What are we learning about how to build effective climate services?

SEI and the World Food Programme hosted a discussion of country-level implementation of climate services that offered valuable lessons about key ingredients for success.

In Malawi, rainfall patterns are shifting with climate change. For small, rain-fed farms, that poses big challenges, as critical farming and household decisions depend on the timing and extent of the rains, which vary considerably from year to year.

Better forecasts can help farmers adapt, but it’s not that easy, said Dominic Nyirongo, of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) Malawi office.

“Sometimes forecasting will come in just before the season starts, when farmers have already prepared and made investments,” he said. “It is then too late for them to adjust.”

Thus, timing is crucial – and the only way to get it right and ensure the climate data provided is useful is to work closely with the farmers. A participatory approach developed by the Walker Institute is enabling the WFP to better support farmers with tools to help them make crop and livelihood choices.

Nyirongo shared the Malawi experience at a side-event hosted by SEI and the WFP at the Fifth International Conference on Climate Services (ICCS5), held in Cape Town last month. The goal was to share lessons from country-level implementation of climate services, building on a discussion at the Marrakech Climate Change Conference last November.

Peter Dorward, of the Walker Institute, who co-developed the approach being taken in Malawi, emphasized that relationships are key. The most effective climate services, he said, are “co-developed” with users as part of a long-term, trusting, two-way relationship.

Engaging closely with users will often show that what they really need is not we think they need, Dorward noted. It also helps us understand their values and priorities. This takes time and effort, but it pays off by building a sense of ownership that enhances uptake. From a learning perspective, he added, it is more challenging, because if the best services are tailored to each set of users, that means success and what we consider to be “effective” is likely to look very different from one context to another.

Fiona Percy, of CARE International, has identified several factors for successful climate services. Click to enlarge.
Climate services providers need to be realistic and recognize they cannot meet everyone’s needs perfectly, said Fiona Percy, of CARE International. This is why climate services should be designed for a specific purpose, so they can better determine who needs to be involved in the development, deployment and long-term provision of the service, and what knowledge sources are used.

Users’ needs also change over time, Percy added. That requires a continuous process of identifying and understanding user needs and adapting the services accordingly. Learning is a key feature of CARE’s Adaptation Learning Programme for Africa (ALP), which has used participatory scenario planning to build farmers’ capacity to use climate information.

A key insight from the discussion was that the process of understanding user needs has to be embedded in the institutions that deliver the service. This requires good feedback mechanisms, for instance, to enable users to inform further development of the service. A related point is that service providers need to put communities first, and remember that they own the data gained from them.

Strategic considerations

Steve Prager, of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), noted that for most farmers using climate services, the climate is only one of many concerns. Thus, linked-up approaches that “co-deliver” climate information alongside other services (such as agricultural extension services) significantly enhance the use of climate information in decision-making. That is the approach taken by CIAT in its climate-smart agriculture activities, which integrate agro-climatic forecasting.

“If we want to be truly effective, we cannot think of climate services in isolation, but need to look much more to potential co-delivery with other services needed and valued by users,” he said.

Prager also pointed out the importance of sustainable financing. Uncertainty in weather and climate forecasts mean that even the best services are not always right, so longevity and continued performance plays a big part in developing credibility and trust among users.

Percy added that it is essential to acknowledge uncertainties: those are actually useful information. Over-confident predictions that fail to acknowledge uncertainty can severely undermine credibility and erode trust. How uncertainty impacts the effectiveness of the service comes back to it is communicated, which remains a key challenge.

Effective partnerships are key, speakers agreed, but they are also a key challenge. Finding the right partner(s) who can commit and see the process through can be the difference between failure and success. Partners should be motivated to work together because it helps them in their job and being “joined-up” adds value.

Knowledge brokers – people who help build relationships and communication channels between climate information providers and users – play a key role in developing and supporting the ongoing improvement of climate services. One way in which the SEI Initiative on Climate Services aims to add value is by bringing together people in this field to share insights as they learn.