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There have been many initiatives to strengthen weather and climate information and services across Africa in the last decade or so, with numerous valuable outcomes. However, it is commonly observed that availability and uptake of information and services is still relatively low and that this represents a threat to social and economic development. The “mainstreaming” of weather and climate information into decision making is recognised to be a multi-disciplinary process involving components that include, inter alia, climate science and information services, translational science (developing appropriate communication approaches and delivery channels) as well as issues of governance to incentivise service delivery and use (as, for example, exists for weather services to the aviation sector). Considerable research has been conducted to improve capabilities in some aspects of these individual components, including pilot projects, generally of sub-national scale, to improve interaction and mutual understanding between climate information providers and users. The UN-led Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) is now providing important guidance for new programmes and fostering and promoting government recognition of the benefits of climate services. However, there has as yet been no major large scale Africa-focussed initiative to comprehensively address the various barriers to progress in an integrated way and to consider also their interactions and dependencies. There is a growing consensus that this lack of a holistic approach lies behind currently limited progress in uptake of weather and climate services. The need for an …