Mapping the Demand, Development, and Delivery of Climate Services in the Greater Horn of Africa

Numerous research and development projects seek to improve climate services in the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA). However, we do not sufficiently understand how key elements of climate service production are currently engaged with. To address this evidence gap, we systematically review academic and gray literature collected via an extensive database search to understand the status of the demand, development, and delivery of climate services in the GHA. We take stock of climate services at sub‐seasonal and seasonal time scales for different sectors and across geographical scales. We find that Kenya, Ethiopia, and Uganda have been spatially prioritized across the GHA in the deployment of climate services by research projects and development programmes. Sectorally, agriculture has received a particular focus. We also find that there remain significant barriers to the usefulness and usability of services, including now common problems of timeliness, access, communication, relevance, and accuracy. Increasingly, initiatives have sought to tailor and communicate information through knowledge co‐production with some success, but issues of extent and sustainability suggest continued caution. Finally, we discuss key lessons learned regarding the governance, assumptions, and modes of knowledge production that underpin the current landscape of climate services in the GHA. Climate service demand, development, and delivery across the GHA is complex and richly heterogenous. It is only by engaging a plurality of actors and knowledge systems through a coordinated and transparent research agenda that climate services can be meaningfully attuned to the demand‐needs of those they are meant to serve.This article is categorized under: The Social Status of Climate Change Knowledge > Climate Science and Decision Making The Social Status of Climate Change Knowledge > Knowledge and Practice Trans‐disciplinary Perspectives > Regional Reviews