FRACTAL is funded through the Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) programme. FCFA is an international research programme that supports research to better understand climate variability and change across sub-Saharan Africa. The programme focuses on advancing scientific knowledge, understanding and prediction of African climate variability and change on 5 to 40 year timescales, together with support for better integration of science into longer-term decision making, leading to improved climate risk management and the protection of lives and livelihoods.
FCFA is a five year programme, jointly funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Natural Research Council (NERC).
The programme is delivered through projects conducted by four regional research consortia, of which FRACTAL is one, and one global modelling consortium.
The other consortia funded under the FCFA programme are:
- African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA-2050)
- Integrating Hydro-Climate Science into Policy Decisions for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure and Livelihoods in East Africa (HyCRISTAL)
- Uncertainty reduction in Models For Understanding deveLopment Applications (UMFULA)
- Improving Model Processes for African cLimAte (IMPALA)
FCFA Pilot Phase (2014)
To inform the FCFA call for research proposals in October 2014, the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CKDN) was commissioned by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to undertake a scoping phase. Findings and lessons learned from the scoping phase were fed into the FCFA research call, run jointly by DFID and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).
Activities undertaken by CDKN during the scoping phase included:
- A series of consultations with experts which identified gaps in the underpinning climate science and modelling of medium-term climate change in sub-Saharan Africa for the purpose of informing adaptation and climate-resilient development.
- Activities which identified the needs and applications of climate research from the perspective of decision makers and other relevant user groups.
- Four decision-making case studies in sub-Saharan Africa to evaluate the needs of science users against the capabilities and limitations of current science. Each case study explored a real-world adaptation decision, such as: How can climate science support more effective design and delivery of social protection schemes? How can science support national development plans in transitioning towards climate -resilient development? How can climate services be of relevance to district and municipal decision-makers?
For further information and to access reports with the findings from the scoping phase see the CDKN website.
