Down2Earth

Translation of Climate Information Into Multilevel Decision Support for Social Adaptation, Policy Development, and Resilience to Water Scarcity in the Horn of Africa Drylands (DOWN2EARTH)

by M. Schumacher

The DOWN2EARTH project aims to address climate change in the Horn of Africa Drylands (HAD) by developing community-relevant climate services to improve community-centric adaptation and resilience to droughts in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. The focus is on providing tools that forecast and project water scarcity and its consequences for agro-pastoral populations. The project is funded under the EU Horizon 2020 framework. It includes 14 universities and stakeholders.

Background

The Horn of Africa is a region plagued by recurrent drought, which makes rural communities extremely vulnerable to water scarcity, food insecurity, and economic losses during drought periods. The severe and prolonged droughts result in reduced soil moisture and drinking water reserves, producing food insecurity, livestock loss, and major water shortages, affecting millions of people within the HADs.

The main aims of DOWN2EARTH

The project aims to address the multi-faceted challenges of water scarcity and food insecurity under climate change in the Horn of Africa Drylands, and thereby, to improve resilience to climate change. DOWN2EARTH is composed of a multidisciplinary project team that will deliver state-of-the-art and community relevant climate services that focus on water scarcity and its consequences at or near the Earth’s surface to increasingly vulnerable agro-pastoral populations in HAD.

  • Assess the socio-economic dimensions and human dynamics of climate change including feedback between climatic shocks, human behaviour, and policy implementation.
  • Characterize historical trends and future projections of water scarcity, food insecurity, population, and land use.
  • Develop and enhance multi-level decision-support tools that emphasize the translation of climate information into critical land and water information required for adaptation and resilience by end users and state/regional governments.
  • Strengthen regional climate services through capacity building, citizen science, information dissemination, expansion of data networks, and policy implementation.

Project members:

  • External Team Members:
    • Cardiff University
    • University of Bristol
    • Free University of Amsterdam
    • Ghent University
    • University of East Anglia
    • IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre
    • UN Food and Agriculture Organization – Somalia
    • Water And Land Information Management
    • BBC Media Action
    • Transparency Solutions
    • University of Nairobi
    • Addis Ababa University
    • Climate Analytics

Learn more about this project on the official DOWN2EARTH website.

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