About ACACIA

ACACIA is an ambitious interdisciplinary project aimed at enhancing the resilience of at-risk communities in Sub-Saharan Africa to climate impacts. Our focus is on addressing floods in the Greater Horn of Africa and both floods and tropical cyclones in Madagascar. We strive to improve the production, dissemination, and use of climate services for better decision-making to reduce climate risk.

Our Objectives:

1. Mitigate mismatches and enhance the relevance of climate services.
2. Build capacity to implement coping strategies and improve access to climate services.
3. Overcome governance barriers and fragmentation of responsibility.
4. Adapt to climate change impacts that render existing strategies obsolete.
5. Provide rigorous evidence on the socioeconomic impacts of climate services.

Our Approach:

• Co-production: Involving social scientists, climate scientists, policymakers, and community members in developing climate services.
• Community Engagement: Working with 100 vulnerable villages in the Sofia region of Madagascar to assess and improve climate resilience.
• Case Studies and Applications: Implementing case studies and applications in Ethiopia for the Greater Horn of Africa.
• Capacity Building: Extensive training programs targeting vulnerable communities and consortium members, including meteorological services.

Our Unique Collaboration: What sets ACACIA apart is our close interdisciplinary collaboration. We hold weekly “testbed” meetings to discuss current weather conditions in Ethiopia and Madagascar, co-developing new products and services based on identified gaps. This dynamic approach ensures our interventions are timely and relevant.

Our Partners: Our consortium includes 14 partners with strong representation from Africa, involving actors from all parts of the climate services ecosystem. Key partners include the meteorological services in Ethiopia and Madagascar, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC). On the ground in Madagascar, we collaborate with the Red Cross, working directly with communities.

Identified Vulnerabilities: Preliminary vulnerability assessments in Madagascar highlighted vulnerabilities such as inadequate contingency plans, weak coordination, and social cohesion issues. Addressing these vulnerabilities is crucial to enhancing resilience.

The broad alliance of partners in ACACIA ensures that services and protocols are developed locally, enabling sustainable outcomes beyond the project’s lifetime.