Adapting the tool

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Bruk

Climate information can be a powerful tool in helping African communities adapt to climate risk as well as create proper innovations to better their lives. But not all information is created equal, nor is access the same.
1. As a user or producer of CIS, what is the major challenge with the climate information you receive from the Meteorology Services?

From your past experience what are the most effective climate information sharing mechanisms or platforms?
a. Radio
b. Television
c. Cellular/Mobile phones
d. Web-based/online platforms
e. Local bulletin boards
f. In person briefings
g. Other (please describe)

kaithuru

The users of the climate information are diverse as such the products need be diverse to suit the users, need to be user driven and appropriate is the major challenge of the climate information . The products are often generally addressed not specific, deliberate mapping out of use and users, continuous and targeted investment in engagement with various users , monitoring and evaluation of use of climate information to make the products user driven.

IJAMPY

kaithuru I agree with you, there is need to develop demand driven CIS products to meet the specific needs of the end user. Also it is important for producers of CIS products to conduct a need assessment survey in order to achieve this goal

kaithuru

As an African user of the climate information what would you rather have from your climate provider? Knowing the diversity in terms of resources, modes or channels of information provision, the limitations and or lack of the same comparing the urban and rural use of climate information which is the easy and reliable method /channel that would work well for producers of the information to be in touch with your need.

IJAMPY

kaithuru The products I will expect from my CIS provider should include early warning for impending disaster, sector base information that address the need of each sector e.g Agriculture, Health, Water Resources etc. and it should not be a general statement.

There is need to first desegregate the channel through which this information are transmitted to urban and rural end users: The urban user will easy access this information through web based/ online platforms, electronic and print media. However, the rural user mostly rely on radio, in person briefing(extension) and in some cases mobile phone(sms)

kaithuru

IJAMPY Agreed IJampy but the challenges often is resources even to undertake he assessments hence leading to producers assuming they know the need of the user.

kaithuru

IJAMPY
I have worked with communities in rural Kenya, it takes time to create awareness and buy-in of the value of the climate information. Much as the people are affected by the adverse climate changes, there is a tendency at the community to think they have no role to play, it is an 'act of God'. This leads to some form of helplessness. Once you engage with them and they understand, they share their experiences, and embrace the value the climate information will bring. The challenge does not end there, even the method of delivery presents another challenge. Radios, are a 'basic channel' but they mostly are owned by men disadvantaging the female folk. Talk less of transmitting through mobile phone... they ask if they can get donations of cellphones.

IJAMPY

I totally agree with you that it takes time to create awareness and buy-in on the value of climate information. Our approach should be based on our understanding of the community, its value system both cultural and believe. That is why in person briefing through extension will add value and acceptability in the community. Training of climate champions in the community including women and youth will improve dissemination CIS in Africa

GahiNarcisse

Many thanks dear colleagues for your insightful contributions. Agree. In my turn I’d like also to add to these with the followings.
CONCERNING THE QUESTION 1 (the major challenge with the CI you receive from the Meteorology Services?).
We have investigated communities during diverse initiatives we get involved (rural or urban). From the surveys and informal discussions and listening, it appeared that “trusting” the reliability of the warning become one of the major issues. I recently carried out a study for one of the Resilience programme in Burkina Faso in 4 communities, community members said -when they are asked how often they use CI a week – “one of our problems about climate information is that sometimes what we hear is not what happens and then we are not sometimes confident”. From the analysis it seems, apart from the accuracy issues (due to uncertainties in forecasting), the main issue is the channel of transmission, as sometimes the information did not get the local people on time or the lack of updating about the changing of meteorological phenomena. One of the underlying causes of the “inaccuracy” of the forecasting is that the data used to perform the forecast are sometimes come from the weather and meteorological station that are far from the target communities. This calls for enhancing the data collection network. Therefore the DATA COLLECTION NETWORK, the WEAKNESS OF THE COMMUNICATION CHANNEL, and the RELIABILITY as well can be seen as some of the major challenges in CIS for producers, brokers and users. In fact Even if predictions are accurate, if warnings do not reach users (on time), or users do not act on warnings, early warming becomes ineffective.

In one of the initiatives in the Sanguié province in Burkina Faso, it has been proven that where CI is accurate and accompanied by services, farmers are willing to integrate CIS in their daily practices.

AS TO Q2 (SHARING MECHANISM OR PLATFORM)
It is already proven, for example in Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, and Ghana that, that communities get access to numerous communication channels cited above (in the question). From the experiences, 3 of the main routes might be radio, SMS, a social media (newly) and in person briefing. However the effectiveness of each route or mechanism are related to the target area and the capacity of the people.
The COMMUNITY RADIO is particularly useful in rural as the message can get the large people at the same time in local language. It is more relevance as in Africa, the electricity is a major challenge and radio can still be listened using batteries. In addition, message come from radio is more considered by the local communities. Recently, radio listening programme (including listening post) particularly in rural communities is becoming a way to explore as they provide opportunities for listeners and providers to interact. Somme resources can be found here http://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/WPapers/WP173CIFOR.pdf; https://publications.farmradio.org/
SMS is useful in cities. At the village level SMS message should be reinforced by voice in local language, as illiteracy is widespread.
Web-based : singularly the SOCIAL MEDIA like WhatsApp ad Facebook are becoming 2 of the powerful tool to get information in (on) time, in urban area.
PERSON BRIEFING. This is particularly useful in rural area.

Others. In rural areas, in addition to the radio and sms, FAMILY, COMMUNITY MEMBERS AND PUBLIC PLACES can be a useful way to share CIS. However a focal point should be a key

kaithuru

GahiNarcisse Thank you Gahi for the great insight and the experience you have shared.
In regard to the trust on the CI products it seems a common challenge across Countries which calls for deliberate inclusive approaches to resolve. Bearing in mind the importance of CI for sustainable development it is key that NMHs, along side other producers, invest in community initiatives that are evidence based to help users uptake the services. Strengthening observation networks to better the data for forecast may likely be achieved by embrace of technologically development such as Automatic Weather Stations as is the case of Kenya where at the decentralized structures refereed to as Counties, the County Directors of Meteorology make efforts to install AWS, volunteer rain gauges etc. The uptake and appreciation of the forecast at the Counties has improved greatly since the CDMs engage at the community level and give visibility of the CI provider.

In relations to Q2, if i may share the case of Kenya, there are a number of Community radio stations (RANETs) that broadcast with the local language. I concur that the battery using radios come in hardy since today many of the mobile telephones also have a radio component. Knowing the power of such devices therefore the more CI is regarded valuable the bigger the coverage hence utilization of CI for decision making.

Bruk

The UNDP CIRDA programme developed a toolkit that provides National HydroMeteorological Services (NHMS), policy makers, and media and communications the tools, resources and templates necessary to design and implement an integrated communications strategy.

These communications strategies include the effective issuance and packaging of early warnings as well as the creation of supportive communications products and outreach efforts that will support the long-term sustainability of investments in the climate information and services sector. While this communications toolkit is tailored to the specialized needs and political contexts of sub-Saharan Africa, it can easily be applied to other developing nations.

file:///C:/Users/Admin/Downloads/climate-info-and-ews-communications-toolkit.pdf

kaithuru

Bruk Thanks for the information

GahiNarcisse

Bruk Thanks Bruck! Good report, that also points out, among others, lack of reliable data, and credibility of the information provide, political will, economic challenges (pp 7-8).

GahiNarcisse

@kaithuru uru#194 Yes dear Kaithuru, thanks, there are common challenges accross Africa in communicating CI. In addition to your good thoughts about reinforcing the data collection network, GFCS (Global Framework for Climate Services -WMO), and other initiaves under UNDP, is supporting African countries to enhance and modernise their weather network. For example countrties had already their National Climate Services that is implementing for example in Burkina Faso. You may seen some here http://www.wmo.int/gfcs/national-action-plans (what I have already shared last week). Other programme from NGOs are supporting these plans, you may hear about the BRACED projects (http://www.braced.org/) that supported national MetOffice by providing weather stations. I also got involved in this project last in Burkina Faso. Satellite data are also being explored within the the VGT4AFRICA project funded by European Union to overcome the issue. Just the matter is that long time series is needed and at the moment alternative methods are used for some stations with gaps in data (e.g using the nearest suitable weather station). I am confident that in coming years/decades, forcast will be much improved in Africa.

Q2, Yes, thanks again. Mobile phones are also used as a radio. Just the matter is that electricity needs to be expanded and be Reliable itself in Africa (Eletricity is cut any time in many Africa area for long times). Just see the following UNEP's report (I was one of the reviewers) https://wedocs.unep.org/rest/bitstreams/10759/retrieve , you can see that only 1% of the rural population got acess to electricty in Burkina Faso and 38% in Ghana. It also mentioned the routes to share early warming information. Fortunately, in rural communities (like one we are following), solar panels is being used. Even many of people cannot access directly to it (install their own solar pannel), they can charge their mobile phone giving some money to the owners (€ 0.076-0.153).

I WONDER IF THE COMBINATION OF THESE CHANNELS AND ROUTES SHOULD NOT BE ONE OF THE USEFUL WAY TO SET A ROBUST CIS COMMUNICATION MODEL TAKE INTO ACCOUNT PEOPLE CAPACITIES.

IJAMPY

GahiNarcisse Thank you for the information and insight

kaithuru

Q1. As a user of CI, more so with the community groups, there is the challenge of terms used by the producers. The forecast is disseminated and terms like 'scattered' 'few' , ' normal' 'above normal' are not understood by the user. Any experience on how this is being addressed?

GahiNarcisse

kaithuru Thanks for this great question. In other words, how should probabilistic CI be delivered to end users? This poses a question of climate brokers, interface or knowledge platform. I should think that such forecasting system is based on the full estimate of the probability distribution (probabilistic precipitation, temperature seasonal forecasts for example). It is generally useful in planning scenarios and released over months or medium and long-term (e.g. 3-6 months for IRI’s). http://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/maproom/Global/Forecasts/NMME_Seasonal_Forecasts/precip_full.html . This is more helpful for policy makers/development planners/NGOs. This can allow them to prepare or plan to face the projected risk. For instance they can save food or storage or increase the amount of adapted seeds or support water harvesting techniques, or any disaster risk reduction plan like a contingency plan (just an example). Of course you can use them when you work with farmers, etc.

How should it be transferred to end users (policy makers, NGOs, farmers, etc) ? What is more important in case you want to prepare end users to that is to translate these forecasts into real context? For instance you can take a similar year that you can call normal year (Y1), wet year (Y2) or dry year (Y3) (regarding the forecasting and based on the historical data or situation). Depending on capacity and knowledge of your end users you can even make other subdivision as average-wet year (Y4) and average dry Year (Y5). So you can for example say as follows:

About below normal if precipitation: the probability to experiment this situation (in terms of precipitation) this season or in coming 3 months is comparable to Y2 (assuming that the end users know a bit more about it or simply we are expecting dry year this season); the same for others. This can be your target area itself or the well-known area by the end users. This is called ANALOGUE APPROACH. If you have an opportunity to set a platform (formal or informal), this can be explained through drawings (graphs), even map, referring to a recent year. Please it might be helpful to identify the corresponding potential impacts referring to your analogue area or even using brainstorming method (in participative way if within a group or platform).
Importantly you need to take caution by updating the end users in (on) time to help.

In addition your question has raised an importance of climate services. Why CI should accompanied by services? So when development planners, NGOs are informed (warmed) they can prepare for services to deliver to the users when the situation happens.

kaithuru

Cognizant of the importance of adaption to climate risks therefore pointing to the fact that the CI information is key to most sectors for development how are training institutions engaged; in mind is the fact that the number of experts or so to speak people who can offer the service need to be increased to match the demand of the CI. Do our NMHs and or training institutions have good number of staff that can be available to reach out to communities raising awareness? What is the ratio of experts to users? Does Africa consider the need to invest in training more 'providers'?

IJAMPY

kaithuru The ratio of experts to users of CI is grossly inadequate this is because most NHMS in Africa are underfunded by governments.

kaithuru

On a daily basis at the community level in Kenya we have local leaders meeting at the grass root level for one reason or other with the public , a.k.a as barazas. These are fora where significant information on decisions, actions and new directions are disseminated to the mwananchi and they are often taken very seriously. These 'in person briefings' if adopted can be effective platforms for CI integration.

IJAMPY

kaithuru The in person briefings like barazas is an excellent platform for effective communication of CI in rural communities and it should be included as an important component of CI interface