The three-year Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction in Agriculture Project culminated with a Networking Conference on 4 and 5 February in Rome, hosted by the Italian National Research Council and the Italian Meteorological Service. Decision-makers and experts from 21 countries in West Africa used the opportunity to discuss project outcomes, examine continued needs and consider follow-up capacity development initiatives.
The Project, launched in 2016, addressed one of the highest priority areas for WMO Members – the development of climate services for implementing adaptation measures and disaster risk reduction. Its implementation specifically aimed to improve the development and analysis of climate datasets, the use of seasonal predictions and communication with users of climate information in West Africa.
Its capacity development module targeted the reduction of climate change impacts and disaster risks in the agricultural sector in West Africa. Using a mix of blended distance-learning and face-to-face training, courses focused on Climate Services for Disaster Prevention, Agricultural Services for Irrigated Crops, Methodologies for Climate Impacts Assessment and Communication with Users, and Agricultural Services for Rain-fed Crops. Mentoring, post-course sharing of knowledge and skills acquired by participants, and the packaging of the learning resources for use in future initiatives enhanced the long-term impacts of the project.
Led by WMO, the Project was implemented in collaboration with two WMO Regional Training Centres (RTCs): the Institute of Biometeorology of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-IBIMET) and the AGRHYMET Regional Centre (CILSS / ECOWAS) in Niger.
