Projects

Project description

Through a partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)'s Africa Bureau, this project works with regional organizations to develop capacity for climate services that support agricultural adaptation in Africa. Such investment and adaptation is critical to securing the food supply under a changing climate.

The project seeks to strengthen climate services for agriculture and food security through regional institutions and processes. Specific objectives are to: (a) strengthen the technical support that the IGAD Climate Prediction & Applications Centre (ICPAC) and AGRHYMET Regional Centre (ARC) provide to member country national meteorological services to expand climate services for the agriculture sector; (b) expand the suite of climate information, tailored to agriculture, through the Regional Climate Outlook Forum processes; (c) enhance national and regional agriculture stakeholder capacity to use and communicate gridded climate products, and provide input into their design; and (d) strengthen the economic evidence to inform climate service investments in Africa.

Outcomes

Through this research and engagement, regional climate centers will play a greater role in developing the capacity of national meteorological services of member countries to provide high-quality, actionable information to governments, NGOs, agri-business and farmers. As a result, these institutions will be able to create and disseminate equitable, demand-driven climate services, and more effectively manage climate-related risk and adapt to change. USAID and other interested donors will use project contributions to ex-ante cost-benefit analysis and guidance to garget climate services investment with greater impact.

Outputs

• Regional suites of online, gridded historical and seasonal forecast Maproom products in East (ICPAC Maproom) and West Africa (AGRHYMET Maproom) tailored to the needs of agriculture, building on IRI's ENACTS initiative.
• Trained staff at ICPAC and AGRHYMET.
• Improved strategies and evidence for agricultural climate services investments in Africa.

Partners

Presently, the partners on this project are the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), AGRYMET Regional Centre (ARC), IGAD Climate Prediction & Applications Centre (ICPAC), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) at Columbia University.

Gender

Gender issues will be taken into consideration when examining and developing climate services analyses and indicators.

Further information

For further information, please contact the Project Leader, James Hansen (IRI) at jhansen@iri.columbia.edu.