Climate Services Centre

The SADC Climate Services Centre provides operational, regional services for monitoring and predicting extremes in climate condition. The Centre develops and disseminates meteorological, environmental and hydro-meteorological products. The Centre’s products contribute to improved disaster risk management in the region, and help to ensure Member States are better prepared for weather and climate disasters, conservation and protection of natural resources.

The Climate Services Centre was established in 1990 as the Drought Monitoring Centre. There are four such centres covering the whole of Africa, with the SADC Climate Services Centre being the only one in the SADC region. Being a SADC programme, the Centre falls within the Infrastructure and Services (I&S) Directorate and is co- located with Botswana Meteorological Services.

The Centre provides training in climate prediction for personnel in the National Meteorological/Hydrological Services (NMHSs). Training also covers the end- users in the various weather –sensitive economic sectors such as agriculture, health, energy, water resources management and transport in the region in application of the climate products and services.

The Centre continues to maintain a unique partnership with research scientists, universities, national, regional and international climate centres worldwide. The Centre has enjoyed in-kind and funding support from many cooperating partners. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Meteorological Organisation (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 Drought Monitoring Centre (precursor to the Climate Services Centre) at various times since its inception.

These partnerships have also made it possible for the Climate Services Centre to carry out programme activities such as attachment of SADC Visiting Scientists to the Centre and to run workshops, including the Southern Africa Regional Climate Outlook Forum (SARCOF).

Key Result Areas

1. Enhancement of the data processing facilities at the CSC through the development of specifications and the procurement and installation of hardware equipment and software;
2. Updating and expanding the present regional data bank at CSC through systematic collection, processing and archiving of data from the participating countries and relevant institutions;
3. Adapting and developing new methodologies in climate monitoring, seasonal weather forecasting and applications climate information and prediction services;
4. Preparing on a regular and timely basis relevant products and advisories on drought, floods, etc.;
5. Disseminating on a regular and timely basis relevant products and advisories on climate variability;
6. Producing and updating technical operational manuals for the preparation of climate monitoring, prediction and application products for use by SADC National Meteorological/Hydrological Services and other SADC structures such as Regional Early Warning Unit, Water Sector, Disaster Management Unit etc;
7. Providing guidance to the participating countries;
8. Collecting, processing, analysing and archiving all relevant environmental data, including climatological, hydrological and agro meteorological data;
9. Preparing and publishing climatic atlases;
10. Producing specialised maps to show the magnitude, extend and probability of occurrence of hazardous weather phenomena such as drought, floods and tropical cyclones;
11. Participating in the global and regional climate variability and change workshops;
12. Participating in the assessment and investigation of climate change of the sub-region;
13. Transferring of information within the participating countries on issues of climatic change and its impact;
14. Identifying the trainees for short-term courses and attachments at the CSC and other relevant advanced Centres and implement the fellowship programmes;
15. Implementing specialised training courses, seminars and workshops in co-operation with the relevant training institutions;
16. Managing and organising the Southern Africa Regional Climate Outlook Forum process;
17. Providing advice and guidance to the participating countries on the establishment and strengthening of monitoring and forecasting capabilities for droughts, floods etc., at the national and regional level; and
18. Develop skills of the experts of the participating countries through workshops, seminars and on-the-job training.