SPECIFIC SECTOR USER FEEDBACK OF COF33&34 AND RECOMMENDATIONS
ON HOW TO USE GHACOF35 CLIMATE OUTLOOK PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Background
The objective of this exercise was to give chance to the sectors to review previous COF (COF34)
and impacts, interpret COF 35 outlook and explore how different sectors will use COF36 for
improved performance of that season at sector level. Some of the sectors that were present
during COF35 include Agriculture and Food Security, Livestock, Water, Media, Gender & Civil
Society, Marine & Coastal, Geospatial and DRM. Below are sector-specific verifications of COF 35;
and recommendations presented during COF 35 from 21 – 23 August 2013 Boma Inn, Eldoret,
Kenya
During COF35 parallel sector workshops, 4 common questions were given to sectors to reflect on
and guide their discussions:
1. How can you make your sector climate resilient (cope with climate variability and climate
change)?
2. How can climate services such as products from COF support climate resilience in your
sector?
3. How have you been using climate outlook products in your sector? What are the gaps and
how can you improve?
4. How do you intend to use GHACOF 35 outputs?
Presented below are detailed reflections from sector discussions.
1. AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY
Question 1: How can the Agriculture and Food Security Sector be made Climate Resilient (cope
with climate variability and climate change?
Deliberations:
In the context of this workshop, agriculture was considered to cover various key sub sectors, i.e.
crops, fisheries, agro-forestry and food security sub sector. This time round, the Livestock
subsector was organized in a separate session. Climate smart agriculture (CSA) was considered
to be one that responds well to climate variations and extremes. CSA provides potential gains
and continuity in food production, food security, income security, climate change adaptation and
mitigation.
In addition, CSA entails improving and adapting practices, management, innovation, technology
and financing for:
 Increased productivity of land for food, wood and fuel,
 Enhanced food and nutrition security,
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Strengthened adaptive capacity and resilience of people, food production systems and
ecosystems in agricultural landscapes
CSA seeks to reduce GHG emissions and increasing carbon storage in agricultural systems
The workshop participants generally agreed that in order for the current vulnerable systems to
be transformed into climate smart agriculture, the following were necessary:
 Sustainability in the sector
 Adaptation and mitigation to Climate Change
 Betterment of choices for resilient varieties of crop and tree seed
 Continuous access to timely and appropriate climate services
 Employment of appropriate agricultural technologies
 Proper communication
 Adequate financing and insurance
 Good infrastructure and markets
 Good enabling policies and
 Cultural and socio-economic transformation
As a direct response to question 1, the participants agreed that the current agricultural systems
can be made climate resilient if certain services exist for the farming community and that farmers
are accessing quality services including climate information. Once the above conditions are met,
the different categories of farmers need to observe the following:
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Proper crop management, including proper seed/variety selection, timely land
preparation, early planting of appropriate acreage, timely weeding, etc.
Proper soil and water management, e.g. through minimum/zero tillage, fertility
management (use of appropriate fertilizers), agro-forestry, woodlots, cover cropping, soil
erosion control, mulching, water harvesting and irrigation during moisture deficit, etc
Integrated pest and disease management, e.g. selective use of pesticides, intercropping,
use of resistant seeds, rouging out diseased crops, etc.
Post harvest handling, storage, value addition and marketing
The above recommendations require continuous generation of appropriate technology, its
transfer and use by the farmers.
Question 2: What type of Climate Services Would the Agriculture and Food Security Sector need
in order to make it Climate Smart/Resilient?
Deliberations:
We have noted above that the choice of agricultural practices the famer employs greatly depends
on the prevailing and anticipated weather conditions; therefore, a climate smart/resilient
agricultural system requires that:
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The MET service providers provide adequate and timely weather information and
related weather advisories to guide farmers make reliable/informed decisions for
both strategic as well as tactical planning;
The MET services provide information on anticipated climatic risks, their magnitudes
and hot spots
Farmers will thus use forecast information and recommended weather advisories to
make appropriate decisions to transform the sector. The MET services should speak
to the entire value chain actors, i.e. various clients like seed companies and stockists,
agro-input dealers, researchers, processors, etc
The forecast should therefore be of high quality with the following qualities
• Timely (allowing timely planning including site selection, ploughing, assembly of
inputs, etc)
• Downscaled to community level (location specific)
• Defines rainfall amounts and thresholds for certain operations e.g. planting
• States onsets & cessation dates
• Informs about the length of growing periods
• Provides details about rainfall distribution (spatial & temporal), also gives a
information about the progression of the season
• Information on any climatic hazards expected
• Provides temperature thresholds
• Appropriately communicated (see below)
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How should MET information be communicated?
• The communicators of met information need to know who to speak to. They need
to speak to different kinds of clients (e.g. farmers & suppliers, small scale/large
scale farmers; mixed farming community etc). Thus they need to package the
information differently, i.e. tailored to specific needs of different clients.
• A comprehensive and integrated package/advisory containing the met
information and recommended agricultural practices that are suitable to the
anticipated weather should be communicated in a timely fashion to the farmers
and related intermediaries
• A good communication channel should make use of available indigenous
knowledge as well as other social and cultural networks
• Farmers need to understand climate change and variability; and the available
current & future climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies
• The communicators should make use of available science & technology to
communicate e.g. use of a mobile phone (SMSs), internet, etc
• During communication, ensure to encourage the youth to be part of the
transformation in the agriculture sector
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There needs to be adequate interaction between user farmers and met service
providers. For example in Kenya, the met services could package the information and
avail it to the communities e.g. at county level
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The met services should build capacity of intermediary communicators like extension
workers in forecast interpretation and translation. They should also encourage
adequate interaction between farmers and agricultural extension service providers at
grass root level
Should identify viable linkages and develop partnership arrangements (e.g. between
met, input suppliers, farmers, etc)
Question 3: How GHACOF products been used in the Agricultural sector? What are the gaps and
which Recommendations are there for the Climate Scientists?
Deliberations:
The COF forecasts and other climate products are presented in more general terms; they are not
customized to specific user needs and agro-climatological zonation. Nevertheless, some
participants have been using COF and other climate products. Climate forecast products have
been guiding some farmers to make decisions on whether to plant or not to plant at all, what and
where to plant, timing of other farm operations like weeding, top dressing, mulching, earthing
up, etc. Governments also use forecasts for preparedness against risks, tree nursery managers
also ensure that seedlings are produced timely in adequate numbers, etc.
According to the participants, experience has shown that forecasts are more accurate when
predicting weather extremes; however, huge variations exist in normal seasonal predictions. It
was also revealed that some users do not consistently use the COF and related products
especially when the previous forecast turns out different from what had been predicted.
It was also noted that different clients have specific information needs (see below):
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Farmers require timing (of onsets), progression of rains, amounts, spatial distribution,
anticipated local risks, and critical thresholds particularly to signal commencement of
planting operations at the farm level, etc.
Researchers - need long range projections – so that they may design different types of
technologies or improve on the existing ones to suit the anticipated future climates
Seed companies - to decide how much to produce for different regions in a country
Input suppliers need location specific forecasts so as to decide on where to and how much
seeds, agro chemicals, fertilizer, tools, etc to stock.
Seed stockists - use the information to decide on which types of seeds to stock, where
and when to stock the seeds, expected road conditions, etc.
Tree nurseries need to have access to and produce a wider options of species, varieties,
clones and provenances as to provide suitable plants – also for drought and heat struck
sites
Extension officers require timely, location specific weather forecast information so that
they may develop related agro-advisories and communicate them on time.
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Question 4: How will the Agriculture sector use GHACOF 35 differently to enhance resilience in
the sector?
Deliberations:
The participants recommended that the whole agriculture sector needs to be transformed into
climate smart sector. This requires that everyone (agricultural experts, farmers, extension
services, policy makers, met community and players from allied sectors) need to be part of the
transformation. It was regrettably noted that the current agriculture system comprises of an
ageing population; the youth who are the most productive labour force have abandoned
agriculture at grass root farming communities. This has contributed to its continuing
vulnerability. Therefore, transformation will inevitably require quality data/information and
quality communication and appropriate application of that information in the agriculture sector
as well as targeting the youth. In terms of how the agriculture sector intends to use GHACOF 35
differently, we took the example of Uganda as a model. Briefly, the members agreed that
following the release of GHACOF 35, they will ensure timely national downscaling and proper
organization of user forums to ensure that the forecast information together with related agroadvisories are communicated to farmers on time.
The draft GHACOF 35 indicated that Southern parts of Sudan, Western Ethiopia, Uganda,
Rwanda, Burundi, Western and Coastal Kenya, Western Tanzania and Southern Somalia are likely
to receive enhanced rains during the Sept – Dec 2013 season. Farmers in those areas are
encouraged to make good use of the expected favorable weather. The rest of the region, apart
from Northern Sudan, Northern Eritrea and Southern Tanzania (which do not receive significant
rainfall activities during the forecast period), are likely to receive depressed rains; farmers in
those areas are therefore advised to put in place mitigation measures to counter likely water
deficits.
The agriculture forum experts also agreed to encourage the following climate smart responses
to farmers in their respective countries.
 Proper site selection and timely land preparation
 Proper soil & water management
 Selection of appropriate crop varieties
 Manipulation of planting dates to suit the anticipated weather conditions
 Manipulation of crop spacing to match crop water requirements and availability
 Mulching, cover cropping, earthing up, etc. for purposes of soil moisture conservation
 Integrated pest and disease management
 Alteration in cropping patterns including crop rotation
 Crop diversification for diversified production and risk aversion
 Nutrient management/change fertilizer application
 Appropriate agro-forestry practices,
 Forestry (wood lots)
 Support to establish quality tree nurseries
 Crop financing and insurance etc.
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2. LIVESTOCK
Question 1. How can we make Livestock sector climate resilient/smart (cope and adapt with
climate variability and climate change)?
• Drought preparedness via LEGS
• Appropriate livestock species that adapt the drought conditions
• Have a climate expert at ICPALD and livestock expert at ICPAC.
• Capacity building to livestock users /sectors by ICPAC
Question 2. How can the climate services of COF products support pastoralist resilience in
livestock sector?
• The livestock expert/Agro-climatologist shall be assigned in the national Met
department to help in downscaling relevant to livestock
• Identify needs of the sector and communicate to the climate scientists
• Assign the national focal points in the livestock policy hubs of the member states
to assist in providing the livestock situation report
• In communication the climate services, it should contain implications on different
livelihood. The climate information needs to be specific.
• Release the information on biomass production by ICPAC
• As the next season is almost normal, we mainly need to focus on the
implementation of the CPP and RPP
• Climate services information should feed into the regional programing and
decision making
• Harmonizing the declaration of the regional emergencies
Question 3.
sector?
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How could Climate products contribute to climate risk reduction in the livestock
Use for the rift valley prediction tool,
Strategic vaccination
Pest and vector control
Development of risk transfer products e.g. livestock based risk insurance
developed by ILRI in Marsabit
In Ethiopia, riverine areas have used flood information for actions
Also used in restocking
Also used to request emergency response funding
Gaps and challenges
• The climate information is not customized to sectors
• Dissemination strategies of the climate products not well developed
• Inadequate capacity to downscaling the products
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Question 4. How do we use the 35 products differently?
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By implementing CPP and RPP using climate information
Discuss the product in the regional livestock and pastoralism working group and in
appropriate forum in the member states
Ensure that the Agro-climatologist is on board at regional and national level and the
climate information is well interpreted (see Q1)
Use the NEALCO /other groups to mainstream the climate information in their
program/activities
3. WATER RESOURCES
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How to make water sector Climate Resilience
Enhance domestic rainwater harvesting at households and other levels
Water availability assessment based on climate information
Response of the basins to climate in terms of water availability
Water conservation, regulation and allocation
Setting up of community based early warning systems
Flood and drought risk zoning
Improved awareness on hydro-meteorological hazards
Hydropower generation and planning
Reservoir storage planning
Water management zones focusing WUAs for equity
Climate information is downscaled to national levels for advisory of disasters such floods
Climate information is communicated in local languages for effective preparedness
Improve accuracy of climate forecasts in terms of space and time
EW based on climate to monitor floods & drought risk zones for efficient and timely
dissemination
Climate information for dam construction
Water quality and flood risk zones
Climate and water availability related to water demand
Climate information to monitor, manage and allocate available water resources
Water management at catchment levels require climate information
Urban water authorities require climate information to manage and allocate water
Set up advisory for irrigation scheduling
Basin management and dam infrastructure for flood risk reduction
Community awareness raising and training for Water resource protection.
(ii)
Type of Climate services required by water sector
• Rainfall amounts, evaporation, wind direction (storm movement)
• Automatic weather and water level recorders (Telemetry)
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Capacity building in hydrological modeling which accounts for climate data (standard
model)
Partnerships in awareness raising and capacity building in rainwater harvesting
technologies
(iii)
Contribution of previous COFs to water sector
• Planning for hydropower (Seasonal forecasts)
• Above normal projections are used for flood zoning
• Planning for high flow measurement locations for potential high water yields areas
• Flood warning system based on downscaled products
• Regulation of domestic water supply in urban areas
(iv)
Using COF35 to enhance resilience
• Downscale the forecast into the headwaters in order to monitor/project flood risk zones
(below normal, normal, above normal)
• Set up a working group at country level to develop strategic plan on adaptation based on
seasonal Climate forecast
• Develop a strategic plan for water allocation based on COF35 product
4. HEALTH
Making health sector climate resilient
To enable implementation of planned activities, it is imperative to mobilized resources for
adaptation strategies to improve resilience among vulnerable populations. Disease specific risk
maps development to local scale based on climate hazards and other facilitating environmental
factors is essential to enable targeting of adaptation interventions. Monitoring and evaluation
including operational research should also be prioritized to track executed plans and investments
to ensure value for money and achievement of the desired results.
Required climate services to support sector to make it climate smart
The health sector will require tailored climate and weather information which are specific and
relevant to local scale in time and place with sufficient lead time. To enable sufficient interaction
between health and climate sectors, there is need to strengthen and or establish strong formal
collaboration mechanisms between the sectors e.g. establishment of focal points and Technical
Task force or working groups to share best practices, knowledge and experiences and receive
support from climate scientists. To increase evidence necessary to support appropriate resilience
measures, a multi-disciplinary research agenda needs to be developed to enhance understanding
of the climate change effects in health in different settings in the region. There is need for studies
on climate change impacts on health to generate local evidence to inform policy and guide
climate induced diseases prevention and control programs. Similarly, it is important to generate
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and make available climate products that will facilitate the monitoring of climate sensitive
disease trends for early warning using models on temperature, precipitation and humidity,
among other parameters.
Contribution of climate outlook products in health sector
Whereas the use of clime outlook products have not been optimized across countries in the
region, they have over the years served as early warning to climate related health challenges and
therefore triggered preparedness and response planning for epidemics in some countries in the
region. They have also acted as catalyst for timely mobilization of resources among partners as
decision makers have a basis for taking action. There have been consequent early responses to
disease epidemics in most countries in the region. Although there are no specific studies for
attribution, there has been reduced morbidity and mortality from localized disease outbreaks.
The challenges of COF products noted were distributed to each member country after the COF.
This is attributed to limited or lack of a formal system in most of the countries for the health and
climate sectors in sharing and utilizing information.
Some of the gaps noted on the COF products are low resolution of the forecasts with regard to
temporal and spatial scales for accuracy needed for local decisions and actions. Limited active
involvement of the health sector in release of the national downscaled forecast sharing and
dissemination at the country level were seen as one of the reasons for limited use of climate
information in the sector. The following recommendations were therefore provided:
 National met-services to hold one day meeting to elaborate on downscaled national
weather forecast to all relevant sectors – health sector after the GHACOF.
 To establish alternative channels of dissemination of climate information to relevant
stakeholders in health sector
It was also observed that there is limited sensitivity of the policy and decision makers in the health
sector on health and climate issues. Thus, the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services
in member countries need to support the established focal points (desks) in the health sector and
work together to advocate and sensitize policy and decision makers in health sector to appreciate
and support initiatives on health and climate to improve resilience in the sector and support
adaptation initiatives. To address the limited intra and inter-sectoral collaboration among key
partners, there is need to develop mechanisms to bring together key/ relevant sectors to address
climate and health challenges. Strengthening of capacity to interpret and use the forecast by the
health sector policy and decision makers is therefore an urgent need.
To support this effort ICPAC will need to make a deliberate effort to ensure that the World Health
Organization regional office for Africa is represented in subsequent COFs so as to help in
providing technical inputs to the health sector preparedness due to its regional focus and to rally
the WHO country offices in member countries to support ministries of health to mainstream this
efforts at national level.
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Use of GHACOF 35 products differently to enhance resilience in the region
The benefits of timely COF products to the health sector have been improved preparedness and
response to climate related diseases particularly malaria. In view of this, COF35 will need to be
urgently disseminated together with downscaled national forecasts to all partners in health
sector. This has not been undertaken effectively across the countries in the past. Mechanisms for
dissemination and accessing the 10 day and monthly updates will be developed and subsequently
shared wisely across the sector partnership and stakeholders who include local communities.
Based on the outlook, countries will need to identify specific health risks by type, time and place
within the season and initiate planning for preparedness and response.
To effectively reach out to communities and population who may be at risk of any particular
health hazards, there will be need to develop appropriate communication on the health
challenges and disseminate them to target organizations and populations in areas exposed to
health risks. Therefore a robust risk communication and advocacy for locally practicable
prevention and copying mechanisms to vulnerable communities in collaboration with the
national and local multi-media entities is essential. The COF product will form a basis for
advocating for and mobilization of resources to protect people.
5. DRR, SOCIO-ECONOMICS OF CLIMATE SERVICES AND CONFLICT
EARLY WARNING
Report on the Parallel DRR Workshop
The parallel DRR workshop was convened to elicit responses from participants on following
issues:
1. How can you make DRR sector climate resilient (cope with climate variability and climate
change)?
2. How can climate services such as products from COF support climate resilience in DRR
sector?
3. How have you been using climate outlook products in DRR sector? What are the gaps and
how can you improve?
4. How do you intend to use the GHACOF 35 outputs?
The session was attended by 21 participants, including national DRR focal points of seven
countries national meteorological agencies and IFRC/National Red Cross Societies. The session
was chaired by representative of the Government of Kenya’s Office of the President and UNISDR
(the s/m) acted as the rapporteur. The session began by a brief description by DRR focal points
of each country on DRR progresses made in their countries. In GHACOF, Burundi, Ethiopia,
Uganda, Rwanda have a national DRM Policy in place while South Sudan is expecting to have one
by mid-2014 and Burundi and Kenya are in the process of DRM legislation in the parliament.
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The participants called for more integrated DRR and climate change policies and programmes
within the larger domain of development. The maintained that given the low temporal nature of
the COF products (3 months) they are not very useful for long term DRR and CCA planning. The
usability of these products was also questioned, however, it was also realized that the DRR
practitioners need to enhance their understanding about COF products and need to complement
them with local risk assessments for decentralized information and hence enhanced resilience of
communities.
HFA-2 Consultation
An HFA-2 Consultation was conducted with the same participants. A detailed questionnaire was
shared with participants a few days before the meeting. The participants, in general,
acknowledged the contribution of HFA in enhancing their level of awareness and knowledge
about risk reduction, however, more needs to be done in GHACOF region to shift the focus from
emergency response to risk management. The participants hence recommended enhancing role
of local governments in DRR implementation and coordination at various levels. They further
recommended establishing country-to-country peer review, coordinated by RECs to enhance
accountability and monitoring.
In the plenary where the recommendations of the group were presented, ICPAC (Prof. Laban
Ogallo) made an intervention with two additional recommendations for Africa, largely focusing
on DRR knowledge enhancement and management:
 Transfer science and technology innovations and knowledge from the developed world
to Africa to inform and enhance DRR.
 Develop a mechanism of intra-regional knowledge exchanges for country-to-country peer
learning.
6. MEDIA
Q.1
How can the media sector help in building climate resilience (cope with climate
variability and climate change)? How can the media sector be climate smart?
 The media sector needs to ensure continued coverage of climate issues.
 Getting authentic and timely information from the climate experts and disseminating the
same effectively.
 Connecting climate information to other sectors to make the news interesting.
 Journalists need to get contacts and frequently liaise with the key persons who are
supposed to provide the climate information.
 Journalists should establish proper working relationships with all those involved in climate
predictions.
Q.2
How can climate services such as products from COF support the media in disseminating
climate resilience information?
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The COF provides an opportunity for the media to get timely climate updates.
Through capacity building for media on how to approach climate news or information at
least twice a year.
By engaging journalists from local areas to also get interested in reporting on climate
issues as opposed to only the big media houses.
Through properly organised visits to the news outlets within the area where the COF is
taking place in order for wider dissemination of news.
COF products should be user friendly and key climate experts at the forum accessible to
the media.
Q. 3 How has the media sector been using climate outlook products? What are the gaps
identified and how can they be improved?
 The media receives the downscaled forecast from the NMHs that is then disseminated to
the public.
 There is need to include impacts of the forecast on various sectors and effects of the
impacts to make it easier for dissemination by the media. This can be done through
increased networking with the various sectors.
 The media should do follow up of the forecast as the season progresses to keep the public
constantly updated. The media should ensure climate news remains relevant.
 The forecasts need to be translated into local languages for easier understanding. NMH’s
should enhance working relations with local communities to help in translation.
Q. 4
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How will the media use the GHACOF 35 products differently to enhance resilience?
Media practitioners should make use of their media outlets to disseminate as many
climate stories as possible by using different angles or formats.
The media will play a more supportive role in disseminating climate information to the
grassroots.
The establishment of National Chapters of NECJOGHA should be encouraged in order to
entrench the dissemination of climate information in the region.
ICPAC’s communication outreach and initiatives in regard to climate information;
 Information relayed on all avenues is dependent on the input of climate experts hence
there should be more engagement with the various sectors
 Media participation by members from IGAD member countries is still low and more input
is required to provide a wide array of news.
 Production of newsletters is ongoing hence dissemination of information to the general
public as well as those within the climate sector.
 ICPAC highlighted the Global forum for disaster risk reduction as having been one of the
good opportunities to showcase what the ICPAC has been doing.
 ICPAC is able to use new age media like Facebook and Twitter to further entrench the
information flow and encouraged more users to follow them on those particular
platforms.
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Communication of Climate information in SADC, Paida Mpaso, Malawi
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The capacity to report climate in Malawi as well as the other member countries within
the Southern Africa Development Corporation (SADC) is still very low. This is because
many journalists are not interested in writing or reporting on climate.
Editors in the SADC region are still ignorant on climate reporting and regard climate as a
non-issue, hence the need to impress upon editors and the journalists in the SADC to
develop an interest in reporting climate.
It is imperative that journalists in the GHA and the SADC begin learning best practices so
as to create the interest and demand for climate stories and information.
There is a need to inculcate among journalists that climate stories can be linked to other
sectors such as agriculture/ business so as to make a bigger and more interesting story.
The main challenge affecting proper dissemination of climate information in the SADC
region is too much gate-keeping by public relations officers within the departments of
meteorology hence limited interactions between climate experts and journalists.
In addition, there is need to have journalists understand technical terms that come with
climate reportage including such terms as; resilience, mitigation and adaptation to
climate change.
Overview of ACMAD’s products, services and continental communications platform
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ACMAD is in the process of establishing more media networks within the continent to
help in the dissemination process.
With NECJOGHA showing great success in climate reporting and networking, ACMAD
would like to use it as a case study in efforts to establish their own network.
It was reported that ACMAD is now on Facebook and would like to have more interaction
with the various partners. Weather forecasts indicating hotspots, dust forecasts and early
warning information are some of the informative items posted on the ACMAD website
and on Facebook.
ACMAD also sends out flood risk bulletins as well as health bulletins via email to the
public.
They are also involved in organizing Regional Climate Outlook Forums for the various
regions they cover. There has been a deliberate call for the establishment of a media
network within the ACMAD COF’s.
ACMAD has been conducting capacity building for junior climate experts sent to Niger to
better their skills and enrich their experience.
Kenya
 Generally in Kenya there is a lack of interest in climate reporting amongst young
journalists.
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The forecast issued at the COF 33 provided a good background for the media to report on
challenges such as landslides and floods that normally come up as a result of that
particular rainfall season. COF 34 also provided adequate information for developing
relevant climate information.
Electronic media has helped in climate information dissemination through the use of ‘up
sounds’ directly from the news source.
Seasonal, monthly and weekly forecasts provided by ICPAC and KMD are a good source
of climate information.
Burundi
 Information on the forecast received in the COF 33 and 34 was disseminated by the
various radio stations.
 Translation of ‘climate jargon’ to make it understood in the local languages is still a major
problem.
 There has been an increase in journalists interested in reporting on climate though there
is still need for more capacity building.
 COF 33 and 34 were well disseminated after the downscaling by the national
meteorological agency.
 Efforts have been enhanced to get radio shows with phone in programs in order to get
climate information across to the public.
 The public insist on getting information of when the rains are starting as opposed to the
‘above or below normal’ details which they deem as unnecessary.
Rwanda
 Rwanda has already set up a network of climate journalists who recently attended a
climate network meeting for journalists organised by NECJOGHA and COMESA.
 Proper dissemination of the forecast from COF 33 and 34 was done through various
publications.
 There is need for proper interpretation of the jargon used by the climate experts to be
able to convey accurate climate information to the public.
Tanzania
 Following COF 33 and COF 34, a press conference was held and the information covered
extensively by all the media outlets.
 There is enhanced use of social networks by the meteorological agencies who are now
sharing more climate information through these platforms. In addition, traditional media
is now also using online publications to disseminate information.
 SMS alert system has been established to provide early warning information.
 Feedback is almost instantaneous from the public when they feel that the climate
information given is not well explained.
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Various media houses have held workshops to enhance work relations between the
editors and reporters as well as to help them understand the relevance of climate stories/
information.
One of the challenges faced in Tanzania is the habit by politicians and government officials
to misuse climate information by creating non-existent emergencies that result in the
government spending too much money to deal with “imagined” emergencies.
A big achievement for the Tanzania Meteorological Agency is the development of a
Kiswahili Glossary to explain climate jargon/terms.
Ethiopia
 COF 34 had wide media coverage owing to the fact that the country also hosted the event.
 The follow-ups of the forecast released raised a lot of public interest in the climate
information provided.
 The media meeting organised by ICPAC has given impetus to having a local network of
climate journalists.
 One of the challenges faced in Ethiopia is that most of the media use Amharic hence
forcing the journalists to translate the forecast from Amharic to the local languages.
Uganda
 Following COF 34, a media brief was done to elaborate on the forecast hence providing
an opportunity for journalists to gather more information.
 With the broadcast being done in 27 languages by the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation,
climate experts who understand the local languages had to provide interpretation of the
forecasts.
 There is an active climate journalists’ network in Uganda.
 Also, there is an initiative of the media house to get the climate experts to explain the
forecast to the public.
 Monthly updates given by the meteorological department are utilised by journalists.
Djibouti
 It is a big challenge in Djibouti to communicate climate and climate change.
 As member of IGAD, a good starting point would be to get the journalists interested in
reporting climate through deliberate effort.
 Djibouti being a drought stricken country would then provide an avenue to inform the
people on their environment in regards to climate.
 Journalists are working the meteorological agency to air information on climate in local
languages.
 The biggest challenge is changing the mindset of local people who think climate is
determined by God and not man therefore man cannot be the one to tell them what is
going to happen.
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Sudan
 Sudan Meteorological Corporation held a press conference to cover the downscaled
forecast after COF 33 and 34.
 There was flooding and many people are still displaced since the last forecast of COF 34
that had accurately predicted this and provided early warning information.
 The challenge is that the meteorologists are yet to establish a smooth working
relationship with the media to get information out to the public in good time. The
meteorological corporation needs to be proactive so as to give the information
beforehand.
7. GENDER AND CIVIL SOCIETY
Q.1
How can you make the Gender and Civil Society sector climate resilient to climate
change? How can you make the sector climate smart?
The following challenges were common among the participants during the discussions:
 A long-term forecast was required for long-term planning of the agricultural sector
 Passing information to users was a challenge due to inadequate resources and poor
status of roads and communication services
 Although the GHACOF forecast came in time, some of the National forecasts delayed,
with some appearing even one month later
 Households with grass thatched roofs were not in a position to harvest rain water for
domestic use
 Efforts were required to convince men to stop cutting trees for charcoal to save the
environment
Q.2
What type of services would the Gender and Civil Society sector need to make it climate
smart?
The requirements include the following:
 Accurate and timely information, addressing- How much? When? Where? How long?
For example, when is the onset? When will the rains stop? What methods should be
used in rainwater harvesting?
 Improvement on lead time of forecasts (at least 1 month);
 Communication of climate information to be effectively to users e.g. in their local
language (RANET, CCIC (Kenya), local FM stations). There was need to increase
channels for communicating the forecast and the number of weather stations in South
Sudan.
 Need for collaboration between Civil Society and the existing government structures
to enhance dissemination in the country.
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Youth, women and men are all part of the community and they all require climate
information. The work was too much for existing capacity in the Civil Society to make
an impact.
Q.3
How could climate outlook products contribute to climate risk reduction in the Gender
and Civil Society sector? Has the Gender and Civil Society sector ever used climate outlook
products in risk reduction? What are the gaps? And what recommendation could your sector
give to climate scientists producing climate outlook and other climate products?
The discussions began by identifying some of the risks common in the ICPAC member countries.
These are shown in the Table below:
Landslides,
Flooding,
Water logging,
Dry spells,
Drought,
Late onset,
Lightening,
Frost,
Disease outbreak
Hail,
Strong mist,
Fog,
Dust storms,
Fires,
Quelea birds,
Locust
The Forum emphasized that Climate Outlook products should provide early warning to local
communities on the above risks so as to ensure adequate preparation.
Seventy (70%) percent of the working group had used the COF products by:
 Sharing COF information through meetings with various groups,
 Using information to grow kitchen gardens for income generation for women,
 Disseminating the information to the media,
 Communicating information to community (elders, women groups, farmers) ,
 Disseminating the forecast to local civil society organizations.
Some of the gaps mentioned by the Forum were that:
 Information was not taken seriously until disaster strikes due to lack of public trusts,
 Information to rural areas was minimal due to lack of infrastructure,
 There were delayed national forecasts,
 There was still lack of capacity for CSOs as well as lack of understanding of technical
language by CSOs.
Q.4
How will you use the GHACOF 35 products differently to enhance resilience?
In Uganda, the information will be shared by the communities in the region and wait for the
national forecast. Kenya mentioned that they are already working with the women groups and
will continue encouraging the communities to:
 Motivate the women
 Plant trees
 Empower women to increase their incomes
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17
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Encourage water harvesting, kitchen gardens and fish ponds.
South Sudan will share information with the women groups and farmers have a brief the Under
Secretary, who would also brief the Minister to enhance information dissemination. Burundi will
disseminate information and try to create a Gender and Civil Society Network to share
information.
8. MARINE AND COASTAL ZONES
Categories of users of climate information
 Fishers
 Tourism
 Navigation and Maritime security (ports authorities) – To safeguard the import and export
of goods;
 Aquaculture/Mariculture
 Coastal and offshore construction (sea level rise, storm surge),
 Offshore hydrocarbon explorers,
 Marine Resource and disaster managers (NEMA), environmental NGOs among others –
To better protect and manage coastal resources;
Coping with climate variability and change in Marine and Coastal zones
 Provision of climate and sea state information to fishers/coastal communities using
RANET, mobile phone (SMS). The information provided should include implications of
climate information to the various users.
 Climate will affect their ability to venture into fishing activities. Climate also affects the
availability of fish.
 Provision of specialized bulletins at specific times on various user needs.
 Flood warnings for coastal communities, e.g. Sabaki/Tana rivers entry into the coast,
Kenya and Rufiji river in Tanzania, Somalia
 Proper planning and protection for coastal areas to address coastal
erosion/sedimentation and inundation (construction of seawalls, planting mangroves etc)
 Avoid over-exploitation of boreholes to avoid seawater (salt) intrusion (increased
harvesting of rainwater).
 Fishers need to diversify (seek alternatives) means of survival/livelihoods in case of
climate shocks/stresses. They can venture into other forms of livelihoods.
 The restoration of mangrove forests can protect shorelines from erosion and provide
breeding grounds for fish while also sequestering carbon.
 Climate awareness and education for fishers.
Services Required (User Needs)
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Some of the climate services/products required include:
 Rainfall, Wind speed/direction
 Waves/swells heights, Currents
 SSTs and chlorophyll information to identify fishing zones/grounds forecasts (5/7 days),
Tides and Phases of the Moon (spring and neap tides).
COF products contribution to climate risk reduction
 The group included mainly researchers / professionals and academicians and did not
include other users of COF products.
 We need to include users of marine products in our next COF 36.
 Some of these coastal communities like artisanal fishers, coastal tourism, aquaculture,
developers, ports authorities, oil refineries, oil explorers, resource and disaster managers
(NEMA), environmental NGOs need to be brought on board.
Use of GHACOF 35 Products
 The rainfall surplus/deficit along the coast will have an impact on fisheries but how the
effect will be felt is complex and will depend on other sea state parameters which have
not been provided.
 The need to properly interpret how to use GHACOF 35 products by the various coastal
communities. The need to cascade the COF information from some key institutions to
small scale user communities who can benefit more from the products.
 The need to extend the forecast area to beyond 60° E the land areas to include the oceanic
part of the western Indian Ocean.
 The necessity to produce prediction of potential fishing zones from SSTs and chlorophyll
information.
Work Plan
 Before end February 2014.
 Define categories of users that the ocean predictions will be directed to.
 Define products that will be prepared (including those listed below)
 Sea Surface Temperatures, Salinity, Ocean currents, Tides/sea levels, Isotherm variability,
IOD, 30 metres depth variations and thermocline
 Identify models/data sources taking into account discussions at previous COFs and the
performance of the available models
 Working meeting for the experts group (December 2013)
 Prepare the products and circulate to Ocean Group – January/February 2014
 Disseminate the products to users after validation
9. GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGIES
Q1: How can geospatial technology contribute to building resilience to climate risk?
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Response:
 By providing information on what is where and why is it there
 By building spatial awareness at all levels (decision-makers, technicians, experts,
vulnerable communities)
 By giving essential and usable geospatial information to users e.g. publications, maps, etc.
 By allowing for better communication and liaison between various sectors
 By providing timely and accurate information (real time inputs to adapt to occurring
change).
Q2:
How can geospatial technology support the COF process?
Response:
 Gridding and interpolation of stations and geospatial data
 Provision of alternative information to traditional meteorological data collection
 Generating quality COF products and interpretation of products
 Downscaling information to sectors and developing appropriate tools
 Enhance users/communities abilities to give feedback: tools for knowledge sharing and
discussion at a local level
 Digitize COF maps to geospatial format for sector applications  pairing with climate
scientists.
Q4
How can geospatial technologies contribute towards the use of COF 35 products
differently to enhance resilience?
Response to both Q3 and Q4:
 By combining method and data sources. As an example, Ethiopia has been linking COF
products with administrative boundaries and climate data
 Information is being used at a sub-location
 A gap identified was lack of information on what is done in other countries. Similar
approach might be used for better linkage and for consolidated separations. Another gap
identified was the limited audience at present for such products
 Increase the use of geospatial technology from data collection to data management to
map inception
 Develop a comprehensive geospatial database that can support sector-specific
applications (rather than just a singular map)
 Data/ information sharing mechanisms and protocols should be set up
 Tailored products. Contribute to sector-specific outlook forecasts e.g. food security, DRR,
hydrological, etc.
 Create base maps (infrastructure, topography, hazards/risk zones, vulnerability, etc.)
 Attach a geospatial expert to each sector to develop the forecasts (region or country)
 Geospatial training and capacity building for all sectors/ countries in the region
 Open source software.
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RECOMMENDATIONS FROM SECTOR SPECIFIC PARALLEL WORKSHOPS
AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY
Recommendations
 Improve the quality of the forecasts by incorporating amounts, temporal distribution,
onsets, critical thresholds, seasonal progression, temperature, etc
 Continue to issue weather updates as the season progresses using appropriate channels
(e.g. through extension agents, email communication to a group of tea growers
association, or large scale farmers, etc and through SMS to smallholder farmers); the
weather update messages should be in line with the cropping calendars
 Widen the scope & forms of forecast dissemination and monitoring to different clients
(radio, SMS, e-mail, faith, schools, etc)
 Package the information differently for different clients
 Different clients need information at different times; enough lead time is required to
satisfy different client needs
 Ensure capacity development for intermediary communicators and users
 Institute appropriate learning and feedback mechanisms
 Duplicate COF through national and community level downscaling forums
LIVESTOCK
Recommendations
• ICPAC/Sector focal points need to release customized sector maps
• Capacity building on climate information for the livestock sector
• Pursue on the development and adoption of the integrated flood-drought pastoralist
livelihood model
• Use appropriate media to aggressively disseminate the info
• IGAD need to support the livestock sector to pilot some of the guidelines in the LEGS.
WATER RESOURCES
Gaps and recommendations
• Rainfall probabilities should be provided in amounts
• Shorter time scale for flood risk modeling
• Strengthening collaboration between water and climate experts
• Generate climate products which take into account the different rainfall seasons in the
region (JJAS in parts of Ethiopia)
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HEALTH
This sector workshop discussed on ways the region can cope with climate variability and climate
change i.e. to make the health sector climate smart. There is need to advocate for political
commitment at all levels for the mainstreaming climate change and variability in health planning.
The need for Strengthening Intra and inter-sectoral collaboration among partners and to build
the capacity of national, local and community based structures to widen and strengthen use of
climate products in planning and implementation of health services was viewed as critical for
enhancing resilience. This will therefore increase capacity for the health sector. This meant
training a critical mass of health managers in health sector to define and use disease specific
climate data and information to effectively manage diseases.
DRR, SOCIO-ECONOMICS OF CLIMATE SERVICES AND CONFLICT EARLY
WARNING
Summary of Recommendations to GHACOF 35
I.
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Making DRR Climate Resilient
Conjoined DRR and CCA policies and plans and integration in development agenda
Enhance community awareness on DRR and adaptation
Mainstream DRR into environment programmes
Strengthen dissemination of climate information to end-users (communities)
Identification of new and increasing risks and addressing them
DRR integration into education sector and curricula
Enhanced usage of climate information for DRR planning and early warning
II.
Current DRR Usage of COF Products
 Preparedness and Response Focused (but enable early action):
o Contingency Planning
o Enhance preparedness and early action
o Information on other related hazards
III.
Gaps and Recommendations
 Short term / seasonal forecasts – need for a synthesized climate information for DRR
usage for enhancing resilience
 Need to complement COF products with local level risk assessments
 Need to enhance understanding of COF products – capacity development of DRR
practitioners on COF products to increase understanding down to the community levels
 Weak coordination among users and actors
 Need to downscale information to sub-national levels – higher support for national
meteorological agencies
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Swift flow of accurate information – credibility issues for disseminators in communities
Strengthening of climate forecast models and their accuracy
IV.
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Enhancing Application of GHACOF 35 Products
Increased usage of COF products for DRR programming
Higher advocacy with national governments on usage and dissemination
Multi-sector coordination at national levels – role of National Platforms
Higher integration, including through private sector participation
DRR practitioners to enhance and strengthen their role in dissemination of climate
information products
MEDIA
Recommendations
 There should be enhanced capacity development through training of editors, mentoring
young journalists to entice them to report on climate as well as consistent and sustainable
training opportunities.
 There is need for the development of a glossary of meteorological terms using the
example of Tanzania.
 Meteorological agencies should be encouraged to be open to journalists and provide
relevant information.
 Climate organisations need to initiate exchange programs for climate journalists in the
region.
GENDER AND CIVIL SOCIETY
The Gender and Civil Society Forum recommended that:
 Kitchen gardens be encouraged among households
 Education and awareness opportunities on disaster resilience to be provided to
vulnerable communities
 Girls be encouraged to take up science courses to equip them with necessary skills
and enable them join the profession so as to influence decision making at policy
level
 Women be involved in decision making
 Both men and women be trained on climate issues
 Women and youths be engaged in environmental activities
 Women to be encouraged to harvest water and in case of grass thatched roofs,
table banking and other methods should be used to assist women acquire tin
roofs. However, water harvesting for kitchen gardens was seen to be possible.
 The use of climate forecasts to be part of extension service
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Environment and weather clubs in schools and colleges be promoted
Tree planting for fruits, cash and as well as ornaments be encouraged
Partnerships/Networks with various sectors for information dissemination be
established;
The use of indigenous knowledge be encouraged
Women be empowered through poverty eradication activities for example
growing of cash crops
Women be recruited as volunteer observers for met information to enable them
internalize and build trust in weather information
Scholarship, particularly for girls in climate science, be provided
Build life-skills for disaster resilience on women and youth
Successful traditional methods of disaster mitigation, particularly in household
food storage be promoted;
Platform for Civil Society organizations and governments in the region to
disseminate the forecast be established
Accurate and timely information - How much? When? Where? How long?
Improvement on lead time of forecasts (at least 1month to 2 months)
Communication of climate information to be effective to users e.g. in their local
language (RANET, CCIC (Kenya), local FM stations)
Mobilization of funds for CSOs and awareness creation
Improved Infrastructure for timely delivery and monitoring of information usage
Partnership with all stakeholders for example agriculture, water resources,
forestry, NEMA (Kenya), relevant ministries
Study tours to learn best practices
Devolved/decentralized climate services to grassroots
Improvement on observation and monitoring station network
Linking CSOs with weather information focal points for effective dissemination
Action plan to be developed for the sector
Communities be empowered to reduce poverty so as to follow the example set by
Kenya Red Cross
Lead time of forecasts be improved to at least 1 month for seasonal forecasts
Information network among CSOs be initiated from member states
Effective early warning system be provided
Improvement on accuracy, timeliness and dissemination of climate information
was required
Communities to be involved in data collection by Scientists through recruitment
of volunteer observers, particularly women in rural areas
Study tours for CSOs to be sponsored to learn and replicate best practices
Environment and weather clubs in schools to be encouraged
National outlook forums to involve all stakeholders to give advisories on and use
of forecasts
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ICPAC and Member States to have a trust to support CSOs to do their work on
their ground
Climate information to be communicated more effectively in local language
Capacity building for all actors
Governments to provide scholarships for female meteorologists
Women be provided with information on life skills
Scientists to work with the communities in areas where alert for climate disasters
have issued
RANET networks be developed, revived and expanded in Member States
Participation of Gender and Civil Society sector from all member states be
improved at the COFs (3 participants per participating state)
Share information with local communities immediately
Inform the relevant ministries for dissemination
Verify the forecast and study the impact on gender
Continue reaching the women, empowering them and motivating them through
incentives solar lamps among other methods
Develop collaboration and partnerships to reach more women
MARINE AND COASTAL ZONES
Gaps and Recommendation
 Most of the climate information that they require are not produced by the climate
outlook products
 The COFs only provides information on rainfall while coastal communities requires much
more information than only rainfall
 Climate group should work together with the ocean group to provide the relevant
products required by the marine sector. Need for strong collaboration
 The need for a regular feedback mechanism on the use of COF products by the various
marine and coastal zone sectors
 Partnership with the mobile phone companies in dissemination of information to the
relevant sector
GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGIES
Recommendations
Based on the open discussion session, the following main recommendations were made:
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Geospatial technology can contribute to the GHACOF process by gridding/ interpolating
climate data into GIS format, which can enable dissemination, information sharing, and
applications in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
There is a need to provide and carry out geospatial training and capacity building for all
sectors, to enable development of sector-specific products
Geospatial practitioners at IGAD-ICPAC should develop a Geodatabase with baseline data
such as roads, rivers, digital terrain model, etc. that can be used for applications, and a
Geoportal (web-based platform), through which spatial information, including COF
products can be shared amongst different users in the region.
For further information, please contact, The Director, ICPAC
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