Africa faces considerable challenges in adapting to the long-term impacts of climate change. Ensuring that policy-makers are able to respond to the medium- and long-term implications of climate change is important in promoting climate-resilient development. Climate science can support planners in making informed decisions on future investments aimed at making the most of of scarce resources. Yet there is a lack of evidence for – and little detailed understanding of – gaps in the uptake of science for long-term strategies for climate-resilient development, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Future Climate For Africa’s objectives

The Future Climate For Africa (FCFA) programme aimed to promote better uptake of climate science and services to support long-term adaptation and decision-making in Africa. It aimed to do this by:

1. Generating a more robust and ‘decision relevant’ body of scientific evidence on medium-term (10 - 40 year) climate change to enable effective long-term planning and climate-resilient development across Africa.
2. Driving research, learning and capacity building on how climate projections can be better designed for, delivered and integrated into real decision making today.
3. Building the evidence base for delivering climate services to Africa.

Future Climate For Africa scoping phase

To help guide the programme, the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) was commissioned by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to undertake a scoping phase. Activities included:

1. A series of consultations with experts which identified gaps in the underpinning climate science and modelling of medium-term climate change in sub-Saharan Africa for the purpose of informing adaptation and climate-resilient development.
2. Activities which identified the needs and applications of climate research from the perspective of decision makers and other relevant user groups.
3. Four decision-making case studies in sub-Saharan Africa to evaluate the needs of science users against the capabilities and limitations of current science. Each case study explored a real-world adaptation decision, such as: How can climate science support more effective design and delivery of social protection schemes? How can science support national development plans in transitioning towards climate -resilient development? How can climate services be of relevance to district and municipal decision-makers?

Case study activities took place in five African countries between May and September 2014 and included Zambia; Rwanda; Malawi; Mozambique and Ghana.

Future Climate For Africa call

Findings and lessons learned from the scoping phase feed into the FCFA project. For more information on the project and current research visit the FCFA homepage or FCFA microsite.

Project Deliverables

Malawi: Analysis of existing weather and climate information for Malawi

Malawi technical report

Zambia: Near term climate change Zambia

Zambia pilot phase technical report

Rwanda: Rwanda technical report

Ghana: Ghana Technical Report

Hydropower: FCFA Hydropower Report

Ports: FCFA Ports