Report

Collection of FCFA Research Consortium and Country Summaries

This document comprises a collection of Research Consortium and country summaries. The research consortium summaries were produced by the following programmes: IMPALA, AMMA-2050, HyCRISTAL, UMFULA and FRACTAL. IMPALA:Improving Model ProcessesFor African Climate aimed to improve the understanding of Africa’s climate and the mechanisms of future change, and thereby helped provide high-quality information that is crucial for effective decision-making across the continent. AMMA-2050: African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis-2050 aimed to increase understanding of the regional climate of West Africa and how it will change, applying this knowledge to practical development questions. HyCRISTAL: Integrating Hydro-Climate Science into Policy Decisions for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure and Livelihoods in Africa aimed to develop new understanding of East African climate change and variability and work with regional decision-makers to support effective long-term (5 to 40 year) decision-making in the face of a changing climate. UMFULA: Uncertainty Reduction In Models For Understanding Development Applications aimed to improve climate information for medium-term (5-40 year) decision-making in the water-energy-food nexus in central and southern Africa, with a particular focus on Tanzania and Malawi. FRACTAL: Future Resilience for African Cities and Lands aimed to advance understanding of southern Africa’s climate, notably processes, as well as regional and local trends, and to work with decision makers to integrate scientific knowledge into climate sensitive decisions at the city-regional scale (particularly decisions relating to water, energy and food with a lifetime of 5 to 40 years). FRACTAL worked to varying degrees with team members in nine southern African cities. Summary of FCFA’s work in Burkina Faso, Senegal, Kenya, Uganda, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Rwanda aims to generate fundamentally new climate science focused on Africa, and to ensure that this science has an impact on human development across the continent. On page 65 the policy brief titled: “The current and future climate of central and southern Africa: What we have learnt and what it means for decision-making in Malawi and Tanzania” has addressed questions of climate science, climate impacts and decision-making processes for adaptation. On page 93 the country brief titled: “How can we improve the use of information for a climate-resilient Malawi?” This brief presents the main research findings from the Future Climate for Africa UMFULA project that are relevant for policy and practice on how to integrate climate information and increase resilience to climate change in Malawi.