Weather forecasts for pastoralism in a changing climate: Navigating the data space in North Eastern Uganda

Abstract

Efforts to support the building of resilient pastoralism have been stepped up in Uganda through a number of activities. One of the activity is the provision of seasonal and medium-range climate forecasts to enable decisions concerning livestock herding. Seasonal weather forecasts are critical but there are challenges of timeliness and usability of the forecasts. The challenges are associated with the multiplicity of information sources, methods for data integration and dissemination channels. Institutions including public and Civil Society Organizations usually invest in collecting weather and other data which should be accessible. Often times this data remains hoarded necessitating other organizations to collect similar data. The inter-institutional relations notwithstanding, the lack of data sharing leads to minimal data available for open access. This paper illustrates that this challenge can be addressed by using combined multiple methods to elicit data on weather and other biophysical conditions for pastoralism in Karamoja. In this paper we additionally analyse the opportunities and challenges of using multiple sources of pastoral-relevant data to couple with weather information in support of herding decisions. Building resilient pastoralism that utilizes pasture and water availability will have to utilize available data. It is evident that more robust approaches for data sharing at global, regional and local levels are needed to understand how pastoralists can respond to climate shocks and changes. The paper illustrates the use of a multifaceted-methods approach including open data to develop climate forecast information for risk-reduction oriented information for decision-making. Integration of this data provides insights on how pastoralists have long adapted to a variable and changing climate, the methods and processes of adaptation to losses and damages from the climate shocks.