Planning for Productive Migration.

Niger is among the world’s poorest countries, with approximately 93% of the population living on less than USD 5 PPP per day. It is badly affected by climate change, with households in rural areas increasingly vulnerable to erratic rainfall leading to periods of food insecurity. Research suggests that the income shocks which follow climate shocks make it more challenging for poor households to use migration as a strategy for climate resilience. Indeed, while migration is an existing phenomenon in Niger and there are visa free travel regimes in the region, rates of urbanisation are low and Niger has fewer migrants abroad than similarly landlocked neighbours, suggesting migration is under utilised as a livelihood and resilience strategy for poor households affected by climate change.

GIF provided a pilot grant of $230,000 to Stanford’s Immigration Policy Lab in 2023 to contribute to a randomised evaluation of the planning for productive migration programme across a sample of approximately 2,400 households. The evaluation will generate evidence on uptake of migration and households livelihoods, wellbeing and resilience. This evidence will be disseminated to replant policy makers and communities of practice to encourage greater consideration of interventions utilising migration for livelihoods and resilience outcomes in developing programming at scale.