Jim Hansen, CCAFS Flagship 2 Leader, IRI Presentation during an event on strengthening regional capacity for climate services in Africa, Victoria Falls,27 October 2015

1. Jim Hansen, CCAFS Flagship 2 Leader, IRI
Strengthening Regional Capacity for Climate Services in Africa, Victoria
Falls,27 October 2015
CCAFS Strategy for
Climate Services

2. • Strategic partnership among CGIAR Centers and research
partners, in strategic partnership with FutureEarth
What is CCAFS?

3. • Strategic partnership among CGIAR Centers and research
partners, in strategic partnership with FutureEarth
• World’s largest research program addressing the challenge
of climate change and food security
What is CCAFS?
 Mechanism for organizing, funding
climate-related work across CGIAR
 Involves all 15 CGIAR Centers

4. • Strategic partnership among CGIAR Centers and research
partners, in strategic partnership with FutureEarth
• World’s largest research program addressing the challenge
of climate change and food security
• 5 target regions across the developing world
What is CCAFS?

5. Flagship 2 research areas
• Climate information and seasonal
agricultural prediction for risk
management
• Equitable rural climate information and
advisory services
• Weather-related agricultural insurance
products and programs
• Early warning and decision systems for
food security planning and response to
climate shocks
• Guidance and evidence for climate
service investment
• Regional and national meteorological
institutions better meet the demands of
climate service beneficiaries
• Agricultural extension and climate
information providers expand and
improve climate service provision
• Financial service providers improve
design, targeting and scaling of
insurance for smallholder farmers
• Food security response organizations
and safety net programs use improved
information to better manage shocks
• Regional and global development
organizations invest in climate services
for agriculture, with greater impact,
Research areas: Target outcomes:

6. South
Asia
Flagship 2 Portfolio
East
Africa
West
Africa
Latin
America
Southeast
Asia
Capacitating
African
Smallholders with
Climate Advisories
and Insurance
Development
(ICRISAT/ICRAF)
Early warning for
climate sensitive
diseases in
Vietnam and Laos
(ILRI)
Adaptive capacity
of women and
minorities thru
agro-climate
information
(CARE/ICRAF)
Flood Index
Insurance for
marginalized
smallholder
communities
(IWMI)
USAID-Africa Climate Services Support
Integrated
Agricultural and
Food Security
Forecasting for
East Africa
(CIMMYT)
Tailored Agro-
Climate Services
for Latin America
(CIAT, Bioversity)
Index insurance to
enhance adoption
of climate-adapted
germplasm
(CIMMYT)
Index insurance
complementing
other risk
management
strategies (IFPRI)
GFCS Adaptation
Program in Africa Climate-informed, ICTbased agroadvisory
service for crops in South and Southeast
Asia (IRRI)
Gender and climate services (U. Florida)
Climate services engagement and coordination (Arame Tall, IFPRI)
Development of CRAFT: CCAFS Regional Agricultural Forecasting Toolbox (Washington State U.)

7. Key challenges to making climate
services work for smallholder farmers
• Credibility: investing in quality, accuracy
• Salience: tailoring content, scale, format, lead-time to needs
• Legitimacy: giving farmers an effective voice in design, delivery
• Access: providing timely access to remote rural communities
• Equity: ensuring that women, poor, socially marginalized benefit
• Integration: climate services as part of a larger package of support

8. What will it take for climate services to benefit
smallholder farmers – at scale?
• NMS capacity to provide
actionable information
• Scalable communication
channels
• Engage and target the
vulnerable
• Balance scalable services
with context-specific needs
• Institutional arrangements
for co-production of services
• The right kind of investment

9. Building capacity to provide
actionable information
• Salience challenges:
 Spatial scale
 Beyond seasonal averages
 Uncertainty, communicated in
context of history
 Impacts and management
• Challenges African NMS face:
 Parent ministry mandate
 Human capacity
 Sparse historic observations
 Data policy, incentives
?

10. Building capacity to provide
actionable information
ENACTS (Enhancing National Climate
Services):
• Started in Ethiopia
• Satellite + station, ~5 km grid, 30-50
year complete record
• Data Library platform to build
“maproom” products from data
• Owned, implemented by NMS
 Ethiopia, Tanzania, Madagascar; &
AGRHYMET regionally
 Under development in Mali, Ghana, Zambia
STATION
BLENDED
SATELLIT
E

11. • Enables NHMS to customize,
generate, disseminate locally relevant
information without over-taxing limited
human resources.
• Implications for climate services for
farmers
• Changing how NMS are doing
business

12. Scalable communication channels
• Institutional channels
 Proven effectiveness of face-to-face
interaction for seasonal planning
 Scale successful approaches through training
for agricultural extension, other intermediaries
 Integrate climate into existing farmer
information and advisory systems
 PICSA+

13. Scalable communication channels
• Institutional channels
• Media and ICT
 Complement face-to-face
communication
 Extend the reach of human
interaction
 Opportunities to make radio-
based communication more
interactive
 Mobile phone revolution

14. Overcoming climate service
“market atrophy”
• Invest in capacity of NMS to routinely
provide farmer-relevant climate
information
• Invest in communication processes
and capacity to use farmer-relevant
climate information
• Evidence and guidance for
investment in climate services
• What can regional climate
institutions and processes do?

15. Jim Hansen: jhansen@iri.columbia.edu
Thank you!