Skip Navigation

Climate Change and Human Health Literature Portal A spatially explicit assessment of current and future hotspots of hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa in the context of global change

Climate Change and Human Health Literature Portal

Liu J, Fritz S, van Wesenbeeck CFA, Fuchs M, You L, Obersteiner M, Yang H
2008
Global and Planetary Change. 64 (4-Mar): 222-235

Hunger knows no boundaries or borders. While much research has focused on undernutrition on a national scale, this report evaluates it at subnational levels for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to pinpoint hotspots where the greatest challenges exist. Undernutrition is assessed with a spatial resolution of 30 arc-minutes by investigating anthropometric data on weight and length of individuals. The impact of climate change on production of six major crops (cassava, maize, wheat, sorghum, rice and millet) is analyzed with a GIS-based Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (GEPIC) model with the same spatial resolution. Future hotspots of hunger are projected in the context of the anticipated climate, social, economic, and bio-physical changes. The results show that some regions in northern and southwestern Nigeria, Sudan and Angola with a currently high number of people with undernutrition might be able to improve their food security situation mainly through increasing purchasing power. In the near future, regions located in Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, southwestern Niger, and Madagascar are likely to remain hotspots of food insecurity, while regions located in Tanzania, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo might face more serious undernutrition. It is likely that both the groups of regions will suffer from lower capacity of importing food as well as lower per capita calorie availability, while the latter group will probably have sharper reduction in per capita calorie availability. Special attention must be paid to the hotspot areas in order to meet the hunger alleviation goals in SSA.

Expand Abstract

Resource Description

    Food Security
    • Food Security: Availability/Distribution, Crop/Plant Food Security
    General Geographic Feature
    Non-United States
    • Non-United States: Africa
    Malnutrition
    Outcome Change Prediction
    Long-Term (>10 years)
    Research Article
    Adaptation, Communication, Sociodemographic Vulnerability, Vulnerable Population
    • Adaptation, Communication, Sociodemographic Vulnerability, Vulnerable Population: Adaptation Co-Benefit/Co-Harm, Early Warning System, Vulnerability Assessment
    • Adaptation, Communication, Sociodemographic Vulnerability, Vulnerable Population: Policymaker
    • Adaptation, Communication, Sociodemographic Vulnerability, Vulnerable Population: Children, Low Socioeconomic Status, Workers
    Special Report on Emissions Scenario (SRES), Other Climate Change Scenario, Specify, Other Socioeconomic Scenario, Specify
Back
to Top