Developing and piloting the Climate Services Participatory Assessment Tool (CS-PAT): Lessons from Kenya and Nigeria and a roadmap for continued development

This report presents the development and Phase 1 pilot of the Climate Services Participatory Assessment Tool (CS-PAT), an emerging framework designed to support participatory assessment, institutional learning, and strategic investment in climate-service systems. Conducted in Kenya and Nigeria, the pilot sought to operationalize and test a practical assessment methodology rather than produce nationally representative evaluations. The study combined literature and document review, ecosystem mapping, stakeholder prioritization, semi-structured interviews, and thematic SWOT analysis. An initial mapping identified 150 stakeholders across the climate-services value chain, from which 67 were prioritized. Nine stakeholder interviews were completed across the functions of climate-information generation, translation, transfer, and use. Findings indicate that participatory engagement, co-production, and trusted local relationships are important strengths within the climate-services ecosystem. Persistent constraints include unstable financing, dependence on scarce technical personnel, insufficiently granular and incomplete climate data, weak impact measurement, and limited institutional continuity. Last-mile delivery is further restricted by connectivity and data costs, language and literacy barriers, unequal access to digital technologies, and the incomplete integration of Indigenous and local knowledge. Although feedback mechanisms are common, they are not consistently linked to documented changes in services or user outcomes. The pilot demonstrates that CS-PAT provides a useful structure for diagnosing interconnected institutional and operational challenges, but it is not yet suitable for formal scoring or cross-country comparison. Future development should prioritize direct-user representation, modular stakeholder-specific interview protocols, clearer evidence standards, complementary surveys, product and network tracing, and an evidence-based maturity model. With continued testing and stakeholder validation, CS-PAT could become a practical framework for strengthening climate services and guiding targeted investment.