Bridging Long-term Climate Information and Sectoral Decision-Making in East Africa

Climate prediction capability has improved markedly in East Africa over the past two decades, yet long-term climate information remains largely unused in livestock and human health sector planning. We conducted a situational analysis reviewing existing research across East Africa, mapping weather and climate information services (WCIS) and identifying blockers for the use of WCIS in decision making. Few blockers are related to forecast skill, while most concern how WCIS is governed, translated, and delivered. One particular gap stands out: national meteorological services in the region rarely provide climate information beyond the seasonal timescale, even though both sectors routinely make decisions on decadal timescales, such as where to invest in water infrastructure, how to design human and livestock disease surveillance networks, which rangelands to prioritise for restoration. Relevant climate projection research exists (heat stress impact on people and livestock, shifting disease geography, drought frequency trends) but sits in academic literature, disconnected from the stakeholders who need it. Through WISER- Climate Information Capacity and Knowledge (CLICK) project, we are working with regional partners to co-identify which planning decisions lack long-term WCIS input, to co-produce usable products from existing knowledge, and to embed these in sector planning processes and build institutional capacity to maintain delivery independently. We present the situational analysis findings and the co-production approach being used to connect long-term WCIS to sectoral planning.