This dataset consists of high spatial resolution Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) drought dataset over the whole Africa at different time scales from 1 month to 48 months. It is calculated based on precipitation estimates from the satellite-based Climate Hazards group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) and potential evaporation estimates by the Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM).

The SPEI dataset covers the whole of the African continent for a 36-year-long period (1981–2016) at a horizontal resolution of 5 km (0.05 deg) and a monthly time resolution. The dataset is provided in NetCDF format with in a Geographic Lat/Lon projection. Due to the lower reliability of SPEI over areas with low hydro-climatic variability, the areas with barren or sparsely vegetated areas in Africa were masked out based on data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface type product (MCD12Q1).