Droughts and Malnutrition in Africa

How costly are droughts to individuals’ nutrition in Africa? Do people adapt to recurring droughts? We measure severe drought events using a detailed satellite-based index of greening observed bi-monthly on a relatively high-resolution 0.083° grid between 1982 and 2015, that captures persistent and severe deficits in soil moisture relative to grid- and time-of-year normal moisture. Across 32 African countries, conditional on individual characteristics, timing relative to growing seasons, irrigation, and local grid-level climate, we show that a severe three-month drought reduces adults’ body mass index by 2.5%. Droughts are worse for underweight and uneducated individuals. In contrast, recurring severe droughts, that happen in locations that have seen droughts before, do not significantly affect adults. The effect is driven by unexpected first-time exposure to droughts. The uneducated are more likely to become unemployed during first-time droughts, whereas both labor reallocation across occupations and migration mitigate the effect of recurring droughts.