Overview
The collection, analysis and distribution of reliable weather, water and climate information— collectively referred to as climate and weather services—has the potential to greatly benefit efforts by African nations to reduce poverty, build resilience and adapt to a changing climate. For over 30 years, the international development community has made substantial investments in the procurement of weather, water and climate technologies, with the goal of improving weather and climate services for Africa. Nevertheless, today, according to the World Bank, “most hydromet services in sub-Saharan Africa are unable to meet current needs for weather and climate information, and offer only limited areas of transboundary cooperation.” In this report a new vision is explored to address sub-Saharan Africa’s weather, water and climate monitoring and forecasting needs. The presentation of this new vision begins with a review of challenges with traditional approaches for improving the delivery of weather and climate services. A new approach is proposed that provides Africa's least-developed countries with end-to-end systems that can produce and deliver early warnings and climate information that can save lives, boost productivity and protect the environment.
This new vision includes the deployment of advanced hydrometeorological observing and forecasting technologies, capacity-building and enabling policies that fortify the position of Africa’s National HydroMeteorological Services (NHMS) as well as the formulation of new partnerships between the public and private sectors. Creating a sustainable model for the delivery of effective weather and climate services across sub-Saharan Africa will require policymakers to critically examine the status quo and adopt this new vision for the implementation of this essential public service. This goes beyond the simple procurement and installation of new technologies, to an end-to-end systems approach. There is no silver bullet, but with effectively structured public-private partnerships, new technology and services, strengthened institutions, increased regional cooperation and continued capacity-building, sustainable solutions to providing climate and weather services are a realistic and attainable goal. Reaching this target will have a significant impact on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, protecting lives and building powerful resilience for Africa and beyond.