RWSN Country Information

Understanding climate processes is a crucial task for climate scientists looking to improve seasonal forecasts in the Horn of Africa, a region affected by severe droughts. The strength of the Turkana Jet – a wind feature which carries water vapour from the Indian Ocean across East Africa to Central Africa – is underestimated in current weather and climate models. New observations of the jet by researchers from the Kenya Met Department, the University of Nairobi and the University of Oxford have been used as a benchmark for UK Met Office forecasting models for East Africa. This work is providing much-needed evidence to improve current modelling and predictions, which will support policy and practice for governments and donors in the region.

Identifying barriers to sharing and making use of climate information is an important aspect of REACH programme research. In Ethiopia’s Awash Basin, REACH partners have worked together to build tools and skills to facilitate management, curation, validation, visualization and comparison of climate data from weather and streamflow gauging stations in the region. This long term capacity building interaction has involved weekly collaborative coding sessions with forecasters (EMI), practitioners (MOWE) and graduate students (WLRC). Outputs from these sessions include code to produce clear and readable local forecasts and support water allocation planning.

Ethiopia has achieved 75% access to piped water in urban areas, up from 33% in 2000 (JMP, 2021). However, most water supply systems are intermittent, providing water for only a few hours per week in some settings.

Intermittency has multiple causes related to the water production capacity, leakages or weaknesses in the piped distribution network, insufficient power supply and financial and governance limitations.

Based on long-term research engagement in Wukro, Tigray, a REACH Water Security Observatory, we present three recommendations for inclusive water services in intermittent piped water systems in small towns in Ethiopia. At the national level, there needs to be more attention to the intermittency of urban water supply systems in policy and management and what this means for climate resilient urban WASH planning.

This Story of Change describes REACH’s work in understanding the role of Sustainable Land Management activities in securing water for livelihoods and household use. The research has provided key insights around benefits for small holder farmers, while highlighting challenges in terms of gendered uptake and water quality. These learnings are shaping regional and national level agendas on land restoration, leading to improvements in rural and urban areas.

Achieving national level systems change is usually the result of years of collaborative engagement and advocacy by like-minded people and organizations, using a variety of tactics and soft skills and putting in time and effort to bring it about. This paper documents five stories of change from Cambodia, Ethiopia, Honduras, Malawi, and Uganda based on interviews with a change maker from each country. Each story provides a personal account of what happened, challenges encountered along the way, and the tactics, soft skills and resourcing that helped to achieve it.

Lograr el cambio de los sistemas a nivel nacional suele ser el resultado de años de compromiso y defensa colaborativos por parte de personas y organizaciones con ideas afines, que utilizan diversas tácticas y habilidades blandas y dedican tiempo y esfuerzo para conseguirlo. Este documento documenta cinco historias de cambio de Camboya, Etiopía, Honduras, Malawi y Uganda basadas en entrevistas con un agente de cambio de cada país. Cada historia ofrece un relato personal de lo sucedido, los retos encontrados en el camino y las tácticas, las aptitudes interpersonales y los recursos que ayudaron a lograrlo.

Le changement des systèmes au niveau national est généralement le résultat d'années d'engagement collaboratif et de plaidoyer de la part de personnes et d'organisations partageant les mêmes idées, utilisant une variété de tactiques et de compétences non techniques et consacrant du temps et des efforts pour y parvenir. Ce document présente cinq histoires de changement au Cambodge, en Éthiopie, au Honduras, au Malawi et en Ouganda, sur la base d'entretiens avec un artisan du changement de chaque pays. Chaque histoire fournit un compte-rendu personnel de ce qui s'est passé, des défis rencontrés en cours de route, et des tactiques, des compétences non techniques et des ressources qui ont permis d'y parvenir.