Abstract
In early 2022, close to half the population of Ghanaians (about 15.1 million people) experienced some degree of food insecurity, with 12.3% of them experiencing severe food insecurity. Ghana’s growing population also faces elevated threats from floods and droughts, deforestation and land degradation, poor air and water quality, rising
heat stress, and depletion of natural resources. Although studies have attempted to explore the linkages between climate shocks and food insecurity, these have focused on small, geographical areas of the country, and/or often operationalize food security with agricultural production. This research uses the 2016/17 wave of the nationally representative Ghana Living Standards Survey and data on households’ Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) to explore connections between climate shocks (using micro-level shocks data from the Geocoded Disasters (GDIS) dataset) and mild, moderate and severe food insecurity. Using bivariate localized indicators of spatial autocorrelation (LISA), the paper highlights varied locational relationships between climate shocks and household food insecurity across the country. Regression analyses further indicate positive associations between climate shocks and food insecurity. Resilience factors comprise male household headship and education. Risk factors for food insecurity in Ghana include large household sizes, unemployment, involvement in fishing and farming activities, as well as poverty. Interestingly, the odds of food insecurity are lower for poor households that have experienced climate shocks, likely due to the presence of social safety nets like the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) social programme.
Keywords: climate shocks; food insecurity; spatial analyses; Ghana
Manuscript submitted to Environment, Development and Sustainability | This paper was made possible by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York (Grant number: G-20-57628). The author(s) gratefully acknowledge support from the Future Africa Research Leader Fellowship (FAR-LeaF) Programme at the University of Pretoria. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the author.
