 Thank you very much for introducing me. Good morning everybody. My name is Maiko Onkarwo, as you have heard. I'm the commissioner for meteorology in the Ministry of Water and Environment, Uganda, and also the permanent representative of Uganda with the World Meteorological Organization. I'm going to talk about the initiative in Uganda on how to improve early warning messages for better planning and season making through translation of weather forecasts in two local language in the country. As a preamble, Uganda lies astride equator in East Africa between 29.5 degrees east and between 4.5 and half a degree south. Altitude average is 1,100 meters. Uganda is not safe from climate change as it's manifested through increasing temperatures. The frequency and intensity of floods and droughts are also increasing. The most affected communities are those in semi-eyed areas like Karamoja and parts of Teso. Agriculture is the main state of our economy and contributes 21.5% of the GDP and almost exclusive is a rain-fed agriculture. So any change in the climate has an implication on the production of food. With climate change, we can't do business as usual. We need to change as well. And there is an edge now that if we don't change, change will change you. So we have got to change also and see that our people receive this information in the language they best understand. As you can see, our adult literacy rate is 73% as by 2010. But most people tend or enjoy to talk in their dialects and they enjoy better or they listen better in their dialects. English is an official language but day-to-day life people are talking their languages. So the role of the Department of Meteorology is where it's mandated to cut out the task of establishing and maintaining weather and climate conservation system network, collection and analysis of data and also production of weather and climate information to support social and economic development in the country. These are some of the products that we give. We have got past climate data, historical data. We have observed climate change signals, climate availability trends and also we have other statistics. Current states of the climate are also observed like the real time data is observed, information on evolution of the A&E, southern oscillation events are also observed. The state of the sea surface temperatures, then surface and upper air pressure winds are also observed. Among the prediction products, of course we serve the civil aviation with the aeronautical information. We give the general data weather forecasts. We give the seasonal forecasts. This is the one we normally translate into local languages. And then we also give climate change predictions up to 50 years. The Klamoja region I talked about which is a community suffering mostly because of this climate change. We also give a special weather forecast for them. That's the map of Uganda with the network of stations which we have. We have synoptic stations and also about 40 climatological stations which include hydrometrological and agrometrological stations. Why the initiative? By research the ACRA, that's the African Climate Change Resilience Alliance, in collaboration with the government of Uganda. It was found out that the majority of rural end users lack access and if they get this information at times it comes late and they may not be able to properly translate it into what it's supposed to mean. Then there's also an coordination and misrepresentation of the weather forecast. Some people would try to disseminate our weather forecast and in so doing they may misrepresent it. Then there's a general lack of trust in our meteorological information. People would prefer to use the indigenous knowledge traditional weather forecasts because it's mainly in the language that we better understand. So it was also found out that development planning at all levels lacked climate change information. So by finding from ACRA the initiative was meant to increase the usage of weather and climate information in season making processes by end users. Nation experts in their workshops downscale and interpret the weather forecast and develop advisory messages for all sectors. So translation in two local languages is now carried out and dissemination through local FM radios is carried out. Dissemination can also be done through meetings, through mobile phones and newspapers. This has been piloted in three districts and we are hoping to scale it up. What's the impact of our community level and what's the feedback from the rural communities? Understandable language. Rural communities and district staff appreciate the weather forecast in their local languages for the first time. They now feel a sense of belonging to the product which we give. Meteorology we used to think in a box but now we are coming out to reach on the end users and see that they understand exactly what we mean. Timely and useful. Communities mentioned that they now receive the information timely and that it was useful for them for the first time. Better preparedness and informed decision. Communities testify to have used the information to prepare ahead of the heavy rains and opening up water drainage planting short maturing crops. From the picture you can see meteorological staff conducting community assessment in two of the districts. The impact of national and institutional level. There is improved coordination among experts at national level. For the first time, meteorology experts invite other ministries, the media, research, the academia to discuss weather forecast and its implication. Usable and harmonized formats of the weather forecast. Different experts jointly interpret the weather forecast information and develop advisories per sector which are then translated in local languages and disseminated. There is also reduced misinterputation. The weather forecast as experienced before was being misinterpreted as I have said earlier. There is improved image and relations of the meteorological services. In the recent past people did not trust meteorological services. However, this initiative has opened windows for meteorology to interact with different stakeholders both at national and local levels. In some communities they have even invited meteorological staff to give live talks on radio about weather forecast and the climate change in their areas. Some local private FM radios have also offered airtime for the meteorological experts to go and explain the information to the people. Challenges. Their challenge is like the increasing special variability due to climate change requires expansion of the station network. This is a big challenge. The pilot project does not cover the whole country. As you know it is just a pilot so we need to scale up and cover the rest of the country. We have a problem of lost staffing yet we are using equipment which is still conventional and the services are not yet decentralized. So we are trying to go to automate most of our stations as we have got, as we are thin on ground with the staffing levels inadequate feedback mechanism from end users to the department this one is still lacking. Way forward we need to fundraise to scale up this initiative working with other development partners to support forward-looking planning utilizing weather and climate information. Using radio as a principle method of dissemination in local languages. We need to promote radio groups to improve dissemination and also train journalists in the district including at community radios. We need to synergize with key stakeholders including CSOs and private sector and strengthen climate modeling for medium and long term climate scenario to inform forward-looking decision making. As I conclude we know that climate change is here and is here to stay. In our nappas one of the pillars is to improve metrological services. So if we improve metrological services then we need to improve also the means of communication of this information to our people so that they can utilize the information better. Thank you very much for your kind attention. I will entertain a few questions. Thank you.