Abstract
Climate-related disasters continue to pose severe threats to gains from demographic dividends through undermining agricultural productivity, reducing employment, and influencing migration decisions of the working-age population. While scholars have looked at the potential of social networks as informal safety nets in credit-constrained rural economies, the potential unintended role of the social networks on influencing migration decisions of climate-affected households has been ignored. We used a mediation analysis to analyse how social networks mediate the migration decisions of households that faced climate shocks. We find that social networks significantly reduce the likelihood of migration for households that have faced floods. This study supports policy that leverages and strengthens existing social networks as a tool for community-based climate adaptation strategies. We therefore demonstrate the transformative role of local factors in climate mitigation, positioning social networks as an alternative cost-effective mechanism to mitigate climate change related disasters - an alternative to climate financing options that are debt-enhancing.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Human Impacts and Responsibility
KEYWORDS
Climate Change, Migration, Local Solutions, Social Networks, Rural Economy
