Lessons for FCDO Climate Change Programming in East Africa

Abstract

This rapid review synthesises evidence on FCDO climate projects across the East African region in the following countries; Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania. This review established that sector stakeholders in countries like Rwanda lacked climate impact information. This highlights the need of providing the right information in the right form to meet the end users need. The above case studies have shown the need for consistent and harmonised future climate projections that are country specific. According to a study undertaken in Tanzania and Malawi, understanding the likely future characteristics of climate risk is a key component of adaptation and climate-resilient planning, but given future uncertainty it is important to design approaches that are strongly informed by local considerations and robust to uncertainty. According to the findings from the research, policy incoherence, over-reliance on donor funding, change in leadership roles is a barrier to adaptation. There is also an urgent need for mechanisms for sharing experience and learning from methodologies, technologies, and challenges. Further, Stakeholder dialogue and iterative climate service processes need to be facilitated. This review also explores approaches to communicating climatic uncertainties with decision-makers. Particularly, presentation of data using slide-sets, and stories about possible futures.