Drought Vulnerability and Child Mobility in Rural Senegal

Abstract

Are children of rural households vulnerable to climate-related shocks more likely to live away from the parental household? What is the relationship between household drought shock vulnerability and child mobility, independent of factors such as poverty and traditional social practices? This article applies propensity score matching on household data from rural Senegal to address these questions. The results indicate a statistical association between households being drought-shocked and having at least one child living away of between 14 and 18 per cent, and of 13–19 per cent to having young boys who study the Quran away from home as so-called talibés.

Keywords:

• child mobility
• talibé
• West Africa
• climate
• shock
• propensity score matching

Notes on contributors

Anne Kielland is a sociologist. Before joining Fafo, Kielland spent 10 years working for the World Bank, primarily on child protection under the social protection unit of the Africa region. Kielland conducts research related to child labour, child mobility, child disability and education, primarily in West Africa.

Tewodros Aragie Kebede is an economist working with applied econometrics, program evaluation methods, statistical survey methods and development economics. Kebede works in a variety of countries, including in West Africa. Kebede is also involved in research coordination and consecutive dialogue between ongoing research innovation programs.

Notes

1 ‘Quand pauvreté et risque font bon ménage, il s’en suit une réaction similaire à celle qui se produit, quand la farine du blé pétrie est mélangée à la levure’.

2 These results are not reported in this article in the interest of space, but available upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Norges Forskningsråd: [Grant Number 199426/S50]; World Bank Group: [Grant Number TFESSD contract 7158989].