Climate Change in Sub-Saharan Africa

Tasks

Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries are especially exposed to human-induced climate change, particularly in the form of increasing frequency and intensity of weather extremes. The impacts of these extreme events on agricultural households are exacerbated when modern production methods are lacking, necessitating the development of effective mitigation and adaptation measures. To determine which adaptation or mitigation measures are most effective, this project tracks:

• smallholder farmers in the SSA region over time. 
• whether and which characteristics of the household amplify or mitigate the effects of extreme weather events, and
• whether households undertake measures to protect themselves from such shocks in the future (adaptation).

Methods

In this project, we combine rich panel household survey data with detailed weather data to estimate the causal economic and social effects of weather events on households. We leverage quasi-random variation introduced by unpredictable and spatially heterogeneous weather extremes to isolate the effect of weather events from the effects of other local political and economic conditions

Data and other sources

The Living Standards Measurement Studies, including the Integrated Survey on Agriculture, (LSMS ISA) by the World Bank is the main data source. This survey combines household questionnaires with data on agricultural production for several countries located in Sub-Saharan Africa and covers multiple years in the timespan between 2010 and 2020. Additional data sources include NasaPower, a satellite-based source for climate variables, and CHIRPS, a tool for the mapping of rainfall.