The central objective of FOCUS-Africa is to develop sustainable tailored climate services in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region for four sectors: agriculture and food security, water, energy and infrastructure.
The proposed co-production amongst end-users, climate scientists and sectoral service providers will ensure that the full value chain for the delivery of the climate services is effectively realised.
This will be demonstrated by piloting eight case studies in six countries involving a wide range of end-uses to illustrate how the application of new climate forecasts, projections, resources from Copernicus, GFCS and other relevant products can maximise socio-economic benefits in the Southern Africa region and potentially in the whole of Africa.
An innovative aspect of FOCUS-Africa is to address the recurring sustainability and exploitation challenge of climate services in Africa.
End-users and service providers will be fully involved in the definition of the associated exploitation strategies using the innovative Flourishing Business Canvas to design business models that are socially beneficial, gender-sensitive, environmentally regenerative and financially viable.
An approach that ensures that each of the co-designed climate product can be operationalised through WMO operational infrastructure (e.g. ECMWF, Regional Climate Centres and National Meteorological and Hydrological Services) in support of sustained country level service delivery on regional and global scales.
FOCUS-Africa climate services are expected to become a fundamental part of sectorial adaptation strategies at different levels (from local to national and regional) and contribute to the implementation of Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.
We have identified eight case studies in the energy, food security, water and infrastructure sectors of the SADC region – to provide a range of examples where climate service delivery can be successfully implemented.
The resulting tailored climate services cover the full value-chain, whereby each case study is contributed by a research partner, a service provider partner and an end-user.
FOCUS-Africa was inspired by the environmental commitment of world leader Nelson Mandela, who in 2013 said:
“Our people are bound up with the future of our land. Our national renewal depends upon the way we treat our land, our water, our sources of energy, and the air we breathe.
… Let us restore our country in a way that satisfies our descendants as well as ourselves.”
We aim to become the main reference for all future climate service projects in the SADC region by advancing the science of climate services and producing effective climate service delivery.
FOCUS-AFRICA will become a repository for knowledge and tools necessary in the development of practical and useful climate services to better tackle the risks of climate change.
FOCUS-Africa brings together 14 strong partners across Europe and Africa. The project consortium unites an excellent mix of research institutions, international organisations involved in implementing the Climate Services Information System pillar of GFCS, service providers, industry end-users and social scientists to address the full-value chain of climate services delivery.
