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Climate change is exacerbating food insecurity around the world, particularly in drought-prone areas that are already highly vulnerable, such as the Sahel region of West Africa. To improve food security and resilience, the government of Niger, with funding from the West African Development Bank (BOAD), implemented a multi-faceted agricultural production intensification program in 2011 (PIPA/SA). We employ geospatial data (spectral indices from Landsat-7 imagery) and a synthetic difference-in-differences (SDID) design to measure the impact of this program (irrigation and land rehabilitation efforts) on agricultural production, water availability, siltation, and desertification (using proxies for “level of greenness” such as NDVI, SAVI, etc.). Determining the impact of this program will inform the Government of Niger’s future policy and programming related to climate change mitigation/adaptation and food intensification, with implications for human health, nutrition, livelihoods, and economic development more broadly.
This project contributes to the evidence base on climate and nutrition interventions, and provides more evidence on the benefits and application of geospatial/remote sensing data in climate-related impact evaluation.