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Strengthening regional capacity for climate services in Africa, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, 27 October 2015.

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Title Strengthening regional capacity for climate services in Africa, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, 27 October 2015.
 
Creator Mungai C
Atakos, Vivian
Hansen, James
 
Subject climate services
smallholders
capacity building
agriculture
information services
climate change
food security
 
Description CCAFS (through the International Livestock Research Institute and the International Research
Institute for Climate and Society) and the Africa Climate Policy Center sponsored a workshop
on ‘Strengthening Regional Capacity for Climate Services in Africa’, held on 27th October
2015 at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The workshop, which was associated with and reported to
the fifth conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-V), aimed to
initiate a collaborative effort to strengthen capacity, through African regional institutions, to
support smallholder farmers with relevant climate services. The workshop brought together
17 participants including scientists and technical experts to learn from and build on examples
of good practice in farmer-focused climate information and advisory services, and to share
elements of good practice in food security contingency planning.

Discussions highlighted two key constraints to achieving the potential benefits of climate
services for smallholder farming and pastoralist communities across Africa. The first is
limited capacity to produce relevant climate information that is tailored to the needs of
farmers, at a scale that is relevant to farm decision-making. The second is limited capacity to
communicate climate-related information effectively, in a manner that farmers can
incorporate into their decision-making. Organizations present at the workshop offer several
promising innovations that have potential to overcome some of the critical gaps in the
production and communication of climate-related information for farmers. Gaps in capacity to
produce farmer-relevant climate information are closely linked to gaps in capacity to work
with farming communities to communicate the information effectively and support its use.
Financial investments and capacity-development efforts should address these gaps in parallel.
National meteorological and hydrological services (NMHS) have the mandate to produce
weather and climate information; but institutions in the agriculture sector are generally better
positioned to translate raw climate information into decision-relevant information and
advisories, and to communicate that information with farmers. If climate services are to work
for farmers, they must therefore be developed and implemented jointly by NMHS and
agricultural technical institutions. This may require new institutional arrangements at the
national level. Regional institutions, such as African Climate Policy Center (ACPC), IGAD
Climate Prediction and Applications Center (ICPAC) and AGRHYMET Regional Center, are
well positioned to assist national governments to strengthen climate services that can benefit
smallholder farmers – at scale. The workshop provided an opportunity to advance
discussions about collaboration toward strengthening climate services for agriculture in
Africa, through regional organizations and processes.
 
Date 2015-11
2015-11-19T14:54:06Z
2015-11-19T14:54:06Z
 
Type Report
 
Identifier Mungai C, Atakos V, Hansen J. 2015. Strengthening regional capacity for climate services in Africa, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, 27 October 2015. CCAFS Workshop Report. Copenhagen, Denmark: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/68986
FP2_ClimateServicesRwanda
FP2_GFCS
FP2_ForecastingEastAfrica
PII-FP4_ForecastingEastAfrica
 
Language en
 
Rights Open Access
 
Format application/pdf
 
Publisher CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security