UN Food Programme and Climate Change in West Africa - Spring

Advisor: Kathleen Callahan

Team Members: Joshua Cohen, Sarah Fulton, Tara Jordan, Rebecca Kline, Heather Matheson (Deputy Manager), Andrew Miller, Jamie Pang, Harmony Patricio (Manager), Dan Shepherd, Angela Stucker, Samantha Tress (Editor), Fang Wang

This report examines how climate change affects livelihoods and food security across West Africa and identifies practical adaptation and mitigation strategies for WFP programming.

The study focuses on four major areas of climate vulnerability: flooding, drought and desertification, deforestation, and direct impacts on food security. It evaluates potential interventions based on their feasibility, implementation requirements, relevance to WFP operations, and applicability to local conditions.

Recommendations include flood-management and sea-level-rise strategies, weather-index insurance, rainwater harvesting and micro-irrigation, reforestation, solar cooking and carbon-credit projects, agricultural diversification, and homestead gardening. The report also develops applied case studies for Mali and Burkina Faso to demonstrate how selected strategies could be implemented in practice.

A central conclusion is that effective climate adaptation in West Africa requires locally tailored, community-based approaches, combining multiple interventions with long-term capacity building and knowledge sharing among governments, institutions, and local communities.

Learn more about the MPA-ESP Capstone Workshop.