The journal article ‘Shocking social safety: Evidence from violence and drought in North-East Nigeria‘ has been published in Food Policy. This paper, authored by Wolfgang Stojetz, Piero Ronzani, Jeanne Pinay, Marco d’Errico, and Tilman Brück, brings new empirical evidence on how overlapping shocks affect households’ social safety nets.
Armed conflict and climate-related stressors – such as drought – are often studied separately, even though they coexist and interact on the ground. Drawing on unique panel survey data from 1,293 households in North-East Nigeria, the study shows that:
- Violence shocks can strengthen informal social safety nets when drought is not also present, suggesting that community networks can mobilize support in response to conflict alone.
- However, when violence and drought occur together, the capacity of these informal safety nets collapses – especially in poorer local economies – leaving households more vulnerable.
These findings highlight a perilous dynamic in fragile settings: polycrises can overwhelm the very social systems people rely on to cope, particularly where economic resources are already scarce.
