<p>Downscaling has been widely used in studies of regional and/or local climate as it yields greater spatial resolution than general circulation models (GCM) can provide. &#160;It can approached in two distinct ways: 1) Statistical and 2) Dynamical. &#160;Statistical downscaling utilizes mathematical relationships between large-scale and regional/local climate to transform GCM or reanalysis data to a higher spatial resolution. &#160;Dynamical downscaling comprises forcing the lateral boundaries of a regional climate model with reanalysis or GCM data. &#160;However, there is no set technique to select said GCM(s).</p><p>A comprehensive yet easily applicable selection procedure was created to address this. &#160;Using reanalysis data and/or observational data, the space-time climatic anomalies and the mean state of the climate are evaluated for the region of interest. &#160;East Africa was utilized as a case study and GISS-E2-H r6i1p3 was found to perform the strongest. &#160;This procedure cannot, however, tell whether the models can reproduce the key processes of the region. &#160;To examine this, the ability of the models to simulate the Indian Ocean Dipole were evaluated. &#160;It was found that higher ranked models were better able to capture it than lower ranked ones. &#160;Furthermore, to ensure that a higher ranked model yielded a better downscaling simulation, three 10-year regional climate model simulations over East Africa were undertaken, where they were respectively forced by the highest ranked GCM (GISS-E2-H r6i1p3), the lowest ranked GCM (IPSL-CM5A-LR r4i1p1) and the MERRA-2 reanalysis product. &#160;The simulated surface temperature and precipitation for Equatorial East Africa were compared with a gridded observational dataset (CRU TS 4.04). &#160;Results showed that the higher ranked GCM produced a better downscaled simulation than the lower ranked one, a result that was more evident for surface temperature than precipitation.</p>