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Vulnerability to Climate Change Vulnerability is the inability to recover from stress. Poor people are vulnerable to many different kinds of stresses because they lack the financial resources to respond. In agriculture, poor people are particularly vulnerable to the stresses of an uncertain climate. At the national level, vulnerability arises from the interactions among population and income growth and the availability or scar- city of natural and manufactured resources. Vulnerability has many dimensions. In this chapter the focus is on income
and then nonincome indicators of life expectancy at birth and the under- five mortality rate displayed in Figure 4.4. Table 4.2 provides some data on additional indicators of vulnerability and resiliency to economic shocks: the level of education of the population, literacy, and the concentration of labor in poorer or less dynamic sectors. There is a significant drop in secondary school enrollment compared to that for primary school in Burkina Faso. The adult literacy rate is also very low. Agriculture employs the bulk of the population, who are generally resource poor and produce less than a subsistence level. The lack of financial resources severely limits the ability of these poor farmers to use much-needed inputs like the improved seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides that will ensure increased agricultural production.
FIGURE 4.4 Well-being indicators in Burkina Faso, 1960–2008
10 20 30 40 50
0 1960 1970 1980 Source: World Development Indicators (World Bank 2009).
Life expectancy at birth Under-five mortality rate