Tanzania launches national framework for climate services
The United Republic of Tanzania has launched a National Framework for Climate Services to improve the availability and use of tailored weather and climate services necessary to strengthen resilience to climate change and extreme weather.
The new national framework is spearheaded by the Tanzania Meteorological Agency and embraces different sectors of government and society in order to increase coordination and facilitate cross-cutting action and informed decisions.
Tanzania is one of a growing number of countries which have established national frameworks for climate services, inspired by the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), which is championed by WMO.
The GFCS builds on the achievements from weather forecasting and improved early warning services of rapid onset hazards like floods, and seeks to promote longer-term climate predictions, from months to seasons to decades.
“The need to tackle efficiently the increasing impacts of climate variability and change in socio economic sectors comes with the imperative of increasing adaptation measures to meet unprecedented demands for clean water, food production, disaster reduction, energy and effective management of health burdens,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.
“This imperative will be hard to address under the current changing climate if countries do not adopt appropriate measures, new approaches and tools that would enable more effective climate risk management, and the production of scientifically sound information and services to inform planning, policy and decision making at all levels,” Mr Taalas told the inaugural ceremony in Tanzania on 21 August.
Tanzania’s Deputy Minister for Labour, Youths and Employment, Anthony Mavunde officially launched the National Framework for Climate Services at the ceremony attended by TMA Director-General Agnes Kijazi.
"Effective development and application of climate services allows disaster risk managers to prepare more effectively for droughts and floods; empowers farmers to fine-tune their planting based on seasonal climate forecasts; assist public health services to target vaccine and other prevention campaigns to limit climate related disease outbreaks; and help improve the management of water resources," said Mr Taalas.
“To produce effective climate service, there are a number of stakeholders involved from the generation of data, to data processing, generation or products, research, dissemination and communication. As we think of climate services, all these stakeholders have to be brought to a common space of dialogue, cooperation and collaboration,” said Mr Taalas.
The Tanzania Framework for Climate services, which was developed as part of the GFCS Adaptation Programme in Africa, implemented in Tanzania and Malawi from 2015 to 2017. A second phase of this programme, funded by Norway, has been approved for implementation in the next three years.