Attachments
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Regional Framework for Climate Services for the Greater Horn of Africa (RFCS-GHA) is a strategic mechanism designed to coordinate, enhance and deliver tailored climate services across the 11 countries of the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA):- Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
With over 500 million people residing in a region highly vulnerable to climate variability and extremes, the RFCS-GHA seeks to act as a collaboration platform for improved climate risk management, decision-making and resilience building across the region.
Grounded in the World Meteorological Organisation’s Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), the RFCS-GHA aligns with five key pillars:- Observations and Monitoring, Research and Modelling, Climate Services Information System (CSIS), User Interface Platforms (UIPs) and Capacity Development. These pillars underpin a comprehensive approach that integrates climate science into priority sectors like agriculture, disaster risk reduction, health, energy and water.
The RFCS-GHA is a collaboration between ICPAC (as the Regional Climate Centre) and the two Regional Economic Communities in Eastern Africa with Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the East Africa Community (EAC) providing political endorsement and technical backbone for implementation.
The climate services ecosystem in the GHA region is also composed of other key organisations operating at the regional and/or transboundary level, including international organisations, humanitarian agencies, research institutes and universities.
The RFCS-GHA aims to address these fragmented climate governance across the region, limited data sharing and collaboration, inadequate forecasting infrastructure, and under-resourced local institutions.
Following extensive baseline assessment and stakeholder consultations conducted between February and June 2025, key challenges and opportunities were identified to be considered in the RFCS-GHA, including:
• Institutional and governance fragmentation and the need for better coordination and collaboration
• Limited data sharing, particularly transboundary data
• Leverage existing regional platforms
• Inadequate early warning systems and a need to invest in Impact-Based Forecasting (IBF) systems
• Link climate products and services to actionable response mechanisms and decision-making protocols
• Weak integration of climate services into national planning
• Improve GHACOF outputs by restructuring the User Interface Platform (UIP) to emphasise regional/ transboundary relevance
• Define regional research priorities under RFCS-GHA to guide innovation and service improvement
• Support low-capacity countries without duplicating strong national efforts, ensuring equitable regional strengthening.
The RFCS-GHA vision is for ‘A resilient Region that can better anticipate and manage the risks and harness opportunities arising from climate variability and change for sustainable development’.
The RFCS-GHA is underpinned by the following core values: Coordination and Collaboration; User-Driven, Evidence-Based; Sustainability; Transparency and Accountability; Integrity; Gender, Equality and Social Inclusion; Reflexive and Adaptive.
The RFCS-GHA governance structure consists of:
• The Inter-REC Policy Committee
• The Inter-REC Steering Committee
• The Secretariat
• Cross-Sectoral Technical Group
• Technical Working Groups for each of the six priority sectors – Agriculture, Conflict and Security, DRM, Energy, Health and Water; One Technical Working Group for the NMHSS