The goal of this round-one GCFSI innovation grant project is to improve the ability of households in East African countries to adapt to climate change through agricultural, employment, and social protection programs.

Project Team: Bradford Mills, Virginia Tech; Genti Kostandini, University of Georgia; Anthony Murray, Federal Reserve - Charlotte; Joseph Rusike, AGRA; Jawoo Koo; Carlo Azzari; and Zhe Guo, IFPRI.

The objective of this project is to improve the ability of households in East African countries to adapt to climatic variability and climatic change in three ways. First, by identifying the welfare costs that climatic variability generates for rural households in two region countries: Ethiopia and Zambia. This information highlights the economic importance of the problem and suggests appropriate levels of investment for mitigation activities. Second, by estimating broader welfare benefits associated with successful agriculture innovations, off‐farm activities, migration strategies, and social safety nets. This information helps policy-makers appropriately allocate investments across interventions in these areas, as well as design synergistic interventions. Third, by generating a template for other countries in East Africa to design integrated strategies reduce the costs of climatic variability to rural households through agricultural, employment, and social protection programs.