Climate change, food security, and livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly vulnerable to climate change. Multiple biophysical, political, and socioeconomic stresses interact to increase the region’s susceptibility and constrain its adaptive capacity. Climate change is commonly recognized as a major issue likely to have negative consequences on food security and livelihoods in the region. This paper reviews three bodies of scholarship that have evolved somewhat separately, yet are inherently interconnected: climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation, food security, and sustainable livelihoods. The paper develops a conceptualization of the relationships among the three themes and shows how food security’s vulnerabilities are related to multiple stresses and adaptive capacities, reflecting access to assets. Food security represents one of several livelihood outcomes. The framework shows how several research paradigms relate to the issue of food security and climate change and provides a guide for empirical investigations. Recognizing these interconnections can help in the development of more effective policies and programs. The framework is applied here to synthesize findings from an array of studies in sub-Saharan Africa dealing with vulnerability to climate change, food security, and livelihoods.

[1]  Sarah Minty Working paper 7 , 2014 .

[2]  J. Palutikof,et al.  Climate change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Summary for Policymakers. , 2007 .

[3]  B. Smit,et al.  The rains are disappointing us: dynamic vulnerability and adaptation to multiple stressors in the Afram Plains, Ghana , 2009 .

[4]  G. Owusu,et al.  Climate change/variability and food systems: evidence from the Afram Plains, Ghana , 2011 .

[5]  Richard J. T. Klein,et al.  Climate change, adaptive capacity and development , 2003 .

[6]  B. Hoskins,et al.  Introduction: food crops in a changing climate , 2005, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[7]  A. Sen,et al.  Ingredients of famine analysis: availability and entitlements. , 1981, The quarterly journal of economics.

[8]  A. Abdulai,et al.  Determinants of income diversification amongst rural households in Southern Mali , 2001 .

[9]  Guiyun Yan,et al.  New records of Anopheles arabiensis breeding on the Mount Kenya highlands indicate indigenous malaria transmission , 2006, Malaria Journal.

[10]  S. Devereux The impact of droughts and floods on food security and policy options to alleviate negative effects , 2007 .

[11]  C. Tebaldi,et al.  Prioritizing Climate Change Adaptation Needs for Food Security in 2030 , 2008, Science.

[12]  R. Sessa,et al.  Climate-smart agriculture: sourcebook. , 2013 .

[13]  M. Kaag Ways forward in livelihood research , 2004 .

[14]  O. Mertz,et al.  Rainfall variability and household coping strategies in northern Tanzania: a motivation for district-level strategies , 2011 .

[15]  Peter Jacobs,et al.  The contribution of subsistence farming to food security in South Africa , 2009 .

[16]  Richard J. T. Klein,et al.  An Anatomy of Adaptation to Climate Change and Variability , 2000 .

[17]  J. Ocampo Globalization and Development , 2003 .

[18]  Lindsey Jones,et al.  Responding to a changing climate: exploring how disaster risk reduction, social protection and livelihoods approaches promote features of adaptive capacity , 2010 .

[19]  P. Struik,et al.  HIV and Severity of Seasonal Household Food-Related Coping Behaviors in Rural Ghana , 2012, Ecology of food and nutrition.

[20]  M. Qaim,et al.  Impact of off-farm income on food security and nutrition in Nigeria , 2010 .

[21]  A. Gordon,et al.  Livelihood diversification in Uganda: patterns and determinants of change across two rural districts , 2001 .

[22]  Smallholder farmers' perceptions on land degradation and soil erosion in Zimbabwe. , 2007 .

[23]  W. Adger,et al.  Social Capital, Collective Action, and Adaptation to Climate Change , 2003 .

[24]  Anne M. Riederer,et al.  The Livelihood Vulnerability Index: A pragmatic approach to assessing risks from climate variability and change—A case study in Mozambique , 2009 .

[25]  Robert Chambers,et al.  Poverty and livelihoods: whose reality counts? , 1995 .

[26]  C. Vogel,et al.  Living and responding to multiple stressors in South Africa—Glimpses from KwaZulu-Natal , 2006 .

[27]  W. Adger,et al.  Social Vulnerability to Climate Change and the Architecture of Entitlements , 1999 .

[28]  Ann M. Oberhauser,et al.  Women's collective economic strategies and political transformation in rural South Africa , 2004 .

[29]  J. Yaro Is deagrarianisation real ? A study of livelihood activities in rural , 2006 .

[30]  B. Sarr Present and future climate change in the semi‐arid region of West Africa: a crucial input for practical adaptation in agriculture , 2012 .

[31]  P. Pinstrup-Andersen,et al.  Food security: definition and measurement , 2009, Food Security.

[32]  medolbec Understanding adaptation: What can social capital offer assessments of adaptive capacity? , 2010 .

[33]  A. Renzaho,et al.  Food security measurement in cultural pluralism: missing the point or conceptual misunderstanding? , 2010, Nutrition.

[34]  J. Ford,et al.  Climate Change and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Literature Review , 2010 .

[35]  Richard J. T. Klein,et al.  The Science of Adaptation: A Framework for Assessment , 1999 .

[36]  J. Ford,et al.  Are we adapting to climate change , 2011 .

[37]  J. Michaelsen,et al.  Warming of the Indian Ocean threatens eastern and southern African food security but could be mitigated by agricultural development , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[38]  Carole Rakodi,et al.  A Capital Assets Framework for Analysing Household Livelihood Strategies: Implications for Policy , 1999 .

[39]  Henny Osbahr,et al.  Evaluating Successful Livelihood Adaptation to Climate Variability and Change in Southern Africa , 2010 .

[40]  R. Betts,et al.  Climate change impacts on global agriculture , 2010, Climatic Change.

[41]  Stephen Devereux,et al.  Food security in sub-Saharan Africa. , 2001 .

[42]  E. Molua Turning up the heat on African agriculture: The impact of climate change on Cameroon's agriculture , 2008 .

[43]  H. Kunstmann,et al.  Impact of regional climate change on water availability in the Volta basin of West Africa. , 2005 .

[44]  S. Klasen,et al.  What do we really know? Metrics for food insecurity and undernutrition , 2011 .

[45]  Adam Manvell Sahelian action spaces: an examination of livelihood configurations in a rural Hausa community , 2006 .

[46]  Diana Carney,et al.  Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches : Progress and Possibilities for Change , 2002 .

[47]  Petra Tschakert,et al.  Views from the vulnerable: Understanding climatic and other stressors in the Sahel , 2007 .

[48]  S. Batterbury Landscapes of Diversity: A Local Political Ecology of Livelihood Diversification in South-Western Niger , 2001 .

[49]  J. Burney,et al.  Smallholder Irrigation as a Poverty Alleviation Tool in Sub-Saharan Africa , 2012 .

[50]  E. C. Kipkorir,et al.  Improving the Participation of Agro-Pastoralists in Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction Policy Formulation: A Case Study from Keiyo District, Kenya , 2011 .

[51]  S. Trzaska,et al.  20th century droughts in southern Africa: spatial and temporal variability, teleconnections with oceanic and atmospheric conditions , 2001 .

[52]  Ian Scoones,et al.  Addressing the dynamics of agri-food systems: an emerging agenda for social science research , 2009 .

[53]  P. Roucou,et al.  Sea‐surface temperature co‐variability in the Southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans and its connections with the atmospheric circulation in the Southern Hemisphere , 2003 .

[54]  R. Chambers Editorial Introduction: Vulnerability, Coping and Policy , 1989 .

[55]  M. Tadross,et al.  Sensitivity of southern African maize yields to the definition of sowing dekad in a changing climate , 2011 .

[56]  T. Wilbanks,et al.  Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , 2007 .

[57]  Jennifer Peterson,et al.  Addressing food security in Africa via multiple livelihood strategies of women farmers , 2001 .

[58]  Lynn P. Nygaard,et al.  What's in a word? Conflicting interpretations of vulnerability in climate change research , 2004 .

[59]  M. Hulme,et al.  Adapting to climate change in Africa , 1997 .

[60]  Philip K. Thornton,et al.  Agriculture and food systems in sub-Saharan Africa in a 4°C+ world , 2011, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[61]  I. Woodhouse,et al.  Strengthening conceptual foundations: Analysing frameworks for ecosystem services and poverty alleviation research , 2013 .

[62]  L. Perch Mitigation of What and by What? Adaptation by Whom and for Whom? Dilemmas in Delivering for the Poor and the Vulnerable in International Climate Policy , 2011 .

[63]  John Richard Stepp,et al.  Increased Market Integration, Value, and Ecological Knowledge of Tea Agroforests in the Akha Highlands of Southwest China , 2010 .

[64]  W. Negatu,et al.  Comparative analysis of vulnerability of pastoralists and agro-pastoralists to climate change: a case study in Yabello Woreda of Oromia region, Ethiopia. , 2011 .

[65]  P. Jacobs,et al.  Household food security status in South Africa , 2009 .

[66]  B. Wisner,et al.  At Risk: Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability and Disasters , 1996 .

[67]  Carole Rakodi,et al.  A Livelihoods Approach – Conceptual Issues and Definitions , 2014 .

[68]  C. Barretta,et al.  Nonfarm income diversification and household livelihood strategies in rural Africa : concepts , dynamics , and policy implications , 2001 .

[69]  E. Mugalavai,et al.  Integration of Indigenous Knowledge Systems into Climate Change Adaptation and Enhancing Food Security in Nandi and Keiyo Districts, Kenya , 2011 .

[70]  P. Winters,et al.  Migration and food consumption patterns in Ghana , 2011 .

[71]  W. Adger,et al.  Adaptation to climate change in the developing world , 2003 .

[72]  P. Thornton,et al.  CCAFS Report No. 5. Mapping Hotspots of Climate Change and Food Insecurity in the Global Tropics. , 2011 .

[73]  B. Rogers,et al.  Measuring household food insecurity: why it's so important and yet so difficult to do. , 2006, The Journal of nutrition.

[74]  B. Hintermann,et al.  Markets, climate change, and food security in West Africa. , 2009, Environmental science & technology.

[75]  I. Scoones Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: A Framework for Analysis , 1998 .

[76]  Claire M. Norris,et al.  What Do We Really Know , 2015 .

[77]  B. Smit,et al.  From Adaptation to Adaptive Capacity and Vulnerability Reduction , 2003 .

[78]  Kirsten Halsnæs,et al.  The development and climate nexus: the case of sub-Saharan Africa , 2003 .

[79]  N. Vink Food security and African agriculture , 2012 .

[80]  L. Andersson,et al.  Adaptation to climate change and other stressors among commercial and small-scale South African farmers , 2013, Regional Environmental Change.

[81]  I. Scoones Livelihoods perspectives and rural development , 2009 .

[82]  H. Eswaran,et al.  Land resource stresses and desertification in Africa , 2004 .

[83]  G. Ziervogel,et al.  Understanding vulnerability in southern Africa: comparative findings using a multiple-stressor approach in South Africa and Malawi , 2010 .

[84]  Jan Philipp Dietrich,et al.  Adaptation to climate change through the choice of cropping system and sowing date in sub-Saharan Africa , 2013 .

[85]  W. Adger,et al.  Adaptation to Environmental Change: Contributions of a Resilience Framework , 2007 .

[86]  K. Giller,et al.  Courting the rain: Rethinking seasonality and adaptation to recurrent drought in semi-arid southern Africa , 2013 .

[87]  Wolfgang Cramer,et al.  Climate change risks for African agriculture , 2011, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[88]  Tara F Deubel,et al.  Persistent Hunger: Perspectives on Vulnerability, Famine, and Food Security in , 2006 .

[89]  J. Hesselberg,et al.  An assessment of the extent and causes of food insecurity in northern Ghana using a livelihood vulnerability framework , 2006 .

[90]  W. Quaye Food security situation in northern Ghana, coping strategies and related constraints , 2008 .

[91]  C. Ringler,et al.  Adaptation to climate change in Ethiopia and South Africa: options and constraints. , 2009 .

[92]  Robin M. Leichenko,et al.  Double exposure: assessing the impacts of climate change within the context of economic globalization , 2000 .

[93]  C. Caminade,et al.  ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY AND VULNERABLE LIVELIHOODS: MINIMISING RISKS AND OPTIMISING OPPORTUNITIES FOR POVERTY ALLEVIATION , 2009 .

[94]  Carlos A. Coelho,et al.  Evidence of trends in daily climate extremes over southern and west Africa , 2006 .

[95]  V. Burkett,et al.  Gender and occupational perspectives on adaptation to climate extremes in the Afram Plains of Ghana , 2011, Climatic Change.

[96]  P. Ericksen Conceptualizing food systems for global environmental change research , 2008 .

[97]  M. Bashir,et al.  Determinants of rural household food security: a comparative analysis of African and Asian studies. , 2013, Journal of the science of food and agriculture.

[98]  M. McCartney,et al.  Options for water storage and rainwater harvesting to improve health and resilience against climate change in Africa , 2013, Regional Environmental Change.

[99]  J. Ouma,et al.  Household food security in semi-arid Africa--the contribution of participatory adaptive research and development to rural livelihoods in Eastern Kenya , 1999 .

[100]  N. Batisani Climate variability, yield instability and global recession: the multi-stressor to food security in Botswana , 2012 .

[101]  Monica F. Myers,et al.  Climate change and the resurgence of malaria in the East African highlands , 2002, Nature.

[102]  Christopher B. Barrett,et al.  Measuring Food Insecurity , 2010, Science.

[103]  J. Swift,et al.  Why are Rural People Vulnerable to Famine , 1989 .

[104]  Pushpam Kumar,et al.  LIVELIHOOD OPTIONS FOR THE POOR IN THE CHANGING ENVIRONMENT , 2009 .

[105]  B. Smit,et al.  Adaptation, adaptive capacity and vulnerability , 2006 .

[106]  J. Cook,et al.  Community food security: Practice in need of theory? , 1999 .

[107]  Commonalities in the experience of household food insecurity across cultures: what are measures missing? , 2006, The Journal of nutrition.

[108]  Julius H. Kotir,et al.  Climate change and variability in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review of current and future trends and impacts on agriculture and food security , 2011 .

[109]  R. Chambers,et al.  Sustainable rural livelihoods: Practical concepts for the 21st century , 1992 .

[110]  K. Brown,et al.  Perceptions of climate change, multiple stressors and livelihoods on marginal African coasts , 2010 .

[111]  Bruce Hewitson,et al.  Adaptation to climate change and variability: farmer responses to intra-seasonal precipitation trends in South Africa , 2007 .

[112]  Anthony Patt,et al.  Perceptions of climate risk in Mozambique: Implications for the success of adaptation strategies , 2008 .

[113]  J. Ford Vulnerability of Inuit food systems to food insecurity as a consequence of climate change: a case study from Igloolik, Nunavut , 2009 .

[114]  G. Ziervogel,et al.  Vulnerability interventions in the context of multiple stressors: lessons from the Southern Africa Vulnerability Initiative (SAVI) , 2009 .

[115]  J. Mandel Mobility matters: women's livelihood strategies in Porto Novo, Benin , 2004 .

[116]  M. Brockhaus,et al.  Once there was a lake: vulnerability to environmental changes in northern Mali , 2013, Regional Environmental Change.

[117]  T. Abdoulaye,et al.  Smallholder farmers’ perceptions of and adaptations to climate change in the Nigerian savanna , 2013, Regional Environmental Change.

[118]  D. Lobell,et al.  Food security and food production systems , 2017 .

[119]  J. Palutikof,et al.  Climate change 2007 : impacts, adaptation and vulnerability , 2001 .

[120]  B. Schraven,et al.  Smallholder adaptation to climate change: dynamics and limits in Northern Ghana , 2012, Climatic Change.

[121]  Andrew Norton,et al.  To Claim Our Right: Livelihood Security, Human Rights and Sustainable Development , 2001 .

[122]  A. Misselhorn,et al.  What drives food insecurity in southern Africa? a meta-analysis of household economy studies , 2005 .

[123]  A. Zoomers,et al.  Exploring the Frontier of Livelihoods Research , 2005 .

[124]  Sudharshan Canagarajah,et al.  Non-farm income, gender, and inequality: evidence from rural Ghana and Uganda , 2001 .

[125]  R. Kasperson,et al.  A framework for vulnerability analysis in sustainability science , 2003, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[126]  Marisol Smith Household food security , 1993 .

[127]  P. Tschakert,et al.  Floods in the Sahel: an analysis of anomalies, memory, and anticipatory learning , 2010 .

[128]  F. Ellis Rural livelihood diversity in developing countries: evidence and policy implications , 1999 .

[129]  K. Abbaspour,et al.  Modeling impacts of climate change on freshwater availability in Africa , 2013 .

[130]  Amir Kassam,et al.  Assessing the vulnerability of food crop systems in Africa to climate change , 2007 .

[131]  H. Karambiri,et al.  Human Vulnerability to Climate Variability in the Sahel: Farmers’ Adaptation Strategies in Northern Burkina Faso , 2009, Environmental management.

[132]  N. Nakicenovic,et al.  Summary for policymakers , 1963 .

[133]  S. Maxwell Food Security: A Post-modern Perspective , 1996 .

[134]  Richard J. T. Klein,et al.  Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments: An Evolution of Conceptual Thinking , 2006 .

[135]  P. Neate Climate-smart agriculture success stories from farming communities around the world , 2013 .

[136]  Cynthia Rosenzweig,et al.  Climate change, global food supply and risk of hunger , 2005, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[137]  Polly Vizard,et al.  to Claim our Rights : livelihood security , human rights and sustainable development , 2001 .