SADC Climate Services Centre
Introduction
The SADC Climate Services centre (CSC), formally Drought Monitoring Centre (DMC) was established in 1990 as part of the initiative of African governments and the cooperating partners to combat perennial calamities arising out of the recurrent extremes of climate variations. Exhaustive studies had shown that extremes in climate variation oftentimes affected many countries of a region simultaneously. Thus a regional approach to combating the negative impact of these extremes in climatic variations was deemed best. Dealing with regional rather than single-country level had better returns than national level. Thus two DMCs were formed for 22 Eastern and Southern Africa countries with centres in Nairobi and Harare, respectively. Elsewhere in Africa was Agrhymet. The principal goal of the DMCs are to contribute to the reduction of negative impacts of adverse weather and climate conditions such as drought, floods and other extreme events on sustainable socio-economic development, and to the rational use, conservation and protection of national resources in the IGAD and SADC regions. There are four such centres covering the whole of Africa, with SADC CSC being the only one in the SADC region. These centres have contributed immensely in the mitigation of negative impacts of adverse climate to many countries over the years.
The main target beneficiaries are the end-users who will apply climate and hydro-meteorological information and products in the various weather-sensitive economic sectors such as agriculture, health, energy, water resources management, disaster management, transport, etc. Decision-makers and policy-makers in various government departments and NGOs will also be expected to use the products and services to devise strategies for mitigating the impacts of climate extremes. Other beneficiaries include regional specialized SADC institutions.
The purpose of the SADC CSC is to ensure that a subregional mechanism for monitoring and predicting extremes in climate condition is operational. The CSC carries its mandate through development, generation and dissemination of meteorological, other environmental and hydro-meteorological products. The products have also made valuable contribution to increasing the region's disaster preparedness for and efficient management of weather and climate-induced calamities which constitutes more than 80% of all natural disasters worldwide. It trains personnel from principally the SADC national Meteorological/Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in climate prediction and the user-communities in the region in application of climate products and services for optimum socio-economic development which is highly sensitive to vagaries of weather and climate.
Since its establishment, the SADC CSC has continued to provide services and outreach products in weather and climate monitoring and prediction for the benefit of the SADC Member States and regional and international institutions. In particular those in programmes of Early Warning for Food Security, Disaster Preparedness, Health and Water Management Sectors. For instance, the Southern Africa Regional Climate Outlook Forum (SARCOF) products issued in during pre-season, August/September and subsequent updates from CSC and collaborating partners consistently indicate with fair accuracy rainfall performances throughout the season across SADC.
CSC continues to provide guidance in the dissemination and communication of climate information through various channels, notably the media. This has been made more effective through the nascent SADC-Network of Climate Journalists. The previous SARCOFs and subsequent ones have been hailed as success stories in the region. It is also important to note that the SARCOF was a pioneering effort for the successful Regional Outlook Forums that have become permanent features of global climate programmes.
Over the years, the CSC has also maintained a unique partnership with research scientists, universities, national, regional and international climate centers worldwide. The Centre has enjoyed in-kind and funding support from many cooperating partners. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), World Bank, Agencies of the United States of America such as National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration- Office of Global Programmes (NOAA-OGP) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Kingdom of Belgium and others, have funded the DMC at various times since its inception. These partnerships have also made it possible for the CSC to carry out programme activities such as attachment of SADC Visiting Scientists to the Centre and to run workshops, including SARCOFs.
The central role played by WMO for the success of CSC since its inception has enabled the Centre to fulfill its objectives, towards the realization of its goals as per its mandate of generating and disseminating vital climate information and products to SADC Member States, for the benefit of their planning and decision making processes for sustainable socio-economic development. Due to the successes scored in its operation new institutions would like to forge partnerships with CSC.