Read the Report
In an effort to improve understanding of climate information for residents of Burkina Faso, Internews, a member of the Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) consortium Zaman Lebidi under the lead of Christian Aid, published a lexicon of weather terms in Moore, Gulimancéma, Fulani (3 native languages), French, and English.
The lexicon, which contains 517 technical words and terms in the language of experts in meteorology and climate, is a first in Burkina Faso and in the Sahel region. The document aims to make meteorological information more understandable so that farmers and craftsmen can make appropriate decisions to strengthen their resilience to the effects of climate change in this region of Africa.
More than two million people live in the Northern, Central North, Central Plateau and Eastern Burkina Faso regions, which basically has two seasons – dry (harmattan) and wet.
The National Agency of the Meteorology of Burkina, the Centre National de Recherche Scientifiques et Technologiques, the National Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation Council in charge of risk and disaster management in Burkina, and Met Office contributed to the lexicon.
The document not only includes translation of the terms but also the abbreviations of the terms in SMS language (telephone) for a dissemination of climate information through an SMS/IVR platform. The last part contains technical sheets on temperature and the seasons. The lexicon is being used by journalists, agents of the deconcentrated services of the State and producers who are sharing climate information in their environments.