Enhancing national climate services: How systems thinking can accelerate locally led adaptation

Making agriculture resilient to the trends and shocks of a changing and varying climate requires effective use of climate information. However, in many places around the world, collection of climate data has been seriously inadequate and, even when available, poorly accessible, of inconsistent quality, and divorced from foundational capacity building that underpins its use by decision makers at all levels. The Enhancing National Climate Services (ENACTS) initiative of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), Columbia University (US) has been intentional about addressing these challenges holistically through its recognition that national meteorological services can and should do more than merely produce climate data. In this perspective, we highlight two recent projects in East Africa that acknowledged ENACTS early as one component in a broader climate services ecosystem. In doing so, we illustrate how the social, political, institutional, and cultural systems surrounding climate information can be just as important as the data themselves in setting up lasting yet adaptive climate services.