Speakers

• Katie Kennedy Freeman, Agriculture and Food Global Practice, The World Bank
• Tufa Dinku, AICCRA & Columbia Climate School 
• Masilin Gudoshava, IGAD Climate Prediction & Applications Centre (ICPAC)
• Bernard Minoungou – Regional Centre for Training and Application in Agrometeorology and Operational Hydrology (AGRHYMET)
• Amanda Grossi, Interim Science Officer for AICCRA Theme on Climate Information Services & Columbia Climate School
• Abdrahmane Wane, Country Coordinator AICCRA Senegal

Background

East Africa is experiencing some of the worst drought conditions in decades. Meanwhile, on the other side of the continent, Nigeria, Cameroon, and other West African countries have been dealing with devastating floods that have displaced more than a million people.

The demand for accurate and actionable forecasting to protect life and property has never been more urgent. However, even when researchers and meteorological agencies strive to produce information that users need, significant barriers still remain that inhibit that useful information from actually being usable. The way theoretically useful information is transformed into sector- and decision-relevant knowledge (translated) and communicated to users (transferred) and the degree to which the user has the capacity to actually understand and act on the information (use) all affect whether and the degree to which the information enables climate adaptation.

To address these challenges, the Accelerating the Impact of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) project is enhancing access to climate information services and validated climate-smart agriculture technologies in Africa, to help these countries strengthen the resilience of their agricultural sectors to the threat posed by climate change.

About the webinar

In this webinar, AICCRA project partners share actionable guidance, based on practical experiences, on how to move from the generation of climate information that forms the backbone of climate-smart agriculture to enabling its use in decision-making at all levels.

In doing so, East Africa’s regional climate center, the IGAD Climate Prediction & Applications Centre (ICPAC) and West Africa’s regional climate center, the Regional Centre for Training and Application in Agrometeorology and Operational Hydrology (AGRHYMET), will outline how critical capacity building on the “NextGen” forecasting system has enabled more than 30 African countries to quickly produce high-resolution, location-specific forecasts.

They will also share experiences on how a new data-management and visualization tool called the Automatic Weather Station Data Tool (ADT) is helping national meteorological services and regional climate centers across Africa to harness real-time weather data for decision-making in agriculture.

Beyond this, the AICCRA team in Senegal will share how capacity development for understanding such forecasts—amongst other vital climate services—is being embedded and systematized through first-of-its kind curriculum development for agricultural extension systems and university students across Africa. Results from the recent pilot of the Climate Risk Management in Agricultural Extension curriculum in Senegal will be underscored, alongside themes of sustainability, locally led adaptation, and transdisciplinary collaboration.