Released: Impact results from Africa’s most inclusive city climate, weather & early warning service

DARAJA*, a ground-breaking city and community weather forecasting and early warning service, shows how lives have improved in two East African cities, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam through a stunning set of impact results.

DARAJA has been delivered to date in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam by Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI) in Nairobi, the Centre for Community Initiatives (CCI) in Dar es Salaam, Resurgence,  the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD), the Tanzania Meteorological Authority (TMA) and array of key local community partners, leaders and stakeholders.

DARAJA means ‘bridge’ in Swahili. DARAJA aims to improve the climate resilience of vulnerable populations living in informal settlements in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya by building bridges between communities and weather and climate information providers.

DARAJA has been financed and developed under the  UK FCDO (UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office) Met Office-led Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa (WISER) Programme.

Before the DARAJA service began two years ago, close to 50% of Nairobians living in informal settlements in Kenya’s capital city looked up at the sky as a key source of weather and climate information. The residents of Dar es Salaam faced similar challenges accessing relevant local weather forecasts and early warnings to help them prepare for the impacts of floods and heatwaves. Now this has all changed.

Stories of changemakers

The changemakers behind DARAJA such as Patricia, the Principal Meteorologist at the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD), demonstrate benefits of the service that include;

1. Residents through DARAJA services, now access advanced and accurate weather, early warning and climate information (typically reserved for those in the agriculture and maritime sector) in Nairobi’s informal settlements. Access has risen from 56% to 93% within 18 months;
2. 98% of surveyed residents now take action to avoid household loss (e.g., clearing community drains) as a result of accessing DARAJA services;
3. 72% of survey residents state that they avoided personal damage and loss due to early warning weather information provided via DARAJA (e.g., saving income, protecting their household, clothing, beds, furniture etc);
4. The net potential economic benefits to both Nairobi and Dar es Salaam over the 2 year project, in a new report by a UK Met Office consultant economist, are estimated over 10 years, to be US$24 million to US$43 million, against a total project cost of under US$1 million.

A series of video spots will be available for media distribution worldwide feature 6 East African Changemakers behind DARAJA along with an impact measured by a joint UK-Kenyan-Tanzanian research team.

British High Commissioner to Kenya, Jane Marriott, says, “COP26 will be a crucial moment in our collective efforts to respond to the very real impacts of climate change we see here in Kenya. In this Year of Climate Action in Kenya, the impact of initiatives like DARAJA led by local changemakers demonstrates how Kenya-UK partnerships have empowered people in informal settlements with weather information to help communities plan better against climate shocks.”“These impact results are very strong,” says Mark Harvey, CEO, Resurgence, “We are now scaling DARAJA to 25 cities as a demonstrator for global ambition in climate adaptation and resilience.”

The DARAJA results are being released on the 5th Anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement and the UN UK Climate Ambition Summit. They have opened up a pathway to rapidly improve the access of 1 billion people residing in urban informal settlements that have poor access to actionable weather, climate and early warning information.

DARAJA Impact Results

Please click HERE.

Videos of Changemakers

There will be more than 6 x 1-minute DARAJA Changemaker video spots for worldwide media distribution available to download. To gain access to the downloadable files, please email [email protected]

The videos will also be found on Resurgence’s YouTube channel HERE.

Further Information

For information and interview contacts related to DARAJA and Resurgence, please contact Dilupa Nanayakkara, Communications and Marketing Lead: [email protected] / +44(0)792057081