Victoria Falls — The 5th annual Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA 5) which opens here tomorrow promises to be the real launch pad for climate research in Africa, according to sources close to the organisation of the meeting whose theme is: "Africa, Climate Change and Sustainable development: What is at stake at Paris and beyond?"
Richard Anyah, Coordinator of the Climate Research for Development (CR4D) initiative says this meeting will mark a turning point in the initiative's activities because its first scientific advisory committee meeting has been convened for today, on the sidelines of CCDA5. He says expectations are high among African climate scientists, given the number of important outcomes expected from that meeting; the most significant of which will be deliberating on a framework for establishing a multi-institutional and multi-stakeholders platform for the co-design and co-production of climate information and services for development planning.
Another key post-CCDA 5 activity by CR4D will be the initiation of short-term pilot projects across all the regions of Africa. These projects will develop proto-types for improving sub-seasonal to seasonal climate information in partnership with ongoing initiatives within the regional climate centres and national meteorological and hydrological services, he assures.
Support for these projects is anticipated to come from development partners, some of which are already working with ACPC, such as DFID through their new WISER programme. Once the initiative gets fully operational, it will enhance ongoing and planned priority activities of ClimDev-Africa, that are expected to improve quality, access, and mainstreaming climate information and services for sustainable development planning. Climate Research for Development (CR4D) initiative is a mechanism for integrating the Africa climate research community (scientists and institutions) to deliver on priority end-users' and climate-resilient development planning needs in Africa.
The CR4D advisory committee is made up of a very diverse expertise from climate science policy, climate services and practitioners.It would be recalled that the last big milestone for CR4D was the Marrakesh (Morocco) meeting that was held during CCDA4 in 2014 when the key sponsors of the initiative (ACPC, WMO, GFCS and AMCOMENT) agreed on a governance structure for the CR4D initiative.
In February 2015 there were further discussions in Cape Verde during the third AMCOMET general meeting. This was also the official launch of CR4D and ACPC was tasked to set up a secretariat for the initiative, which started its operations in mid June 2015.
