We are excited to share with you Future Climate for Africa’s final newsletter for 2019 showcasing the recent work of FCFA in what has been a busy and productive last few months.

News in Brief

African Climate Risks Conference

FCFA successfully organised the first African Climate Risks Conference (ACRC) on 7-9 October in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. ACRC was convened under the theme “dismantling barriers to urgent climate adaptation action” and was a platform to share new and emerging research on climate change in Africa through 132 oral presentations, 60 poster presentations and 19 support sessions.

From the 6-8 August 2019, a diverse group of 30 African researchers gathered in Cape Town to attend the first Wikipedia edit-a-thon held on climate change in Africa, co-hosted by FCFA, the Climate Development and Knowledge Network, and Wikimedia South Africa. The purpose of the edit-a-thon was to address an enormous gap on Wikipedia for African contributors and African climate change information. Read more on the event here and read a reflection blog from one of the participants “Why I believe climate change researchers should contribute to Wikipedia.”

A video documenting the event is going to be released soon, subscribe to FCFA’s Youtube channel so as not to miss it!

Insights for better communicating climate change exchanged between journalists and scientists in training workshop in Tanzania

FCFA supported BBC Media Action, and the Network of Climate Journalists of the Greater Horn of Africa (NECJOGHA) in a training workshop from 1-5 July, in Tanga, Tanzania. It brought together journalists and climate scientists with the aim of creating a two-way knowledge exchange on better communicating climate change in the media.  Read more on the event hereand reflections from one of the journalists here.

LaunchPAD: Climate Model Evaluation Hub for Africa

FCFA has made substantial progress in understanding the African climate and has developed methodologies to evaluate the regional climate processes and impact-relevant indices which matter locally. LaunchPAD has been established to build upon these novel findings and methods to extend the work to more regions and systems, and to embed tools into automated software that will fast-track the understanding of how well climate models simulate climate dynamics in African regions. The Hub will provide the platform for African researchers who were deeply involved and have remained active in evaluation studies of the Met Office Unified Model and CP4-Africa simulations, to continue their collaboration efforts. LaunchPAD forms a key part of the IMPALA legacy in sustaining and progressing the African climate model work. A virtual meeting was held in early November with all of the team members involved in LaunchPAD. During this meeting, progress on developing the tools for evaluation, the JASMIN Work Group Space, and future workshops and secondments, was discussed.

NEW VIDEO: I acclimatise therefore I am / J’acclimatise donc je suis

A film of the Theatre Forum piece supporting AMMA-2050 research on climate-resilient agriculture in Senegal. Building resilience to climate-related risks requires bringing together knowledge across sectors, disciplines, decision-making levels, social and livelihood groups. Recognising this, AMMA-2050 partners employed Theatre Forum, an approach that seeks to break through the barriers between knowledge holders, putting them on an equal footing to find shared and innovative solutions. Co-designed by the Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD), Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) and Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles (ISRA) with the Senegalese Theatre Forum group, Kaddu Yarax. This Theatre Forum piece highlights the importance of all actors (including: climate and agricultural researchers, decision makers, donors and farmers) being aware of the inter-connected, long-term implications of their current decisions and actions.

Watch the video here.

NEW VIDEO: Climate Change and Tea: Challenges for Kenya and Malawi

If you want to find out more about FCFA, watch our 2 minute introductory video and page through our brochure in English, French or Portuguese. Want to keep up to date with FCFA news and share your ideas with us? Follow FCFA on Twitter: @future_climate