To: 04/09/2009
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Tunis, 28 August 2009 - The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group will participate in the Third World Climate Conference (WCC-3), organized by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) from 31 August to 4 September 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland. The theme of the conference, "Climate Prediction and Information for Decision-making", is borne out of the need to provide a framework that would enable meteorological agencies to move from simply providing climate data to providing integrated climate services to support adaptation to climate variability and change in sectors that contribute to socio-economic development such as agriculture and food security, forestry, energy, water, health, urban and rural settlements, infrastructure, trade and transport.
Nowhere is this more pertinent than in Africa, where climate change poses a serious threat to poverty reduction and the achievement of sustainable development. The limited capacity to generate and use appropriate climate information has been identified as a major impediment to addressing climate change concerns in the continent.
The AfDB's commitment to addressing climate change concerns is captured in the recently adopted Climate Risk Management and Adaptation Strategy (CRMA), which aims at assisting Regional Member Countries (RMCs) to mainstream climate change information in the national developmental planning processes. Considering the importance of climate information in achieving this goal, the Bank together with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the Commission of the Africa Union is supporting the Climate for Development in Africa programme (ClimDev-Africa) that aims at strengthening the capacities of Regional and National Meteorological and Hydrological Services as well as decision makers to bridge the gap between climate services and development priorities.
The AfDB will seize the occasion for advocacy on the need to revamp Africa's Regional and National Meteorological Services to deliver on their mandates.
Contacts
Yolanda Teresa Nunes-Correia