Alternative inclusive approaches for improving climate information services and decision-making in Harare, Zimbabwe

City-scale climate information is needed to inform policy, decision-making and climate action in the context of development agendas like Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Sendai Framework of Disaster Risk Reduction, New Urban Agenda and the Paris Agreement. Traditional approaches in climate services are often top-down and inadequate in meeting the needs of stakeholders in urban areas like African cities. To enhance the provision of relevant climate information, it is important to understand the context of the urban environment in question and decision-making processes. Researchers from the FRACTAL project used participatory, transdisciplinary co-production approaches to understand the context of Harare and to investigate perceptions and values that underpin decision-making in the water sector. These were tied to historical trends in climate and hydrological flows as well as narratives of future climate and hydrological scenarios to draw timely, relevant information for policy, and practice implementation and for building resilience in the city. Lessons learnt, which are applicable to similar African cities, show the importance of understanding decision-making in providing a context to build on for distilling, improving and mainstreaming climate information services and that engagement processes are useful in building sustained working relationships and trust. (198 words).