Paper short abstract:

In the Lake Victoria Basin, a consortium of researchers led by climate scientists at the University of Leeds and the Met Office - are trying to understand what future rainfall patterns hold for economic development in the region over the coming decades.

Paper long abstract:

The Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) programme aims 'to generate fundamentally new climate science focused on Africa, and to ensure that this science has an impact on human development across the continent.' In the Lake Victoria Basin, predicting the onset and severity of the rainy seasons into the future is critical for development decision-making at virtually all levels. In this paper, two development scholars, i.e. a social anthropologist (Ainslie) and a scholar of critical pedagogy (Walker) critically explore their interactions with the UK climate scientists leading the four year research project and try to make sense of these interactions and their import for East African decision-makers.