Worldwide, children’s health and well-being are endangered by multiple challenges, including climate change and food insecurity. Food insecurity places children in adverse situations associated with child labour, sexual abuse, child marriages, teen pregnancies, ill health and dropping out of school. However, issues such as climate change, the maize poverty trap, resilience and street childhood are understudied despite their disastrous effects on food security, family attachments and child wellbeing. Though climate change is increasing in Sub-Saharan Africa, little attention has been paid to its impacts on children in Zimbabwe, particularly those living and working on the streets. Globally, a disquieting and escalating number of children live and work on the streets with serious concerns about public health and human rights. In this article, I explore the relationship, if any, between climate vulnerability, the maize poverty trap and street childhood among children living and working on the streets in Zimbabwe. I employ a literature review approach to generate knowledge on climate vulnerability, maize poverty trap, resilience and street childhood in Zimbabwe and Africa using articles dating from 1965 to 2023. The findings suggest that climate change and the maize poverty trap influence street childhood. Nonetheless, the findings do not suggest causality but the association between climate change and street childhood. Nonetheless, other factors besides climate change that influence street childhood include the land reform programme. The author recommends more transdisciplinary systematic and empirical studies on climate change, maize poverty trap and street childhood.
Key terms: climate vulnerability, maize poverty trap, street childhood, resilience, food security
Manuscript submitted to Nigerian Journal of Psychological Research | This work was supported by funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York [grant number: G-20-57628] and the Future Africa Research Leadership Fellowship at Future Africa, University of Pretoria.
