30 May – 3 June 2022- South Africa

Background information

The First FA Stakeholders’ Workshop was focused on South Africa and took place virtually. It was comprised of Internal workshop (30 November – 1 December 2020) and external stakeholder workshop (9 December 2020) with a focus on related food security case study to incentivize a wider local participation.  The Second FA Stakeholders’ Workshop was debuted by a one-day General Assembly virtual meeting that brought together the FA consortium members, close partners, AB members, EU officers and H2020 sister projects coordinators. This was followed by a two-day virtual FOCUS-Africa external stakeholders meeting focusing on the case studies in Tanzania for energy, infrastructure, and food security.  

Third FOCUS-Africa Workshop  

The third FOCUS-Africa Workshop is planned to take place in a hybrid mode in South Africa 2022 to bring together the consortium members, close partners, advisory board (AB) members, European Union (EU) officers, and local stakeholders in South Africa and Mauritius to better understand the local needs and requirements for related case studies in food security and water. The workshop will happen from 30 May to 3 June 2022, and will be composed of Consortium only sessions and stakeholders sessions (open to everybody) sessions to cover both regional perspective for the whole project and particularly explore about local gaps, opportunities, and activities in South Africa and Mauritius.  

Objectives

The objectives of the workshop are summarized under two main categories of internal and external workshops :  

Consortium Workshop objectives:  

• Increase efficiency in the implementation of the project through face-to-face coordination meetings between all workpackages (WPs) and case studies (CSs) partners/ leaders; 
• Explore interlinkages and synergies between all different WPs and CSs of the project; 
• Explore other possibilities for research and innovation for all WPs and CSs; 
• Strengthen collaboration between local partners in the region, particularly in South Africa: WITS, CSIR, ACMAD, University of Cape town, Land Bank. 

Stakeholder Workshop Objectives: 

• Promote visibility of FOCUS-Africa project by showcasing the progress and challenges of the case studies in South Africa and Mauritius; 
• Understand and review users’ requirements, perspectives, and strategies for climate services delivery in South Africa and Mauritius; 
• Assess the status of the stakeholder’s engagement and synergies with the other projects, such as the H2020 Sister projects (Down2Earth & CONFER) and CLIMSA; 
• Expand the stakeholder network in South Africa and Mauritius; 
• Identify risks and lessons learned from 2020/2021 and COVID-19;
• Better understand end-users requirements; 
• Explore the opportunities for capacity building. 

Expected outcomes/ outputs 

• Identification of synergies and connections across all case studies for all WPs and CSs of the project; 
• Understanding of progress to date across the whole WPs and CSs of the project, particularly for the target countries and CSs; 
• Identified synergies and connections between the project with the other regional projects; 
• Evaluation of already adopted plans of research and innovation (RRI) for all WPS and CSs of the project, particularly for the target countries and case studies; 
• Refined users’ requirements and co-production strategies for the target countries and CSs; 
• Identified capacity development needs for climate services providers and end-users in the target countries and CSs; 
• Identified additional stakeholders in South Africa and Mauritius that are engaged in food security and water, respectively.  

Agenda – Monday to Friday, 30 May – 3 June 2022 

Day 1– Monday Afternoon (30^th May): Consortium workshop (Consortium meeting: WPs) 

Day2– Tuesday (31^st May): Consortium workshop (Consortium meeting: CSs) 

Day3- Wednesday (1^st June): Stakeholder workshop (Food Security case study in South Africa) 

Day 4- Thursday (2^nd June): Stakeholder workshop (Water case study in Mauritius) 

Day 5– Friday (18^th 3^rd May):  Consortium workshop (Consortium meeting) 

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