Withering the Weather: Food Security and Remittances in Sub-Saharan Africa

Migrant remittances are often portrayed as a boon for development, given its effects on households’ insurance and consumption in the face of economic adversity. Despite this, very little is known about how the receipt of remittances helps households to cope with food insecurity induced by adverse weather events. This question is particularly relevant in the remittance-receiving economies of Sub-Saharan Africa where agricultural production is predominantly rain-fed and on a subsistence level. In this paper, we address this, by using Afrobarometer georeferenced survey data on food security and remittances along with spatial data on precipitation for 36 countries. Our findings contribute to the emerging literature on the migration-food security nexus.