Journal Article

The shifting epistemologies of vulnerability in climate services for development: the case of Mali's agrometeorological advisory programme

Carr, Edward R, Owusu-Daaku, Kwame N

2016

Overview

The field of climate services for development (CSD) is growing rapidly, presented by donors and implementers as an opportunity to address the needs of the global poor, whether informing agricultural decisionmaking in rural communities, facilitating disaster preparedness or promoting public health. To realise this potential, however, CSD projects must understand the information needs of their intended users. This raises a critical epistemological challenge for CSD: how can we know who is vulnerable to the impacts of climate variability and change, and why are they vulnerable to particular impacts? In this paper, we consider both the epistemological tension arising over the construction of vulnerability that emerges at the intersection of the physical and social science communities within CSD and a second, less-discussed epistemological stress surrounding how user identities are understood within the social science community engaged in CSD-related research and implementation. We illustrate these tensions through the example of a climate services programme that delivers agrometeorological advice to farmers in Mali, demonstrating the ramifications of these epistemological issues for the design and delivery of services that further development and adaptation goals.

• Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Ltd,Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)
• Subject: Agricultural biotechnology / Agricultural equipment / Agroforestry / Climate / Climate change / climate change adaptation / climate services / Community relations / Decision making models / Disaster management / Epistemology / Farming / identity / Mali / Meteorology / Public health / Rural communities / Special Section: Researching the hybrid geographies of climate change: reflections from the field / vulnerability