The « Where the Rain Falls » (« Rainfalls ») research explores the interrelationships among rainfall variability, food and livelihood security, and human mobility in a diverse set of research sites in eight countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
While climate change affects nearly all aspects of food security – from production and availability, to the stability of food supplies, access to food, and food utilization – the Rainfalls research focused on linkages between shifting rainfall patterns and food production and the stability of food supplies. The central focus of the « Where the Rain Falls » initiative was to explore the circumstances under which households in eight case study sites in Latin America, Africa, and Asia use migration as a risk management strategy when faced with rainfall variability and food and livelihood insecurity. Climate change is likely to worsen the situation in parts of the world that already experience high levels of food insecurity.
The consequences of greater variability of rainfall conditions – less predictable seasons, more erratic rainfall, unseasonable events or the loss of transitional seasons – have millions of people, and the migration decisions of vulnerable households. In order to make informed decisions about adaptation planning, development, and a transition to a more climate-resilient future, policymakers and development actors need a better understanding of the linkages among changes in the climate, household livelihood and food security profiles, and migration decisions.