Climate Change, Food Security and Poverty Eradication The Case of Southern Africa.

Abstract

Poverty, climate change and food security have dominated international discourse and remained high on the international policy agenda. Poverty and hunger are inextricably linked to climate change and one cannot be tackled without addressing the other. Despite the enormous efforts being made to reduce the negative effects of climate change, poverty and hunger continue to rise, especially in the Southern African region of Sub-Sahara. This study uses secondary data for an econometric investigation on the effects of climate change on poverty. Given that the poor spend 40% of their income on food, this study additionally examines the significance that food security could have in the fight against poverty. Instead of the conventional and most widely used GDP and poverty lines in related studies, this investigation uses the Human Development Index, which takes into account the multidimensional of poverty. To retain the efficiency and consistency of estimates in the presence of complex error terms, the study employs the Feasible Generalised Least Squares (FLGS) estimator on panel data spanning from 2000–2019 for 10 countries in Southern Africa. Results indicate that an increase in carbon emissions insignificantly reduces poverty while an increase in food security proxied by the prevalence of stunting in children under 5 years old exacerbates poverty in Southern Africa. Surprisingly, unemployment was shown as positively correlated to poverty though insignificant.These findings call for education of women in child feeding practices and support towards maternal and early childhood nutrition programmes. Moreover policy makers in Southern Africa must take deliberate measures to increase diaspora remittances inflow and promote productive investments of these funds.