Droughts, Displacements, and Human Implications: A Southern Africa Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.57125/FS.2024.12.20.09Keywords:
Climate change, displacement, drought, migration, loss and damage, SPIAbstract
Natural hazards have existed since time immemorial worldwide. Rapid climate changes continue to exacerbate the recurrences of these natural hazards, thus generating enormous socio-economic and environmental challenges. Southern Africa is among the global regions most affected by natural hazards. Existing literature on natural hazards mainly focuses on floods, storms, and earthquakes, while hazards such as drought have not attracted the same level of attention. This has both policy and practical implications. This study closes this gap. The study uses a quantitative content analysis approach and draws from the quantitative data on drought and displacement in Africa collected by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. It also uses standard rainfall indices (SPIs) to explore how rainfall deviations possibly impact internal displacement. The objective is to (i) explore the drought-displacement nexus in Southern Africa, (ii) investigate the implications of droughts and displacements, and (iii) propose policy and practical interventions. An analysis of the SPI index for four Southern African countries selected purposefully. The article shows that drought is the major natural hazard that displaces people in the selected countries. Such human displacement results in several challenges in source regions and receiving regions. In this regard, intervention measures to deal with droughts must adopt a holistic approach to address the resultant vulnerabilities and build future resilience. The study recommends adopting and implementing social policy-based interventions in dealing with the socio-economic impacts of drought displacement in Africa.
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