Climate Variability and Child Nutrition: Findings from Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Climatic variability has been shown to affect many underlying determinants of child malnutrition, including food availability, access, and utilization. Evidence of the effects of changing temperatures and precipitation on children’s nutritional status nonetheless remains limited. Research addressing this knowledge gap is merited given the short- and long-run consequences of malnutrition. We contribute to the literature on this issue by estimating the effects of temperature and precipitation anomalies on the weight of children ages 0-59 months across 16 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Results from fixed-effects linear regression models show that precipitation anomalies have significant and non-linear effects on child weight, with sharp increases in thinness under dry conditions and minimal benefits to above-average precipitation. The negative effects of dry spells on acute malnutrition are significantly amplified by concurrent exposure to above-average temperatures. Tests for differences in the effects of climatic variability across sub-populations show statistically significant differences according to maternal education and children’s residence in rural or urban areas. Substantively, however, these differences are a matter of degree rather than kind. Our results underscore the vulnerability of young children to climatic variability and its second-order economic and epidemiological effects. The study also highlights the corresponding need to design and assess interventions to effectively mitigate these impacts.