8: Reducing the Impacts of Drought: Progress Toward Risk Management

Authors

Donald A. Wilhite, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

1996

Citation

Published in Climate Variability, Climate Change and Social Vulnerability in the Semi-arid Tropics, edited by Jess C. Ribot, Antonio Rocha Magalhaes, and Stahis S. Panagides, pp. 147-164 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

Comments

Copyright 1996 Cambridge University Press

Abstract

Images of malnutrition, famine and a degraded African landscape were commonplace during the 1980s and appear likely to continue well into the 1990s and beyond. Glantz (1987) has shown that drought has hindered the ability of much of sub-Saharan Africa to achieve a sustained level of agricultural production and, as a result, has retarded progress toward economic development. Linkages between drought and economic development, although most obvious in Africa, exist throughout much of the developing world.