In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), more than 65 percent of the population derive their livelihood from rain-fed agriculture. This makes the rural economies in SSA especially susceptible to weather and climate. Providing decision-makers - from individual farmers, to agribusinesses, to government officials - with timely, accurate information on climate and weather variations helps inform decisions. Informed decisions can increase agricultural production and avoid harvest loss, thereby improving food security, raising agricultural incomes, and ultimately increasing the resilience of farmers to shocks and stresses. While climate information services (CIS) have been used with success in other regions of the world, they are used to a much lower extent in SSA. Even as investments in CIS in SSA are increasing, the generation and delivery of CIS in the region remains underfunded. To ensure these growing investmests result in improved rural livelihoods and sustainable CIS systems, objective evidence regarding the effectiveness of CIS investments is needed. Research is also needed regarding the socio-economic circumstances that constrain the use of such services in SSA, as well as business models appropriate for CIS production and delivery in SSA.