World Meteorological Organization

ACREI Participatory Seasonal Advisory Development

The Agricultural Climate Resilience Enhancement Initiative (ACREI), through its implementing partner the IGAD Climate Prediction and Application Centre (ICPAC), is improving climate advisories that allow farmers in targeted communities in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda to make informed decisions about the management and preservation of their crops as the season progresses. This is achieved by the co-production of seasonal weather and climate advisories through a process called Participatory Scenario Planning (PSP). PSP takes the co-production process down to the sub-national level in two-day workshops that bring the producers and users of weather and climate information in each target location together.

As a result of the PSP workshop, a collaborative advisory is issued for the coming season that is scientifically sound, locally relevant, and, most importantly, useful. The advisory is subsequently translated into local languages such as Swahili for Kenya, and Ifran Oromifa for Ethiopia. 
 
ACREI is a US$ 6.8 million project funded by the Adaptation Fund. It develops and implements adaptation strategies and measures to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable smallholder farmers, agro-pastoralists and pastoralists ­– an estimated 40 000 people in 30 communities – in the Horn of Africa to climate variability and change. 

Climate Services with an emphasis on the Andes to Support Decisions (Climandes) Project 

The Climandes project has increased the resilience of agricultural communities in the Peruvian Andes to climate change and played a significant role in the transformation of the National Meteorological and Hydrological Service of Peru (SENAMHI), The project achieved these goals by increasing human and infrastructural capacities to provide climate information services.

A critical success factor was the empowerment of climate service providers and user communities. Together, SENAMHI and MeteoSwiss worked to co-develop climate services, improving capacities in all pillars of the Global Framework for Climate Services. This was done through peer-to-peer training, the provision of continuous support and by coaching both providers and end-users of climate services. 

The user communities' increased trust of scientific weather and climate information has resulted in informed agricultural decision-making. This scientific information now reaches over 135 000 people in Cusco and Puno and is used by over 300 end-users and decision-makers. Ten public entities have also indicated the usefulness of this information for the development of national products and policies. As a result, local production has augmented and the socio-economic status of the communities has been enhanced. 

The Climandes project has further demonstrated that improved unrestricted and unlimited access to weather and climate information and services for the most vulnerable significantly enhances their disaster preparedness and contributes to protecting their livelihoods.