WMO, under its ClimSA grant, organized a Workshop on Enhancing Data-sharing in the Southern African Region. The workshop is centered on the use of climate data as the foundation for enhancing climate services in the SADC Region. Three sessions were organized during 16-18 July 2024 to be attended online.
The workshop objectives were:
- Raise awareness by NMHSs and decision-makers in the Southern African region of the need to increase the availability of climate data and access by RCCs, including SADC CSC, and to accelerate the recovery and digitization of historical climate records
- Review technical aspects that may be harnessed to enhance climate data-sharing
- Make best use of the existing data sharing policies at national level and international collaboration frameworks such WMO Resolution 1, Unified policy for the international exchange of earth system data (Cg-Ext, 2021)
- Raise awareness of the existing collaboration mechanisms that support data-sharing between NMHSs and other entities such as the WMO High Quality Global Data Management Framework for Climate (HQ-GDMFC, WMO-No.1238) and the WMO Stewardship Maturity Matrix for Climate Data
- Agree on the way forward for the Southern African Region to enhance reciprocal sharing of data and products between SADC CSC and SADC Member NMHSs whereby SADC CSC shares data and products with SADC Member NMHSs, and vice versa
Workshop participants were:
- Representatives of NMHSs in Southern African Region/SADC CSC Members: Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe including Climate Service Information System (CSIS) Focal Points
- Representatives of SADC, SADC CSC and SADC CSC Technical Assistance Team (TAT)
- WMO Experts
- Other experts
- WMO Secretariat staff members
ICA&D presented on the benefits of data-sharing, how data can be protected and on the regional approach to data sharing including the European policy on Open Data.
Further documentation, including the slides from the presentations are available on this page.