Enhancing Climate Information Systems for Resilient Development in Sierra Leone

Rising sea level is expected to lead to a range of challenges for the 10 per cent of Freetown’s population that reside in high-risk climate areas. Shoreline recession, rising water tables, and waterborne diseases are expected to intensify, leading communities to move inland in search of more stable living conditions. This, in turn, will put pressure on the forest resources and make the communities more exposed to landslides and floods due to the high elevation in relocation areas. A lack of functional agency’s dedicated to hydrometeorological and disaster management services, means that these challenges are not being addressed properly in Sierra Leone, which is expected to hurt the country’s ability to transition to a more low-emission and climate-resilient pathway. 

The project will enhance Sierra Leone’s resilience to natural disasters by establishing an efficient Multi-Hazard Impact-based Forecasting and Early Warning and Early Action System, to train and better equip local climate agencies’ ability to predict and plan for future extreme weather events based on robust climate information. An evidence-based approach will enable decision-makers to adapt better and more efficiently to changing climate patterns and rising sea levels. A transformational change of the country’s approach to climate risk will enable developers to access specific impacts on various sectors and geographical locations to better protect the most at-risk communities in Sierra Leone.