Title
Introduction
The WISER knowledge exchange series of workshops have been held under the auspices of the WISER programme, and have brought together African RCCs with the intention of identifying the best practices in the RCOFs processes. The outcome of the RCOFs knowledge exchange workshops convened by ACPC earlier in the year, has led to a rich collection of material consisting of procedures, lessons and practices that RCCs utilize in producing consensus seasonal forecasts, organizing RCOFs, engaging stakeholders and seeking their feedback. While the knowledge shared is already benefiting the RCC focal persons who have participated, ACPC would like to support the compilation of this knowledge into a document that can serve as a reference by all RCCs.
To package the knowledge shared by RCCs in the foregoing events, a write-shop is organized on the 22-23 November 2018 in Windhoek, Namibia. The event will precede the 4th Session of the African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology (AMCOMET) bureau meeting.
Procedures and practices applied by the RCOFs to both produce consensus seasonal forecasts and publicize them vary. While most of the RCOFs face similar challenges, especially related to engaging stakeholders, dissemination and uptake of the seasonal forecasts they produce, some RCOFs have been operational for many years and thus have lessons and experiences that can help other RCOFs avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’.
The RCCs RCOFs partnership is geared towards easing coordination of Climate Information Services activities in Africa and to support capacity enhancement of African Regional Climate Centers (RCCs), under the auspices of the Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa (WISER). This event will be attended by representatives of African RCOFs community and weather experts from RCCs and RECs, as members of the knowledge exchange and partnership community of practice.
Objectives
The main objective of the African RCOFs write shop event is to collate and organize the knowledge gathered so far in the knowledge sharing events, towards producing a publication that can serve as a reference by RCCs in organizing RCOFs. Specifically, the event will undertake the following tasks:
- Produce a structure for the best practices reference publication;
- Consider content contributed by different RCCs and NMHSs, and gain consensus on the material to be included in the document;
- Assign editing and peer review responsibilities for each chapter;
- Agree on the timeline and modalities for producing the publication;
- Produce a communications and dissemination plan for the reference document.
Expected Results
- Outline of the RCOFs best practices document.
- An early draft with content to be included in the publication.
- Assigned roles and responsibilities, timeline and publication dissemination plan.
Structure
Each of the RCCs will present the material they consider to be best practice from their experience of organizing one or more RCOFs. This material should be organized into the following three categories:
- Modalities, procedures, experiences and best practices in developing consensus seasonal weather forecasts;
- The best practices for arranging and organizing RCOFs meetings and mobilizing stakeholders to participate; and
- Achieving buy-in of seasonal weather forecasts, encouraging uptake and seeking feedback from stakeholders across development sectors.
The second part of the write shop will be three breakout sessions to consider the content available for each of the RCOFs phases, and to prioritize the material for inclusion in the reference publication.
Some members of the RCOFs knowledge partnership may have opportunity to participate in RA- I WIGOS Workshop on Automatic Weather Station (AWS) networks: strengthening and modernizing observing systems in Africa meeting on the 19-21 November 2018 (by invitation by WMO/AMCOMET).
Participants
Focal persons from African RCCs, RECs, NMHSs and WMO/AMCOMET have been the members of the RCOFs knowledge exchange partnership and will participate in the write shop.