Clim-HEALTH Africa | Projects

What is ENACTS?

The Enhancing National Climate Services (ENACTS) initiative is a climate service project that aims to improve the accessibility, quality, coverage and understanding of climate data so that climate knowledge can be used in national decision making.

The initiative is led by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), and is active in eleven African countries and two regions. IRI works alongside in-country meteorological agencies, ministries of health, the World Health Organisation and other agencies to bring climate knowledge to national decision makers.

How does it work?

ENACTS combines data from on-the-ground weather stations, satellite weather estimates, digital elevation models and climate reanalysis products to create high-quality, high-resolution, integrated datasets. This data is shared through country-specific online platforms known as “Maprooms,” which allow users to access and easily visualise ENACTS information.

ENACTS provides decision makers with various climate-related resources, including:

Reliable, high-resolution climate data spanning 30 years or more
Targeted information products
Training that is relevant to user needs, including training on how to use the different Maprooms.

ENACTS and its Maprooms empower users to:

Understand natural climate variability over different geographical and temporal scales, empowering decision makers to make informed development choices for improved outcomes.
Understand health sensitivity to climate to help stakeholders understand how populations and systems could be at risk to climate change and variability.
Improve the timing and scale of interventions to better protect communities from the adverse effects of climate change and variability.
Develop early warning systems to better protect communities from the adverse health and economic effects of extreme weather.
Encourage health policymakers and practitioners to work together with national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHSs) to bring climate-informed decisions into health sector decision making.

Learn more

Click on the flyers below to learn more about how the ENACTS initiatives are contributing to climate-informed decision making in Tanzania, Rwanda, Zambia, Ghana, and Ethiopia.

Countries involved

Country deployment: Mali, The Gambia, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Madagascar

Regional deployment: West Africa (AGRHYMET Maproom), East Africa (ICPAC Maproom)

Organisations involved

ENACTS is led by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, based at Columbia University. ENACTS is supported by the following organisations and programmes:

WISER Programme (DFID funded) supports the work of ENACTS in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Rwanda.
Funding from GFCS also strengthens ENACTS in Tanzania and is preparing to build ENACTS in Malawi.
USAID supports work in Rwanda.