Our Common Home: Climate Shocks, Educational Outcomes, and Education for Sustainable Development in Africa

Abstract

Pope Francis has made the protection of our common home a central theme of his Papacy. This may be nowhere more important than in Africa, a continent that is already today highly vulnerable to climate shocks due in part to high levels of water stress in many countries, food insecurity, and forced displacement, among others. In this paper, we use household surveys from West African countries to explore the impact of covariate shocks (most of which are weather-related) and international migration as a potential response to shocks on educational outcomes for children of primary school age. The results suggest that shocks affect educational outcomes substantially, but that international migration may generate benefits for children of migrants. The paper also briefly discusses policy prescriptions on how to tackle climate change, arguing that education to sustainable development should be a priority.

Keywords:

• climate shocks
• migration
• education
• sustainable development
• Africa

Disclaimer

The authors are employed by the World Bank and UNESCO, respectively. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors only and may not represented the views of the World Bank or UNESCO, the members of their Executive Boards, or the countries they represent.

Acknowledgments

The program is managed by the World Bank Group (WBG) and was established in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The scope of the program is to expand the global knowledge on forced displacement by funding quality research and disseminating results for the use of practitioners and policy makers. We further thank FCDO for additional funding support through its Knowledge for Change (KCP) program. The work does not necessarily reflect the views of FCDO, the WBG, or UNHCR.

Notes

1 For a similar study on South Asia, see Wodon and O’Donnell (2015).

2 Using censored regression models would not qualitatively affect the results.

3 The full list of countries is as follows: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belize, Bhutan, Plurinational State of Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gambia, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Rwanda, Samoa, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand, Turkey, Tuvalu, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

4 The P.E.E.R. country profiles provide information on (1) Climate change contexts (relevant government agencies, laws, policies, and plans, terminology and budget); (2) Climate change education (policy, curriculum, teacher education and assessment) in primary and secondary education; higher education; teacher education; and TVET and adult education; (3) Climate change communication (public awareness; public access to education; public participation); and (4) Climate chance communication and education monitoring.

Additional information

Funding

This work was conducted in part for the program “Building the Evidence on Protracted Forced Displacement: A Multi-Stakeholder Partnership” funded by UK aid from the United Kingdom's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Notes on contributors

Nelly Elmallakh

Nelly Elmallakh is an Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist of the World Bank's Middle East and North Africa Region. Previously, she was a Fellow in the Program on Forced Displacement and a post-doctoral researcher at Paris School of Economics and the Institut Convergences Migrations and at the University of Strasbourg. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. [email protected]

Quentin Wodon

Quentin Wodon is Director of UNESCO’s International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa. Previously, he worked at the World Bank, including as Lead Economist, Lead Poverty Specialist, and manager of the unit on values and development. [email protected]