Company Announcement - The Technical Task Force on the Implementation and Resource Mobilisation Plan of the Integrated African Strategy on Meteorology, (Weather and Climate services) resolves to streamline the continental “Plan” to be in synergy with the Sub-regional and National Strategies, in alignment with Members’ interest and WMO’s set objectives.

This was part of the decisions reached at its meeting in Geneva, on 11 June 2015, Switzerland, on the margins of the 17th Congress of the World Meteorological Organization held from 25 May -12 June 2015. The Technical Task Force strongly supported the development of National Strategic Plans of the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in Regional Association 1 (RA1, Africa) and agreed to host the Regional Workshops programmes in the five designated sub-regional centres in the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in liaison with Regional Climate Centres, for the mutual benefits of all Members.

Part of the objectives of the Task Force, was to put in place an enabling environment for resource mobilization efforts and to gather adequate resources required for the implementation of the Plan for the Integrated African Strategy on Meteorology (weather and climate services) through to 2025. The Task Force roadmap to implement the Plan for the Integrated Strategy is predicated upon concrete ways to enhance the delivery of weather and climate services and strengthen the continent's ability to generate and offer timely and effective services to enable response to adverse impacts of climate change. In order to achieve this, the Task Force identified five key pillars in the Integrated Strategy for action, which include: (a) Increase political support and recognition of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and related Regional Climate Centres; (b) Enhance weather and climate service delivery for sustainable development; (c) Improve access to meteorological services in particular for Marine and Aviation Sectors; (d) Support the provision of weather and climate services for climate change adaptation and mitigation; and (e) Strengthen partnerships with relevant institutions and funding mechanisms.

The Task Force believes that the inclusion of all the above pillars in the roadmap will help in the realiasation of the initiatives and the implementation of existing projects in the Flagship Programmes, defined under the auspices of the Integrated African Strategy on Meteorology (Weather and Climate Services).
The meeting further looked into the demands and needs of the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) to the end of 2015, and viewed the rationale for the WMO Integrated Global Observing System (WIGOS) at the national levels. It strongly advised on the need to develop National Strategic Plans for NMHSs by the end of the year in order to realise benefits at the national level.

The forum at the end called on the Members of the African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology (AMCOMET) to explore ways of creating visibility for WIGOS at the political level, drawing on the importance of weather/climate observing systems and the impact of increased data availability on improved weather/climate forecasting; and leverage WIGOS as the technical implementing arm of the AMCOMET Strategy for the observing system.