Constructed dataset for Drought Effects on Household Water Access and Child Undernutrition: Evidence from Kenya

Climate change is putting immense strain on food and water resources, which has dire health consequences, particularly for young children who may experience lasting social and health effects into adult life. Within the context of a severe long-term drought in the Greater Horn of Africa between late 2020 and early 2023, we examined the effects of the drought in Kenya on child nutritional status and investigated if these associations are driven by household water access. We link child- and household-level data from the 2022 Kenyan Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) (N=16,132) with district-level measures of drought exposure defined by the international disaster database (EM-DAT) alongside measures of precipitation and temperature anomalies during the year preceding household surveys. This constructed dataset includes the linked child- and household-level data, along with drought exposure and precipitation and temperature anomalies. In addition, the historical temperature and precipitation temperature data is included in a separate dataset. The analytical code to analyze the data is also included.