Community livelihood vulnerability to drought in semi-arid areas of northern Cameroon

Abstract Drought is a devastating recurring climate hazard, with enormous impacts on livelihoods and attainment of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in semi-arid areas. The current study was conducted to evaluate households’ livelihood vulnerability to droughts in an African semi-arid region. A total of 384 households from a drought-prone region in Northern Cameroon were randomly sampled and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Livelihood vulnerability was evaluated from the collected households’ data using the Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Vulnerability Index (IPCC-VI) methods. The LVI results showed that food insecurity, livelihood strategy and social networking were the major drivers of livelihood vulnerability. This was because almost all of the interviewed households relied on rain-fed agriculture and there was limited early drought warning information, which limited the achievements of some SDGs such as zero hunger, water accessibility and poverty alleviation. Adoption of drought-resilient and early maturing crops together with the use of agriculture extension officers to disseminate drought warnings are advised to reduce the effects of the livelihood vulnerability drivers and ensure sustainable development. The IPCC-VI showed that drought exposure and adaptive capacity were low while drought sensitivity was high among the surveyed households. The high sensitivity was due to food and water insecurity, while low adaptive capacity was due to a lack of formal education and a high dependency rate. Heavy investment in education and reducing the number of dependents through family planning and campaigning against polygamy could enhance households’ adaptive capacity. It was concluded that households’ livelihood vulnerability in the study area was due to high sensitivity and low adaptive capacity to drought. Drought reversed positive steps that had been taken to achieve various SDGs; however, heavy investment in other SDGs such as quality education and health could enhance households’ adaptive capacity and system sustainability in African semi-arid regions.