## 4 Discussion  
The results from this study have shown that West and Middle Africa have recorded increasing rainfall amounts since the 1990s, and, therefore, they are getting wetter and greener. These findings are consistent with several other previous observations across Africa. For example, [PERSON] [28] used rainfall and atmospheric circulation to conclude that the years after the droughs that hit Africa in the 1970s and early 1980s witnessed increased rainfall in West Africa. The latter has been further consistent with another study by [PERSON] [29]. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [30] noted further that the West African Sahel region extending to the Middle of Africa has become wetter during the last 30 years, with dry  
Figure 5: (a) ClimAdaptCap Indexes and (b) poverty and literacy rates across Africa. Source: author’s conceptualization. spells that are shorter and more frequent. Therefore, in addition to the region getting wetter and greener, dry spells are also a common phenomenon which impacts the distribution of rainfall. This is realistic as this study observed that in addition to having more rainfall, this region also records the second-highest temperatures across Africa. In addition, [PERSON] and [PERSON] [31] have observed that the increased rainfall in the West African region of Central Senegal has resulted in improved greening of the landscape. They, however, argued that despite this impoverishment, the vegetation is generally impoverished due to high temperatures. Several other authors have had observations that are consistent with those of this current study as follows. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [32] and [PERSON] et al. [33] used NDIV as a proxy of greening and precipitation to show that most of the Sahel of West Africa began witnessing a positive correlation between these two variables since the 1990s following the end of the major drought era that affected most of Africa. The increased wetter conditions in West Africa are creating opportunities for new farming systems in this wetter tropical area [34]. In the context of future projections, [PERSON] et al. [35] have observed that projections of a wetter Sahel in the twenty-first century are likely to continue based on global and regional models. In attempting to explain the increased greening of the Sahel, [PERSON] et al. [36] add that increased rainfall in most of the Sahel after the 1990s, as well as increased land use management and the aerial fertilization effect of effect of atmospheric carbon dioxide, might be playing a role in the new greening trends observed in the Sahel. The result that Southern Africa is also witnessing intermediate rainfall and low temperatures is also consistent with the work of [PERSON] et al. [37], who argued that a progressively wetter climate has been observed in the Eastern parts of Southern Africa over the past 1.3 million years. Furthermore, this work has further found that North Africa records the lowest rainfall amounts and highest temperatures across Africa. This finding is consistent with several previous studies. For example, [PERSON] et al. [38] note that the low rainfall areas of Africa are the Middle, East, and North Africa. [PERSON] et al. [39] note that the variability of summer rainfall over tropical North Africa from 1906 to 1992 shows declining precipitation and increasing temperatures in North Africa. [PERSON] [40] notes that precipitation and rainfall trends in East, Middle, and North Africa have been more dominant than other African regions. Precipitation in North Africa is likely to decrease between 10% and 20%, while temperatures are likely to rise between 2 and 3 \({}^{\circ}\)C by 2030. These trends are most pronounced in the Northwestern parts of Northern Africa ([PERSON] et al. [41]). [PERSON] et al. [42] support the results that North Africa has witnessed heat extremes in the 21 st century. West and Middle Africa are witnessing increasing precipitation and temperatures, while North Africa is witnessing declining precipitation.