Menu
This manual provides guidance on a range of co-production approaches that can be used to develop weather and climate services that seek to address climate-related risks facing affected people, sectors and livelihoods. This manual is written by people involved with the WISER and FCFA programmes, both academics and practitioners. With co-production engaging a wide range of actors across sectors, institutions and levels of decision-making, the manual’s intended audience includes those considering using co-production to improve the impact of their own work, as well as those commissioning the development of climate services. Such audiences may, for example, include national meteorological services, regional and global climate centres, research and project managers, research institutions, media, civil society and development actors. The manual brings together emerging learning and has also been informed by discussions undertaken in the WISER and FCFA programmes, as well as by the wider body of experience related to co-production of climate services.
Visit the co-production digi-book HERE.
This guide provides a practical overview of the first pan-African, kilometre-scale convection-permitting regional climate simulations (CP4-Africa), run as part of the Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) programme’s Improving Model Processes for African Climate (IMPALA) project. CP4-Africa provides the first convection-permitting resolution, multi-year climate simulations for present-day and idealised future climates on an African-wide domain. The simulations have provided an unprecedented level of climate detail across Africa and initial studies have shown improvements in the simulation of many, but not all, aspects of African climate.
Download the guide HERE.
Adaptations and strategies to build resilience are needed to manage current impacts and will be increasingly vital as the world continues to warm. But making adaptation decisions can be complex, requiring careful consideration of multiple factors and perspectives, and balancing different priorities over different timescales. Society is embarking on a learning process that will continue for decades. This chapter and the book it introduces aim to contribute to this process. The book draws extensively from the Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) research programme that aimed to support adaptation and resilience in sub-Saharan Africa. In this chapter, we first briefly review the planning landscape for adaptation and building resilience and then consider how applications are changing the nature of climate information and the context of its use. This is followed by a review of the current status of climate information, particularly future projections for Africa and the enduring challenge that uncertainty represents to their active use. We then ask how we can improve the use of climate information for resilience building and adaptation and present an overview of the coming chapters. The demand for information and guidance on adaptation is continuing to grow, and is highlighting the need for new types and formats of data, and more innovative interactions with users to increase usability and application. Climate plays a dynamic role within complex, rapidly evolving social-ecological systems; this requires the climate science, resilience and adaptation communities to engage widely with other sectors and actors to make the agenda relevant and tractable for policy and practice.
Download the book HERE.
Climate change is expected to have severe consequences across Africa. Cities in Africa are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. This interactive tool provides an overview of the status of Urban Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) systems in countries and cities where Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) has been working, and the climate risks these WASH systems are facing. It is intended to provide an insight into the relationship between future climate and effective WASH service delivery in African cities.
Visit the site HERE.
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 site HERE.
This brief summarizes a piece of work that explored the potential value of FCFA and the closely related work on climate change, impacts and adaptation in tropical and sub-tropical sub-Saharan Africa. This work is from a policymaker or planner’s perspective and has a regional- or national-level focus. Insights developed are derived from an overview of advances made by FCFA climate science in simulating climate processes over tropical and sub-tropical Africa in relation to the state of knowledge as represented by the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC.
Download the brief HERE.
Climate change poses a significant risk to tea growing regions, not only because of changes in average climate conditions but also due to the changing intensity and frequency of climate extremes such as heat waves, dry spells and heavy rainfall. Research from FCFA has provided new understanding for how the climate might change and how this may impact tea growing regions of Kenya, Malawi and Rwanda. Work has demonstrated the value of locally-relevant and context specific climate information to help tea farmers plan for climate change. The potential impacts of climate change for tea growing regions, requires urgent adaptation to safeguard tea production. This report outlines the climate sensitivity of tea plants, the likely impacts on tea crops and markets and potential adaptation options. The report provides on overview of risks and adaptation within Kenya, Malawi and Rwanda.
Download the report HERE.
Tea is a major contributor to exports and the economy, as well as an important source of incomes for rural livelihoods in Kenya, Malawi and Rwanda. While the tea sectors of these countries are expanding, they are extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Tea plants are particularly sensitive to the climate, needing very specific climate conditions for high production and quality, and for that reason are grown in particular agro-climatic zones. Tea plants are also affected by climate extremes such as heat waves, droughts or floods. Climate change is altering the average climate and the pattern of extremes, and this will have implications for tea production in the future.
This infographic outlines some of the potential impacts of tea production in three different possible future climates for the growing regions.
Download the infographic HERE.
The impacts of climate change on the yields and quality of tea in Africa, significantly impact the economies and livelihoods dependent on the tea sector. As a crop which is already very sensitive to the climate, future climate change poses an increasing risk for tea production. Implementing climate smart agricultural practices is becoming more and more important to ensure African countries can continue to grow their tea industries in the future. Understanding what the future climate might look like and the types of hazards facing tea growing regions are important in identifying adaptation options that are relevant in the local context.
Download the infographic HERE.
