Introduction

The Climate Research for Development in Africa (CR4D) Platform was launched to strengthen links between climate science research and climate information needs in supporting development planning in Africa. CR4D is an African-led initiative supported by partnership between African Climate Policy Center (ACPC) of UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology (AMCOMET), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), with the ACPC providing Secretariat services. CR4D is the outcome of the African Climate Conference 2013 (ACC-2013)[1] that was held in Arusha, Tanzania, which brought together more than 300 participants drawn from top African climate scientists, policy makers, climate service providers, and practitioners to discuss the state of African Climate science and existing gaps in climate knowledge. Participants at the ACC-2013 recommended the establishment of an African Climate Research Agenda for Climate Services and Development in order to advance new frontiers of African climate research, focusing on four priority areas:

• Creation of co-designed multi-disciplinary research to improve forecast skills and reliability
• Filling gaps in multi-sectorial and multi-disciplinary data sets for sector-specific vulnerability and impacts assessments
• Enhancing Africa’s scientific and institutional capacities and networks to undertake cutting edge user-drive climate research
• Fostering effective collaboration and interactions among climate science, services, policy, and practice communities in order to improve mainstreaming of climate services in decision-making.

The CR4D initiative is governed through the Oversight Board, the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), and the Institutional Collaboration Platform (ICP). CR4D-ICP acts as the General Assembly or Congress of CR4D-Africa and oversees the implementation of CR4D projects. The CR4D-ICP therefore promotes interactive and collaborative approach that brings climate science, services and policy-making under a coordinated multi-disciplinary network of expertise and institutions to collectively address user-driven research challenges while maximizing the opportunities presented by climate change and variability to socio-economic Development in Africa. This will lead to improved access, quality, usability, dissemination and mainstreaming of climate information/knowledge into socio-economic planning, which is critical for meeting Africa’s commitments under the Paris Agreement, Agenda 2063, as well as the SDGs. The ICP also ensures that CR4D priority research activities are demand-driven and participatory, highlights skills and experiences from diverse expertise and institutions, in a regionally balanced manner.

As part of the ongoing operationalization of CR4D, the Secretariat is now constituting the ICP in accordance with the founding statutes of the initiative. The CR4D-ICP is comprised of institutional membership, with a balanced representation from regional research institutes, regional climate centers (RCCs), development agencies, NGOs, Civil Society, Gender and Youth climate initiatives, and other key stakeholders in the climate enterprise.

Objective 

The main objective of this meeting is to launch the CR4D-ICP.  

The specific objectives are:

• Review of the ICP Terms of References (ToR)
• Elect the ICP-chair, who will also be a member of the CR4D Oversight Board member
• Review the 5-year draft CR4D Strategic Plan document

Expected Outputs 

• The key outputs of this meeting will be the launching and operationalization of the CR4D-ICP and the meeting report