Weather Forecasting Experts converge for a write-shop to draft an African Regional Climate Outlook Forum best practices document

Abstract

More than 20 weather experts from across Africa met in Windhoek, Namibia from the 22-23 November to identify best practices in the African Regional Climate Outlook Forum (RCOFs) processes. The write-shop event was convened under the auspices of the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) and the Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa (WISER) programme. RCOFs are organized by Regional Climate Centres (RCCs) in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), Global Climate Centres (GCC) and development partners. The aim of RCOFs is to provide consensus regional seasonal climate outlooks for applications in climate sensitive socioeconomic sectors for decision support for resilience building and sustainable development (ICPAC, 2016). The key thematic areas deliberated on included training and capacity building, consensus seasonal forecasting, funding mechanism and sustainability, communication and dissemination, engaging stakeholders and partnerships. The overall objective of the write-shop, experts agreed on an extended outline of the RCOFs best practices document, and created an early draft with content to be included in the publication, assigned roles and responsibilities, a drafting timeline and a publication dissemination plan.