Welcome to the April 2021 edition of the Future Climate for Africa newsletter showcasing the recent highlights and work of FCFA.

Select HERE to view the full newsletter

News in Brief

New microsite on FCFA’s impact and relevance

FCFA has improved the understanding of what drives Africa’s climate and how it will change, as well as the impacts and adaptation options. The use of this climate information to address real world problems and inform development plans was achieved by FCFA through innovative engagement processes that included inter alia government decision-makers, communities and researchers. This microsite aims to outline and sign-post this impact of FCFA to readers through the synergies between the following three pillars: Pillar 1: Delivering a step change in climate science for Africa, Pillar 2: Novel approaches to research and engagement and Pillar 3: Influencing real world problems.

Visit the microsite to explore the impact of FCFA

FCFA podcast series: The African Climate Breakdown – stories about climate change

Listen in as we share FCFA’s ground-breaking climate change research and hear stories on the impact of climate change on Africa and how communities can better adapt to allow for a more climate-resilient future. Follow and subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Spotify or listen on the FCFA website.

Listen to episode 3: Tackling climate change in African cities
The episode reflects on key research from FRACTAL and AMMA-2050. We delve into the fact that cities are particularly at risk to the impacts of climate change. Rapid population growth, as well as rapid environmental, economic, and social change which present their own issues, all are magnified by climate change.

Listen to episode 4: Making Africa’s agriculture more climate resilient
The episode reflects on key research from HyCRISTAL, UMFULA and AMMA-2050. We discuss the innovative approaches used to address the impact of climate change on agriculture in West Africa, East Africa and Malawi.

In case you missed it – watch the recent learning sessions

These two learning sessions provide insight into the experiences from international multi-consortia research and development programmes (FCFA, CARIAA and CDKN). Participants share lessons from the successes and failures of existing efforts relating to Southern leadership and the importance of including knowledge management units and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) processes in programmes.

Watch the sessions:

Online climate change journalist training

Future Climate for Africa, together with leading climate journalists and experts from ICPAC, BBC Media Action and NECJOGHA hosted online climate change journalist trainings for 45 African journalists in October and November 2020 and February 2021. The aim of the training was to increase journalists’ understanding of climate change and their capacity to report on climate change issues in Africa. Read more here.

Watch the presentations from the training.

Call for applications: FCFA and GCRF African SWIFT Python training

GCRF African SWIFT and FCFA are organising a virtual one-week intensive training course from the 7th to 12th June in the use of Python programming for climate data analysis and visualisation. This virtual training call is open to all researchers in atmospheric science and meteorology, and to forecasters at operational weather centres based in Africa who have a keen interest in developing their data analysis skills. Applicants who are under the GCRF African SWIFT project and FCFA are highly encouraged to apply. Complete an online application form here by 30th April 2021. Read more here.