Strengthening Capacity for Climate Services

The Intra-ACP Climate Services and related Applications (ClimSA) Programme has made remarkable progress in strengthening skills and expertise throughout the climate services value chain. Central to this effort was the development of a dedicated Capacity Building Strategy (CBS), shaped by the World Meteorological Organization’s WMO Competency Framework for Climate Services.

ClimSA implementing bodies, in close collaboration with partner agencies, including the African Union Commission (AUC), the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the WMO, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the National Observatory of Athens (NOA), the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Regional Climate Centres (RCCs), as well as the Secretariat of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) as the contracting authority, have worked together to design and implement the CBS. Each RCC rolled out a customised version of this strategy. A rich and varied programme of activities was delivered across regions to meet national and local needs, from hands-on, on-the-job training to preparatory sessions ahead of Climate Outlook Forums (COFs). This collaborative and targeted approach has ensured that capacity building is not just theoretical, but practical and regionally responsive.

By May 2025, the ClimSA Programme had significantly boosted expertise across different domains of climate services, training over 2,500 National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) staff and upskilling more than 20 RCC experts. It supported 58 Master’s and PhD degrees and professional certifications, while also generating 31 peer-reviewed publications, enriching both practice and research in the field.

Augmented Capacity at Regional and National Levels

Guided by their respective Capacity Building Strategies, RCCs not only delivered targeted training to NMHSs but also strengthened their own expertise through Training of Trainers (ToT) sessions. To foster long-term, inclusive development, master’s scholarship programmes were launched to support postgraduate students, helping cultivate the next generation of climate professionals. The impact has been notable: over 2,500 NMHS staff trained and more than 20 RCC experts upskilled.

At the African continental level, under the leadership of the AUC and EUMETSAT, a ToT workshop for RCCs was held in November 2024. The focus was on strengthening technical skills in system administration, forecasting and climatological analysis using the integrated PUMA and ClimSA station systems. A total of 59 experts from across Africa, including participants from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, DRC, Botswana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa, gained vital expertise in maintaining and operationalizing these advanced data systems. The workshop marked a significant milestone in expanding technical capacity across the continent’s climate service network.

JRC, in collaboration with the African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD) and the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC), organised regional and continental workshops to strengthen drought monitoring and early warning across Africa. Experts from national institutions were trained to use the African Drought Monitoring and Advisory System (ADMA) and the East Africa Drought Watch (EADW), tools that offer real-time drought tracking and enhance existing national systems. These efforts significantly bolstered capacity for anticipatory action and improved drought resilience across Africa.

In East Africa, ICPAC undertook extensive efforts to empower both users of climate information and technical experts across the Greater Horn of Africa. Through a series of targeted sessions during GHACOFs 54 to 69, over 260 users were trained in interpreting and applying seasonal forecasts, tailored advisories and climate products. Alongside user engagement, 182 staff from regional NMHSs - including 49 women - participated in specialised technical training. These included pre-COF sessions on seasonal forecasting, foundational courses on the Python-based Climate Predictability Tool (PyCPT), and hands-on training in using the Maproom and Climate Data Tool (CDT) for climate forecasting and product development. To deepen technical expertise at the national level, ICPAC hosted six climate professionals from Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda and Djibouti for intensive, in-house attachments. Remarkably, despite ongoing conflict in Sudan, two meteorologists from the Sudan Meteorological Authority completed their training without interruption, continuing to produce critical forecasts remotely.

With support from the ClimSA Programme, the SADC Climate Services Centre (SADC-CSC) has significantly strengthened national climate institutions across Southern Africa. Over 250 staff from SADC Member States received training (27 per cent of them women) in areas such as seasonal forecasting and environmental monitoring. A key achievement was a regional workshop on the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus, which highlighted the value of integrated approaches to managing climate variability and resources. Training also included the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) web portal, enabling real-time hazard reporting by SADC Member States.

In West Africa, the AGRHYMET Regional Centre has played a central role in enhancing technical capacity. Over 1,250 staff from NMHSs, including 214 women, and 22 AGRHYMET experts engaged in tailored training programmes. These were complemented by regional workshops focused on food security, water resource management and the operational use of CLIMSOFT DBMS and the ClimSA Station. Customised support was also extended to Burkina Faso, Chad, Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau and Togo for data migration and database training, helping to modernise their climate data management systems.

AGRHYMET also championed international collaboration and knowledge exchange. Experts took part in global trainings, including a ToT workshop on the ClimSA Station in Italy, mobile application development in Morocco and advanced forecasting techniques using PyCPT at International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) in New York. Technical staff were also seconded to AGRHYMET for in-depth attachments on climate monitoring, crop modelling, seasonal forecasting and numerical weather prediction. The Centre also supported PhD research grants for young African scholars from Niger and Guinea-Bissau, as well as four additional doctoral researchers and AGRHYMET staff working on the socio-economic impacts of climate variability.

Under the ClimSA Programme, the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) has trained over 400 individuals on tools such as R-INSTAT, Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA) in pre-CariCOF sessions and beyond, empowering national services to deliver climate products independently. Support is tailored to each country’s needs: in Jamaica, implementation is nearly complete; Dominica is actively building capacity; and in Guyana, where strong systems are already in place, support focuses on fine-tuning. This approach is grounded in detailed national assessments, such as the recent evaluation of Guyana’s climate observation network.

As part of the ClimSA Programme, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) has taken important steps to strengthen the delivery of climate services across the Pacific. A comprehensive assessment was carried out to better understand the needs and capabilities of Pacific NMHSs, guiding targeted support. A regional training on ACCESS-S, jointly organised under the ClimSA and COSPPac programmes, was held in Nadi, Fiji, in collaboration with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) equipping Pacific NMHSs with the skills to develop tailored agrometeorological, fisheries and tropical cyclone bulletins. Additionally, a workshop on climate data enhancement and analysis brought together NMHSs specialists, researchers and regional agencies to exchange knowledge and best practices.

Under the ClimSA Programme, the WMO has played a pivotal role in enhancing climate services capacity across Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Through strategic partnerships with RCCs, WMO has supported the training of technicians, engineers and researchers, including scholarships for postgraduate studies and professional certifications. Emphasis has also been placed on gender inclusion, with women actively participating in technical and academic programmes. WMO has also contributed to the development of curricula, the standardisation of training materials and the establishment of criteria for scholarship selection.

The ECMWF, a key institution in climate modelling and forecasting capabilities, has supported ClimSA stakeholders on Copernicus climate and atmospheric data products, combining theory with hands-on sessions on data access and use.

The National Observatory of Athens (NOA), a participant in the European Horizon initiative, has capacitated RCCs’ experts in climate services for renewable energy. As part of this effort, an internship programme was hosted at NOA’s premises, focusing on mastering the use of earth observation for the planning and management of solar energy.

A Special Emphasis on Building Communication Capacities

Recognising that forecasts must be not only scientifically accurate, but also accessible and culturally relevant, the ClimSA Programme placed particular emphasis on strengthening climate communication across its regions. In West Africa, AGRHYMET, with support from ClimSA, led a workshop for over 50 climate communicators, bringing together journalists, radio broadcasters and climate experts to enhance the clarity and reach of seasonal forecasts. Participants took part in simulation exercises using the PRESASS 2023 bulletin and explored best practices in simplifying climate messages for public understanding. In Benin, tailored training focused on sub-national dissemination strategies, demonstrating how forecasts can be translated into local languages and adapted to specific sector, such as aligning planting calendars or issuing health alerts for malaria.

In the Pacific, SPREP developed a Knowledge Brokers Training curriculum tailored for NMHSs. The training equipped staff with the skills to translate technical climate information into accessible, user-focused services. Eighteen staff members from Samoa’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, representing the Meteorology and Water Resource Divisions, successfully completed a tailored training programme on using Kobo Toolbox and Canva to improve climate service delivery. The training, delivered in partnership with the Australia Pacific Climate Alumni Network and the ClimSA Programme, led to a remarkable increase in public engagement, with one post reaching over 50,000 interactions in just 24 hours.

Supporting Master Scholarship Programmes for Students

The ClimSA Programme has made substantial strides in strengthening climate science capacity across Africa by supporting higher education and technical training. To date, it has contributed to the completion of 58 Master’s and PhD degrees, nine of which were awarded to women, alongside a range of professional certifications.

In East Africa for instance, ICPAC has established academic partnerships with institutions like the University of Nairobi, the University of Dar es Salaam and the Tanzania Meteorological Authority, supporting postgraduate training in climate science for 12 students, including two women, with five of them undertaking professional attachments at ICPAC.

At the AGRHYMET Regional Centre, two cohorts of students graduated from gender-sensitive training programmes. Seventeen technicians - including three women - completed a specialised two-year course in instrument maintenance and microcomputing, while 20 engineers, again including three women, successfully completed a three-year programme in agrometeorology. ClimSA awarded PhD-level research grants to three young African scholars (one of whom was a woman) to explore socio-economic impacts of climate variability. Two AGRHYMET staff members also contributed to these research activities by directly supporting providing direct support to four doctoral candidates.

In Central Africa, the AUC and ACMAD have played a key role in shaping the criteria for selecting Master’s level students, a critical step in advancing capacity-building efforts in climate science within the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). Their focus on transparency and merit-based selection is helping to lay the groundwork for a robust and sustainable training programme in the region.

In the Pacific, the ClimSA team is currently collaborating with the University of the South Pacific, Griffith University and Victoria University of Wellington to finalise the operational arrangements for scholarship delivery.

Advancing Research through Peer-Reviewed Publications

Under the ClimSA Programme, ICPAC has significantly advanced regional climate science by producing 29 research outputs, including 21 publications and eight new climate information products. Programme staff were lead or co-authors on 20 of these peer-reviewed articles, demonstrating a strong in-house research capacity and growing leadership in the field.

Thanks to ClimSA support, the AGRHYMET Centre has published four peer-reviewed studies focused on key climate and agricultural issues in West Africa. These include research on improving rainfall monitoring, assessing the impact of seasonal climate information on community resilience, analysing climate change effects on crop yields in Niger and evaluating the dissemination of climate services in Southwest Niger. Collectively, these publications reinforce AGRHYMET’s pivotal role in advancing applied climate research and supporting decision-making in the agricultural sector.

The Technical Assistance Team to the OACPS Secretariat has participated in six peer reviewed publication, including one on the comparison of multi-model ensembles of global and regional climate model projections for daily characteristics of precipitation over four major river basins in southern Africa and one on weather attribution to extreme weather events in eastern and western Democratic of Congo Republic.

Way Forward: Keeping the Momentum

As the Programme concludes, the challenge and opportunity lie in sustaining this momentum. Together with its broader efforts to engage stakeholders, enhance climate services generation and delivery, expand access to climate data and integrate climate considerations into policies and programmes, ClimSA is also supporting RCCs in becoming WMO-designated centres. These combined actions are helping to embed climate services into national and regional planning, strengthening resilience and promoting sustainable development across the ACP regions.