FOCUS-Africa, a new climate services initiative launched in September, hosted its first internal stakeholder workshop from 30 November to 1 December and an external workshop on 9 December.
At the internal workshop, Consortium Members adopted the workplans for eight Case Studies (Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia) and discussed the state of the project, identifying user requirements and challenges. Members also adopted the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) approach for the implementation of the project and produced a timeline of actions required to realize its vision taking into account gender equality, open access, public engagement and science education.
The external workshop concentrated on the case study on agriculture and food security in South Africa. Participants, including many end-users ranging from smallholder farmers to financial institutions for the agriculture sector, were challenged on the concept of the climate services full-value chain and co-production as well as on the role of science for user engagement. A main outcome of the workshop was the replacement of the traditional way of visualizing the value chain as a linear process by a more transdisciplinary vision leading to a new form of learning and problem-solving.
FOCUS-Africa is a four-year 7 million Euro initiative funded by the European Commission that aims to develop sustainable tailored climate services for four sectors – agriculture and food security, water, energy and infrastructure – in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The project is implemented by a consortium of 18 institutions led by WMO including the Tanzania Meteorological Agency, the Malawi Department of Meteorology and Climate Change and the SADC Climate Services Center.
For more information about the FOCUS-AFRICA workshop and upcoming events please click here.
