Interactions between local and scientific knowledge systems for weather and climate services

Working with rural households to improve their access to met service-generated climate information has highlighted the prevalent use of traditional weather forecasting, which still remains one of the main accessible and trusted sources of weather and climate information in rural communities in Burkina Faso and Ethiopia.

This learning paper discusses why it is important to take local knowledge into consideration, examining the ways this has been done in BRACED, both in the CIARE project (Ethiopia) and the Zaman Lebidi project (Burkina Faso) and more widely. It then looks at the processes and methods used to combine both met/scientific information and local knowledge to give farming households the best chance they have of reaching the right decision about their livelihood options each season. This paper also explores the power relations that can manifest themselves these processes which can have important effects on resilience outcomes.