Sub-Saharan Africa is increasingly suffering from climate change. In recent years, the frequency and intensity of droughts, floods and storms have grown. These disasters are taking a serious toll on the region’s economic performance, particularly through agriculture, trade and services given the region's reliance on rain-fed agriculture
This paper assesses the impact of climate-related disasters on medium-term growth and analyses key structural areas that could substantially improve disaster-resilience. Results show that climate-related disasters have a significant negative impact on medium-term growth, especially for sub-Saharan Africa, and 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 healthcare 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.