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A major challenge to early warning systems in Kenya corruption. The county government is supposed to make a fixed amount of funds available to mobilise early action efforts, but people are not aware of this and so do not request the funds or support and don't demand it from the government when they fail to make it available.

This was the case when severe floods hit Turkana, which experienced severe floods - a county that experiences prolonged drought and could have harvested that water. The government was informed about the potential of flooding by senior meteorologists long in advance, yet no funds were activated for early action. Similarly, a landslide in West Pokot resulted in 56 deaths, which may have been averted if the agreed funds had been released for early action.

• Farmers and Fishermen - Wanted localised, contextualised, reliable weather and climate information that helps them decide what to do next.
• Journalists - Did not feel confident communicating climate information because of the jargon involved and the attitude of scientists towards them
• Climate scientists - Knew that indigenous knowledge influences most decision making and struggle translating scientific information into useful data for non-scientific audiences.

Aims

Intended Outcomes

Media aimed to inform communities of what services the government is meant to provide to them as tax payers during extreme weather events so that they (local chiefs, community reps and residents) can demand services that are entitled to.

To build communication skills among media professionals and technical experts to enable them to meet the climate and weather information needs of farmers, fishermen and pastoralists living in Northern Kenya, around the Lake Victoria regions of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and the Coast of Kenya. Ultimately, the aim was to enable informed decisions among farmers and fishermen, based on climate and weather forecasts - including action on early warnings.

Targeting: Local media professionals and technical experts

• Capacity strengthening: Workshops - Held a series of workshops bringing journalists and scientists together with audience members - facilitating co-production of weather and climate content, building stronger relationships between journalists and scientists and a greater appreciation of what their audiences need to know to make better decisions.
• Mentoring - Supported 10 radio stations across the region with long term mentoring

Targeting: Farmers and fishermen in select areas where we work with partner stations

Media: Radio programmes -The radio stations produced and broadcast weekly content on weather and climate issues targeted at their specific needs.

On farmers and fishermen: 620,000 people reached. 97% said the topics broadcast on the programme were relevant. 76% trust the weather and climate information provided. 88% felt the information was clear and easy to understand

On journalists: 100% said they now understand the needs of their target audiences. 100% said they now understand the challenges their target audiences face.100% said they can now contact weather and climate experts easily. 95% said they are now able to work closely and effectively with weather and climate experts to produce media content

On climate scientists: "I will continue giving the weather information to the journalists as it is vital to the community… "I will also continue applying the communication skills I have gained by making sure I avoid using jargon and communicate in a way that people can easily understand make use of the information." - Meteorological Officer, Kenya

Watch

and

Listen

• Fishermen keep him safe
• - communicating together