to schooling. The purpose of my paper is to examine how the aftermath of disasters and climate-induced internal displacement impacts education and contributes to school abandonment among adolescent girls ages 12 to 17. I pursue this endeavor from a feminist theoretical lens, building upon research on environmental catastrophes, gender, and Philosopher Martha Nussbaum’s approach to Human Capabilities Theory. My research question is: What are the context-specific factors that drive decisions to remain or leave school among adolescent girls who have lived through and continue to be exposed to climate shocks in the Sula Valley?

My research follows a multi-stakeholder case study method involving document analysis and 60 participant interviews. The paper analyzes 60 in-depth first-hand interviews conducted between 2023 and 2025 with adolescent girls ages 12 to 17 in and out of school (n=33), living in communities affected by dislocation, climate shocks, poverty, and violence in the Sula Valley, Honduras. To develop a comprehensive analysis of the structural, family, and individual-level gendered vulnerabilities and opportunities to access education for adolescent girls in these contexts, my paper also involves in-depth first-hand interviews with teachers and school principals (n=6), parents or legal guardians (n=8), as well as with local and national government officials and civil society representatives working on education, disaster response, and climate change risks (n=13).

My paper foregrounds nuanced, localized, and intimate insights about adolescent girls’ education loss in the wake of climate disasters in Honduras. Findings. I found that school abandonment decisions are complex and do not depend solely on the physical existence of a school in the community they relocate to. Other factors, like adolescent pregnancy and early unions, may explain why some girls may not be able to return to school. In addition, families’ precarious socio-economic situation was a recurrent reason explaining school abandonment among girls. Exposure to climate disasters and the subsequent immediate displacement exacerbate existing barriers to access and remain in school, and create new challenges for the girls’ livelihoods, transportation to school, access to housing, as well as physical and mental health.

Author

• Sara M. Pan Algarra, Columbia University Teachers College