The provision of timely, accurate information on climate and weather variations to decision-makers within agricultural systems helps to enhance agriculture production and mitigate or avoid harvest loss. These outcomes positively impact food security, agriculture incomes, and farmers' resilience to future climate shocks. While innovative approaches to generating and communicating climate information show promise, evidence gaps exist in understanding their effectiveness.
The USAID-funded Learning Agenda on Climate Services in Sub-Saharan Africa is made up of two related efforts that seek to generate and analyze new information, evidence, and learning on the effective and sustainable production, delivery and use of climate information to improve decision-making and outcomes for rural agricultural livelihood.
One of the project’s under the Learning Agenda is the Assessing Sustainability and Effectiveness of Climate Information Services in Africa (Sustainable CIS) project, which seeks to identify sustainable and effective models for climate information services. The consortium is developing realistic models and options for sustainable delivery of climate information in Sub-Saharan Africa, building upon existing knowledge in the region.
Sustainable CIS started in October 2016, will run through June 2018, and geographically focus on Senegal, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Niger and Malawi. A baseline assessment will be carried out in all five target countries and the team will work on a sustainable business model with the national meteorological and hydrological services agencies of three or more of these countries . The Sustainable CIS project will also create a space for shared learning on financial and public-private partnership models in Africa.
For more information on the Learning Agenda on Climate Services in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Sustainable CIS project components go to: https://www.climatelinks.org/projects/learningagendaonclimateservices
To get quarterly updates on Climate Information Services, please sign up to the newsletter.
