How can a villager in Ethiopia, at the mercy of the climate's eccentricities, get to know what is happening to the precious rain in her part of the world, and how best to deal with it?
Climate change is already affecting the amount of rainfall a continent or a country receives, but making information available at the daily living level is critical to helping communities develop strategies to adapt, as most of them rely heavily on rain for food and livelihoods.
Such information is rare; more often there is none, but this may soon change. "How about a rainfall calendar for communities?" thought two climate change researchers - Cynthia Awuor, of Care, an international humanitarian NGO, and Anne Hammill, of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), a Canada-based policy research institute.
The calendar they developed was piloted in May/June 2009 in Kalabaydh village in Ethiopia's Somali region. It uses rainfall information from the community and combines it with meteorological data where available, but goes beyond simply providing a sense of how rainfall patterns have been changing over the years.
It is also a "tool" to help develop the community's perceptions of rainfall patterns, and provides a "platform to discuss risk management strategies to help them adapt", said Awuor. The calendar "clarifies" the "consequences of the changes in rainfall patterns on livelihoods", and can help researchers and policy-makers develop appropriate projects.
A community or village plots the amount of rain it received each month for the past three to five years in the calendar, "depending on how accurately they can recall", said Awuor.
Communities can even plot rainfall information for specific weeks or seasons, using a scale ranging from "little/below normal" through "average/normal" to "heavy/normal", and can also use any available local meteorological records to make the calendar more accurate.
The Kalabaydh villagers discovered local variations in rainfall after plotting their calendar. "Some locations within the area receive comparatively higher rainfall than others in given seasons, and this results in a higher concentration of livestock in such areas, and the potential for the rapid spread of livestock diseases" the researchers said.
They noted that the villagers had been resorting to short-term measures like depending on food aid, and selling firewood and charcoal to get by; many had been forced to migrate.
The older men pointed out that in the past 10 years it had been getting drier and warmer in their village, as the calendar prompted the community to discuss the issues and reflect on long-term strategies, one of which was that the government should help them build reservoirs and tap available groundwater.
Since the Ethiopian pilot, Care and IISD have helped communities in Uganda and Kenya develop a similar calendar, allowing them to define the relationship between changing rainfall patterns and pasture availability, livestock productivity, duration of migration and access to markets.
Awuor commented, "It is early days, but the tool has great potential."
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Climate change is already affecting the amount of rainfall a continent or a country receives, but making information available at the daily living level is critical to helping communities develop strategies to adapt, as most of them rely heavily on rain for food and livelihoods.
Such information is rare; more often there is none, but this may soon change. "How about a rainfall calendar for communities?" thought two climate change researchers - Cynthia Awuor, of Care, an international humanitarian NGO, and Anne Hammill, of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), a Canada-based policy research institute.
 The calendar "clarifies" the "consequences of the changes in rainfall patterns on livelihoods |
It is also a "tool" to help develop the community's perceptions of rainfall patterns, and provides a "platform to discuss risk management strategies to help them adapt", said Awuor. The calendar "clarifies" the "consequences of the changes in rainfall patterns on livelihoods", and can help researchers and policy-makers develop appropriate projects.
A community or village plots the amount of rain it received each month for the past three to five years in the calendar, "depending on how accurately they can recall", said Awuor.
Communities can even plot rainfall information for specific weeks or seasons, using a scale ranging from "little/below normal" through "average/normal" to "heavy/normal", and can also use any available local meteorological records to make the calendar more accurate.
Photo: Care/IISD  |
| The rain calendar prepared by the residents of the Kalabaydh village in eastern Ethiopia (See larger version) |
They noted that the villagers had been resorting to short-term measures like depending on food aid, and selling firewood and charcoal to get by; many had been forced to migrate.
The older men pointed out that in the past 10 years it had been getting drier and warmer in their village, as the calendar prompted the community to discuss the issues and reflect on long-term strategies, one of which was that the government should help them build reservoirs and tap available groundwater.
Since the Ethiopian pilot, Care and IISD have helped communities in Uganda and Kenya develop a similar calendar, allowing them to define the relationship between changing rainfall patterns and pasture availability, livestock productivity, duration of migration and access to markets.
Awuor commented, "It is early days, but the tool has great potential."
jk/he
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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