Evidence for Development at the Africa Hydromet Forum

11th September 2017

As part of our commitment to research and capacity development for poverty alleviation, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, EfD is participating in the African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology (AMCOMET) Africa Hydromet Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Forum, which runs from September 12-15, will bring together representatives from governments, public and private sectors, regional entities, development agencies and civil society to provide strategic insight to improve hydrological, meteorological and early-warning services to achieve climate and disaster resilience in Africa.

Hydromet services provide real-time weather, water, early warning, and climate information and data critical for growth and sustainable, climate-resilient development. Co-hosted by the African Union Commission and the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Forum will build consensus and momentum to modernise weather, water, and climate information services for sustainable development in Africa.

Celia Petty will be sharing expertise on behalf of EfD, as well as representing the Walker Institute, in two Clim-HEALTH Africa sessions during the Forum. Clim-HEALTH Africa is a multi-stakeholder initiative to guide and strengthen public health resilience in African countries and communities; providing scientific leadership, capacity building, research, and policy support. Clim-HEALTH Africa serves as the principle user-interface mechanism for engaging, guiding, and setting standards for the health community to access and use climate services in Africa.

On Tuesday 12 September, in the Clim-HEALTH panel session on ‘Developing Demand for Climate and Health Services’, Celia will be discussing developing the evidence base for demand-driven climate services to support an informed health sector response. On Wednesday 15 September, in the Clim-HEALTH side event ‘Climate information in the Health Sector’, Celia will speak about ongoing research and development of the toolkit on the mechanisms needed to integrate climate information in health services. This session will share experiences and summarise user-driven suggestions for how to make climate services more responsive to health sector needs in Africa.

For more information about AMCOMET and the Africa Hydromet Forum, please see https://www.wmo.int/amcomet/

For more information about Clim-HEALTH Africa, please see http://www.climhealthafrica.org/