Description: Background: Studying the influence of geographical factors on child growth is important, especially given the increasing interest in climate change and health in resource-poor settings and the recognized importance of growth faltering as a general marker of population health. We describe patterns in children’s weight and length velocity and relate them to seasonal and spatial factors in rural DR Congo. The study setting is a food-insecure area with a majority dependent on rain-fed subsistence farming and expected to be one of the regions most affected by climate change. Methods: We studied the effect of selected geographical factors, i.e. season, village size and distances to hospital, health center, forest, fishing grounds and market on growth of children under two years old. We calculated individual growth velocity Z-scores according to the WHO-2009 growth velocity standards for up to five successive 3-month growth periods. Associations with geographical factors were examined in multivariate mixed effects regression models. Results: For the study population of 2223 children is characterized by low nutritional status. Age and season were the only independent predictors of growth velocity in the multivariate regression analysis. Mean velocity Z-scores were already low in children aged 0-6 months for weight [-1.34 (95% CI: -1.45, -1.22)] and for length [-0.99 (95% CI: -1.13, -0.84)]. They increased with age, while Z-scores of attained growth gradually decreased. Mean growth velocities were lowest before the main harvest season with a mean improvement of 1.2 and 2.3 Z-scores for weight and length velocity thereafter. A seasonal pattern was not seen in attained growth. No relation to spatial factors was found. Conclusions: In this rural subsistence economy area, geographical factors relating to distances to food sources and health services are less important determinants than harvest season, which is the major underlying determinant of child growth in these settings.

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Description: Despite the increasingly positive role of portable communication technologies for socioeconomic development and their growing use in global health and other emergency contexts, several challenges still hinder exploring the full potential of mobile phones as effective mitigation tools in natural disasters, public health emergencies and in the aftermath of extreme disruptive events. Mobile devices are designed and advertised to withstand predominantly the demands of normal daily situations, being fraught with fragilities that limit their utility for effective communication and coordination of help in emergency situations. We discuss ways to overcome some of these limitations in the future by the incorporation of features to increase their resilience and effectiveness as aid tools at relatively low cost. Improvements in autonomous energy generation and use, based on existing and rapidly emerging technologies, as well as further improvements in physical durability and off-line operability are encouraged. We also identify the possibility to combine capabilities from other devices, such as space-based telecommunication systems and traditional two-way radios, to enhance the utility of mobile devices for these applications. The solutions we propose can help millions of citizens around the world to manage the risks and impacts of natural and health-related hazards. They should also promote further resilience to avoiding and recovering from such events, especially in vulnerable regions with limited infrastructure.

Description: Climate variability and change have long posed substantial challenges for social, economic and natural systems throughout the world. Incorporating information about climate fluctuations and their impacts is an increasingly important component of risk management and planning in key socio-economic sectors. Understanding and meeting these challenges through effective risk management strategies that foster preparedness, impact mitigation, and adaptation requires a long-term investment in and commitment to sound science, transition, and translation of information among communities, and the application and evaluation of climate services and decision support resources. This science should be developed, implemented and applied in the context of the practical needs and capabilities of communities, stakeholders, and socio-economic sectors if it is to inform resource management challenges, and contribute to the field of study of climate, climate information services, preparedness and adaptation.During the early 1990s, the United States expressed a desire to capitalize on emerging developments in atmospheric and oceanic research and early climate impact studies, in order to develop the institutional capacity to meet these needs on global and regional scales. As a member of the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), and working in partnership with the international scientific and governmental community, NOAA led the development of an international research institute, which is known today as the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). Over several decades - from the initial conceptual and demonstration phases, to today’s mature institution – IRI had a substantial influence in linking science and action to risk management. This essay briefly reflects upon the initial vision for and evolution of the IRI; the importance of investments in endeavors of this nature to the US climate research and services communities, including model development, climate prediction and integrated research and assessments; and the value of such an institution to a Federal entity concerned with development and risk management in developing countries - the US Agency for International Development (USAID). We conclude with some thoughts about future directions.

Description: The International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) is a premier global research and capacity development institution focused on enhancing society’s capability to understand, use, manage and evaluate climate information. Its goal is to strengthen the technical capacity of individuals and organizations in order to increase the demand for climate information and its application.In the early years of IRI, staff trained local meteorologists and decision makers, often in developing countries, on using information products that IRI’s forecast group judged would be of value. However, in the last decade, IRI’s approach to training has evolved into one that is more user-driven. Today, users are brought on board during the development of training curricula to learn what information and methodologies would be most useful for their local needs. This establishes a sense of trust and ownership in the training process. Approaches are tailored to different contexts and communities, and focus is placed on cultivating long-lasting partnerships.The work presented in this article demonstrates the evolution of IRI’s capacity building and development processes. It highlights how the IRI implements capacity development activities, with a particular emphasis on the early engagement of practitioners and end users. Numerous examples are provided of the successes related to knowledge gains and to the concrete applications of climate information that can occur when the design and implementation of activities are preformed in an integrative manner. This approach builds channels for interaction among practitioners, policymakers, scientists and other societal decision making groups. Though it has seen numerous successes, the IRI is continually evaluating its capacity development methods and looking for ways to improve upon them.

Description: The production of seasonal forecasts on a routine basis in South Africa started in the early 1990s. Most of the modelling then was based on linear statistical approaches. The subsequent evolution of the seasonal forecasting enterprise in South Africa included the development of seasonal forecasting expertise and the enhancement of complex modelling systems which include the implementation and administration of atmospheric global and regional circulation models, empirical downscaling, multi-model ensembles, ocean-atmosphere coupled model development, and applications of forecasts. The International Research Institute for Climate and Society has made telling contributions to this evolution over the past 20 years and these will be highlighted here.

Description: The International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) began providing user-oriented climate information, including outlooks, in the late 1990s. Its climate products are intended to meet the needs of decision makers in various sectors of society such as agriculture, water management, health, disaster management, energy, education and others. They try to link the current state of the science in climate diagnostics and prediction to the dynamically evolving practical needs of users worldwide. Because most users are not climate scientists, the manner in which the information is provided is of paramount importance in order for it to be understandable and actionable. Non-technical language that preserves essential content is required, as well as graphics that are intuitive and largely self-explanatory. The climate information products themselves must be in demand by users, rather than ones that the producers believe would be best. These requirements are consistent with IRI’s mission of improving human welfare, particularly in developing countries where decision makers may not initially know what climate information they need, and how best to use it. This lack of initial understanding requires back-and-forth communication between the producers and users to initiate and sustain uptake and beneficial use of the information. Backed by its climate prediction research, the IRI’s climate information products span time-scales of days to decades. Experience on the statistics of daily weather behavior within seasons has been gleaned, as has the benefits of statistical and dynamical spatial downscaling of predictions. By providing views in a progressive sequence of temporal scales, IRI’s products help demonstrate that preparation for interannual climate variability may be the best preparation for decadal variability and trends related to climate change.

Description: Background: Climate variability affects a broad swath of socio-economic sectors, and if it increases or the sector becomes overly-tuned to past or present climate conditions, climate variability becomes of increasing concern to a wide range of non-climate specialists. The significant challenges to building the capacity of non-climate specialists to use climate information in research and decision-making include the difficulties in accessing relevant and timely quality-controlled data and information in formats that can be readily incorporated into specific analysis and reporting. Methods: The IRI Data Library is a facility designed to cope with these issues of information dissemination. Methods developed include Map Rooms which are designed for rapid access to needed information for particular user groups, analysis tools useful for a wide range of users (especially while training), and a metadata framework that uses semantic technologies to transform metadata from a variety of sources into a variety of standards. Results: The results are tools to merge standard climate products with GIS information (e.g. averaging climate data over the political boundaries used to geolocate health and socio-economic data), as well as simplified access/transformation of large datasets only available as collections of many files or service points elsewhere. Conclusions: The IRI Data Library is thus a key platform that makes climate and other data products more widely accessible through tool development, data organization and transformation, and data/technology transfer.

Description: Advances in our fundamental understanding of the physical climate system provided the necessary scientific underpinnings for the routine production of reliable seasonal climate forecasts and ultimately, the birth of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). While recognizing that the successful adoption of climate information into various decision-making settings requires an iterative approach between the developers and users of that information, since its inception the IRI has also recognized the critical role of basic climate research in generating new climate knowledge. Given its mission, such basic research targets specific regions and questions that are framed by practical considerations of how climate variations are impacting, or may impact, various sectors of society. Analogous to its role in underpinning the development of seasonal forecasts, an enhanced understanding of relevant aspects of the physical climate is viewed as a critical input to the larger process of developing effective strategies for the management of climate-related risks. Here, four examples of targeted climate research undertaken at the IRI are presented covering a range of time scales, from sub-seasonal variability to long-term climate trends. A diverse set of geographic locations is considered, which includes the Sahel, southeastern South America, the Philippines and Indonesia. These four examples were selected to indicate the broad range of use-inspired basic research questions that have been addressed in regions where the IRI is engaged in a broader set of activities to develop actionable climate information. While many institutions are engaged in basic climate research, having the expertise and capacity to do so within the IRI provides it with the necessary flexibility to target its work towards specific climate-related questions in specific regions of the world.

Description: Sound climate risk management requires access to the best available decision-relevant climate information and the ability to use such information effectively. The availability and access of such information and the ability to use it is challenging, particularly throughout rural Africa. A gap analysis published by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) and the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) in 2005 explored these challenges in detail and identified four key gaps: (i) gaps in integration of climate into policy; (ii) gaps in integration of climate into practice at scale; (iii) gaps in climate services; and (iv) gaps in climate data. Though this document was published nearly nine years ago, the gaps it highlighted are still relevant today. In the last decade, IRI has been making efforts to address these critical issues in a systematic way through projects and partnerships in Africa. This paper describes IRI’s efforts in Ethiopia, a country particularly prone to climate related risks. Here we outline a creative solution to bridge the gaps in the availability, access and use of national climate information through the Enhancing National Climate Services (ENACTS) initiative. We then discuss how policy and practice has changed as a result of IRI engagement in the development of climate services in the water, public health and agricultural sectors. The work in Ethiopia is indicative of the efforts IRI is implementing in other countries in Africa and in other parts of the world.