Sub-Saharan Africa: Building Resilience to Climate-Related Disasters

Abstract

This paper assesses the impact of climate-related disasters on medium-term growth and analyzes key structural areas that could substantially improve disaster-resilience. Results show that (i) climaterelated disasters have a significant negative impact on medium-term growth, especially for sub-Saharan Africa; and (ii) a disaster’s intensity matters much more than its frequency, given the non-linear cumulative effects of disasters. In sub-Saharan Africa, electrification (facilitating irrigation) is found to be most effective for reducing damage from droughts while improved health care and education outcomes are critical for raising resilience to floods and storms. Better access to finance, telecommunications, and use of machines in agriculture also have a significant impact.

Keywords: Climate change, Growth, Resilience building, Sub-Saharan Africa, Policy implication, building resilience, disaster indicator, resilience building, disaster proxy, education outcome, Natural disasters, Climate change, Sub-Saharan Africa

JEL Classification: Q54, O13, E60, I10, I20, J10