The implementation of FOCUS-Africa is striving to achieve them through planned activities & tasks:
1. WP3 advanced the research on climate information and the results contributed to the better processing and use of climate data. WP3 analyses the most recent climate models' information over the SADC region looking at high-resolution climate projections and predictability of seasonal & decadal forecasts over the SADC Region. The changes in El Nino Southern Oscillations in the future are expected to have great implications for the agriculture sector as well as the changes in rainfall extremes on crop growing season. A specific multi-hazard Extreme Climate Index (ECI) was derived in order to detect extreme events in the SADC region. WP2 furthered knowledge on the water-energy-food nexus a critical issue in Southern Africa amidst high climate risks and changing environmental, economic and societal conditions. Linking with WP7 on capacity building, partners have developed 2 digital tools to enhance and ease the processing of climate data for user needs, including a tool for verification and bias correction of seasonal forecasts and a tool for calculation of agrometeorological indicators. Other research under the project has demonstrated the utility of alternative methods of monsoon onset calculation in eastern Africa and the use of machine learning in seasonal forecasts. A joint webinar with CONFER & Down2Earth projects was held in 2021 on Understanding Seasonal Forecasts in Africa Q&A With Climate Scientists. In 2023 another joint webinar was held on The Future of Climate Forecasting, in which BSC shared their wok under the project on decadal climate prediction.
2. The project held 2 hybrid stakeholders' workshops in Pretoria & Maputo. These workshops provided the opportunity to meet & closely interact with the users groups involved these cases studies: CS1 (food security, South Africa), CS8 (water and agriculture, Mauritius), CS3 (food security, Mozambique). Additionally, climate services experts of the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) of the SADC countries were invited & attended the workshop, sharing their expertise and contextual knowledge of the countries with the project partners, to share results and expertise with the project & ongoing initiatives in the region. Each workshop dedicated 1 day to capacity building activities with the NMHSs experts, promoted and organized by WP7 and focusing on objective seasonal forecasting (South Africa) and agrometeorological indicators and tools (Mozambique). The completion of 6 additional targeted field trips to Mauritius, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, and South Africa has significantly deepened user engagement & have been key to gathering data for comprehensive socio-economic benefit analyses. Remote engagement with partners & stakeholders for each CS continued throughout the period as a way to validate and consolidate collected data. Users’ requirements and challenges in relation to climate services in food security, water, energy, and infrastructure sectors have been characterized through development of workflows for co-production processes. Development of workflows ensures that each of the trial climate services is planned with a clear pathway for delivery to the users (WP5).
3. FOCUS-Africa's work contributes to scientific knowledge on regional climate change, forecasting and climate services for the Southern Africa region.The analysis produced in FOCUS-Africa WP3 provides scientific basis for further analysis on risk-based decision making, effective adaptation and increase reliability of climate models to better characterise the climate processes. Finally, the consortium members collaborated in several publications highlighting the results in Southern Africa Region, related with extreme weather events. The publications included Verification of ERA5 and ERA-Interim precipitation over Africa at intra-annual and inter-annual timescales; and A Novel Bias Correction Method for Extreme Events. The list of publications can be found on the project webpage.
