Not just another app – Human centred design for impact-based forecasts in East Africa

research project

Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events—primarily droughts and floods—which are dominant stressors in agro-ecosystems of East African drylands. These extreme events are driving increases in acute and chronic food and nutrition insecurity. Such shocks are key drivers of livestock mortality, acute malnutrition, and chronic poverty among pastoralist communities in the region.

This project aims to bridge the gaps between the needs of pastoralists and the communication of formal early warning systems

The project will:

bring together an interdisciplinary group of stakeholders, scientists and pastoralists to co-develop knowledge through a weather information service from the bottom-up.
use social network analysis to understand information flows between pastoralists, allowing for heterogeneity in needs across individuals and communities as a foundation for the co-design process, and;
adapt and blend information from existing early warning systems to meet those needs using human-centred design for the sharing of information.This research aims to reduce the impact of conflict on households in the drylands.

The project is led by the University of Edinburgh through its School of GeoSciences, in collaboration with researchers in the University’s Global Agriculture and Food Systems Division, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and the University of Nairobi.