Learning from the FCFA Programme
A learning review, part of the programmatic learning endeavour, takes stock of the lessons emerging from FCFA’s collective experience. It predominantly focuses on three interrelated themes: promoting collective learning in FCFA, southern leadership and capacity, and mobilising climate information. Taken collectively, these three areas of review reveal some important insights and recommendations for improving the design, delivery and impact of climate and development research - providing a valuable source of information for the development and planning of future multi-consortia climate research programmes.
Download A Critical Reflection on Learning from the FCFA programme here
FCFA country briefs
FCFA has produced a suite of 12 country briefs that provide a summary of FCFA’s in-country work. An overview of the approaches being implemented to promote the uptake and use of climate information into decision-making spaces is summarised for each country.
Download the individual country briefs here: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Building blocks for co-producing climate services
This brief provides decision-makers with practical information on how to use a co-production approach to achieve better informed development of climate services with relevance for African decision-makers. It draws on the learning from the Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa (WISER) and FCFA manual on Co-production in African weather and climate services and highlights the process steps (building blocks) of co-production, including practical examples from weather and climate case studies across Africa.
Changes in global groundwater organic carbon driven by climate change and urbanization
Climate change and urbanization can increase pressures on groundwater resources, but little is known about how groundwater quality will change. This journal article by HyCRISTAL researchers reveals the drivers of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), which is an important component of water chemistry and substrate for microorganisms that control biogeochemical reactions. It predicts major groundwater DOC increases following changes in precipitation and temperature in key areas relying on groundwater. Climate change and conversion of natural or agricultural areas to urban areas will decrease groundwater quality and increase water treatment costs, compounding existing constraints on groundwater resources.
Download the journal article here.
Using Co-Behaviour analysis to interrogate the performance of CMIP5 Global Climate Models over Southern Africa
As established in earlier research, analysis of the combined roles (co-behavior) of multiple climate processes provides useful insights into the drivers of regional climate variability, especially for regions with no singular large-scale circulation control. Here, FRACTAL researchers extend the previous study in order to examine the performance of eight models from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) in representing co-behavior influence on surface expressions over southern Africa.
Download the journal article here.
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FCFA sponsors African journalists as part of an environmental reporting programme with Climate Home News
Climate change is a complex issue to communicate, with many journalists struggling to report on climate change in a language that is accessible but doesn’t lose scientific rigour. It is, therefore, important that African journalists are trained and mentored so that they can report on these issues accurately and responsibly to ensure greater understanding and climate action amongst communities. Recognising this gap, FCFA sponsored 10 African journalists to be part of an African reporting programme with Climate Home News. Read more about the African reporting programme and insight from the journalists involved here.
Urban flood stories paint fuller picture of climate risk in East African cities
Communities living in high-risk flood zones in informal settlements in East African cities like Kampala, Uganda and Kisumu, Kenya are often proactive in their response to a flood event. They may protect their homes with sandbags, dig temporary drainage ditches, build their homes on raised concrete slabs, or clear refuse from blocked stormwater drains. Yet they are still reliant on the city to plan for, build, and maintain the systems that ensure that storm water clears from these areas. Read more here.
Business-unusual during the Covid-19 pandemic
During these business-unusual times, FCFA researchers are re-designing their end-of-project plans amidst the uncertainty of not knowing when different countries across Africa will begin lifting lockdown restrictions, allow travel, and gatherings. Read the reflections from AMMA-2050 and FRACTAL researchers.
Yale Climate Connections radio program features FCFA's tea research
FCFA researcher Neha Mittal from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom was recently featured in the Yale Climate Connections radio program to discuss future tea growing conditions in Kenya and Malawi. Listen to the short radio episode and watch the video on climate change and tea: challenges for Malawi and Kenya.
Online climate tool to support West African agricultural planning goes live
Agriculturalists in government, the private sector, and development organisations in Senegal have an appetite for climate information to assist with planning, in order to make the sector more resilient in the face of anticipated climatic changes. But they often find this information too technical and inaccessible, or too general to be useful for local-level planning. AMMA-2050 researchers have designed a new online climate information tool to bridge this gap, and training in how to use the tool is set for technical advisors in this important West African agricultural producing country later in 2020. Read more here.
Insurance risk information can drive climate adaptation in sub-Saharan Africa
The insurance industry does not have large market penetration in sub-Saharan Africa. But this sector is in the business of quantifying risk, drawing on historical records to develop catastrophe models, which it uses to design insurance products. In this blog, UMFULA researchers address how this kind of climate risk information, generated by the insurance sector, helps with planning and development decisions in sub-Saharan Africa so that the region can better prepare for the approaching risks associated with increasing global temperatures and climate change.
HyCRISTAL researcher wins award for using visual storytelling with farmers in Uganda
Dr Grady Walker, a Senior Research Fellow working at the Walker Institute and School of Agriculture Policy and Development, was awarded the University of Reading Research Engagement and Impact Award for his work of using visual methods action-research as part of the FCFA HyCRISTAL project in Uganda. Read more here.
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