LARMAT HOSTS RESEARCH PARTNERS FROM CARDIFF UNIVERSITY

The Department of LARMAT on November 29th, 2023, hosted a team of researcher partners from Cardiff University under the “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) project. DOWN2EARTH seeks to address the multi-faceted challenges of water scarcity and food insecurity under climate change in Horn of Africa Drylands, by facilitating community-centered adaptation and resilience to climate change impacts. The European Union under the Horizon 2020 programme funds DOWN2EARTH. The project aims at developing and enhancing multi-level decision-support tools that emphasize the translation of climate information into critical land and water information required for near-term and long-term adaptation and resilience by communities, state/regional governments, NGOs, and humanitarian and development organizations. Partners include Cardiff University (Lead institution), University of Bristol, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, University of Hohenheim, University of Nairobi, IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Center (ICPAC), Ghent University, University of East Anglia, Food and Agriculture Organization-Somalia Water and Land Information System (FAO-SWALIM), Climate Analytics, BBC Media Action, Action Aid, Transparency Solutions, and Addis Ababa University.

The meeting at UoN was convened by Prof. Oliver Vivian Wasonga and attended by the Chairman Department of LARMAT, Prof. Richard Onwonga, Prof. Michael Singer (Cardiff University) and Toby Pitts (Cardiff University). The ensuing discussions were fruitful and two teams agreed to develop synergies in the ongoing projects and work on proposals to respond to calls addressing the identified gaps, and especially targeting the dryland of Kenya and the region.