Addressing Poverty Worsened by Global Climate Change in Sub-Saharan Africa with the Sustainable Development Framework

*In 2016, the SOL program pivoted for the year to focus on political engagement in what was then called the “Political Engagement Pilot Project,” or PEPP. This was an alternative version of SOL that laid the groundwork for the development of the PEP program as it currently exists.

Policy Problem Statement

Sauri, Kenya—an area with eleven villages making up about 70,000 people—is struggling. Its people are mostly subsistence farmers relying on staple crops of maize and beans. Average maize yield is 1.9 tons per hectare, whereas in the US it can be up to 10 tons per hectare. Farmers produce on average 82kg of maize per person, leading to a deficit of 18kg per child and 38kg per adult. Because of food access problems, 59% of children under five exhibit stunting due to malnutrition. Almost 80% of the population earned less than $1 per day, for their farming alone cannot support a family. This meager income does not allow farmers to invest in proper technology—irrigation and fertilizer—they need to increase yields. They are stuck in an agricultural poverty trap.

Environmental factors continuously lower yields and threaten the livelihoods of Kenyans. Global climate change increases intensity and frequency of droughts, flash floods, and storms, which causes crops to die or wash away. This population alone does not have the ability to mitigate climate change, but they are also not working to adapt.

Millennium Villages, a sustainable development NGO working in sub-Saharan Africa, works on many issues including food access and environmental quality. For food, they focus on increasing crop production by training farmers in new practices and providing better inputs like seeds and fertilizers. For environment, they plant trees and train farmers to compost and properly apply fertilizer. However, they do not combine these issues to provide practices to adapt to climate change on farms. Climate change will continue to impact these frontline communities each year, as it is no longer a possible event. Climate change is an issue that Kenyans are currently dealing with. It worsens their poverty and hunger.