The Projected Impacts of Climate Change on Food Security in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Abstract

Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is already highly dependent on food imports, making it also vulnerable to price shocks on the global markets and harvest failures in other world regions. This rapid review will focus on literature discussing the impact of climate change on food security, in terms of future water use and food import changes, for the region as a whole. Evidence is gender blind and does not focus on disability. Peer-reviewed literature shows that the region will continue to be affected by future climate change, depriving more and more people of water of decent quantity and quality, as well as food security. Grey literature assessed for this rapid review include reports by experts and international institutions, including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Food and Agricultural Organization (OECD-FAO, 2018) and the World Bank (2018). However, few assessments of climate change consider MENA as a whole. This makes it considerably more difficult to understand climate change from a regional perspective (Jobbins & Henley, 2015).