How weather and climate information can support local government decision making

This is a report of a workshop which brought together the respective expertise and focus of two consortia projects, African Monsoon Multi-disciplinary Analysis 2050 (AMMA2050) and the Christian Aid-led BRACED project, Zeman Lebidi, both of which are seeking to strengthen climate resilience in Burkina Faso.

While BRACED is focused on building resilience within rural communities to current and emerging climate extremes and disasters, AMMA2050 seeks to strengthen resilience to climate changes within the medium-term (5 to 40-year period) across the Sahel, with research in Burkina Faso focused on building resilience to flood risk within the urban context of the capital, Ouagadougou.

The workshop aimed to:

• Build climate information providers’ understanding about the weather and climate information which can support local government decision making;
• Strengthen understanding of national climate information services and current scientific understanding of weather, climate variability, extremes and change and their impacts on livelihoods in rural and urban Burkina Faso;
• Jointly identify and develop concrete opportunities for integrating weather and climate information in local government (commune-level) decision making through strengthening partnerships to tackle collective concerns.