Climate Data for Development: Resources and Approaches to Support Climate-Informed Programming

Climate affects virtually everything USAID does, creating challenges that jeopardize decades of development progress. Climate information helps USAID and its partners anticipate, prepare for, and respond to these challenges. It is an important tool for addressing threats to development gains and plotting a new course to a more climate-resilient future. Climate information is useful for planning and programming across sectors and timescales.  

However, climate information is not always easy to use, and it can be difficult for non-specialists to understand how different types of information are relevant to their context and work. USAID’s Climate Adaptation Support Activity (CASA) has worked to address these challenges by developing a series of climate information products that USAID and its partners can use to inform their work. The webinar will introduce three of these products, with insights and discussion on using climate information to inform activity design and implementation.  

The webinar will highlight these resources that incorporate seasonal, near-term, and long-term information:   

1. Climate-Informed Early Warning and Response Systems for Malaria. In Ethiopia, USAID has supported collaborative research on malaria-climate relationships for malaria forecasting- including support for the Epidemic Prognosis Incorporating Disease and Environmental Monitoring and Integrated Assessment (EPIDEMIA) system. Through CASA, USAID uses climate information to support Ethiopia's national malaria early warning system.
2. Near-Future Crop Outlook Analysis. USAID is working to support global food systems as they confront the ongoing impact of climate variability and change. From more frequent climate extremes to shifting growing seasons or more erratic rainfall patterns, climate impacts on the food systems are large and complex. CASA is working with USAID’s Feed the Future team to develop forward-looking, tailored analyses on projected climate variability and change, focusing on impacts on crop yields. 
3. Climate Risk Profiles. USAID’s Climate Risk Profiles summarize key climate stressors and risks most relevant to its regional and country-level objectives. This includes information on existing and future climate impacts, historic and future climate trends, and the governance and finance context. USAID, with support from CASA, recently released an updated Climate Change Risk Profile for Ethiopia, and dozens more are in development.