Climate change and food security in Namibia

Ndeyapo M Nickanor, University of Namibia
Lawrence Kazembe, University of Namibia

Climate change and variability continue to threaten the efforts made towards achieving goal 1 of the MDGs that of halving hunger by 2015. The potential impact is less clear in countries such as Namibia, but it is likely that increased heat and limited precipitation will exacerbate food insecurity in areas vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition. Extreme weather such as drought and water scarcity diminish dietary diversity thereby changing the quantity and quality of food intake which may lead to malnutrition. This study combine metereological data and malnutrition reported at health facilities in Namibia for the period 2008 – 2014 to explore the impact of climate change on food security outcome – malnutrition. Poisson regressions were fitted to explore intra-regional variation. The results indicate that the highest risk of malnutrition was during March, the time about harvest and Kavango region also showed the highest risk of malnutrition.