Time: 13:00 - 14:00


Abstract/outline: NERC and DFID have recently announced a multi-year Future Climate for Africa programme concerned with improving the availability of robust projections over a multidecadal (10-40 year) timescale.  In order to inform this programme, earlier in 2014 DFID commissioned 4 case studies across Africa to investigate the varied needs and priorities of target decision-makers with regards to weather and climate information.  This seminar presents the findings from case study research conducted by Kulima Integrated Development Solutions and the University of Leeds in Malawi. Based on our consultative methodology of stakeholder interviews and a workshop, combined with policy analysis, it identifies the actual and potential ways in which weather and climate-related information does and could inform decision-making processes for climate-resilient development in Malawi.  Despite an advanced policy framework for addressing climate change, current use of weather and climate information in policy-making and government planning is limited and tends to rely on the assumption that past weather observations will continue into the future.  However, scope for incorporating the use of various existing and yet-to-be-developed weather and climate information in short to mid-term planning was identified by decision-makers.

 Bio: Katharine Vincent and Tracy Cull are directors of Kulima Integrated Development Solutions, a South African adaptation consultancy that works across southern and eastern Africa (and occasionally further afield).  Building on our familiarity with scientific developments and the needs of various end-users (including policy-makers, practitioners and communities), we work mainly as a boundary organisation at the interface between producers and users of knowledge, ensuring that information needs are identified and relayed, and relevant scientific information is effectively communicated with the aim of enabling adaptation.