Training for climate services in Tanzania and Southern African Countries
Our WEMC colleague, Data Engineer Meshack Mliwa, is overseeing the development of climate services for two of the important case studies that make up the EU-funded FOCUS-AFRICA project: Energy and Water in Malawi, and Food Security in Tanzania.
The case studies, eight in total, aim to provide examples of where practical and useful climate services can aid four key sectors of agriculture and food security, water, energy and infrastructure, for the region. WEMC is one of the 16 partners – WMO, BSC, The Met Office, EDF Group, ACMAD, CSIR, LGI, GCI – University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, The Climate System Analysis Group, Amigo, JRC, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Plan International, MNREM, IIAM – working closely with end users to ensure they have involvement with the whole process and the knowledge to sustain the project when it finishes in November this year.
WEMC’s specialist training for end-users
Meshack’s expertise in extracting and handling big data and developing tools for weather and climate services combined with his experience as a meteorologist at the Tanzania Meteorological Authority has enabled valuable input into the FOCUS-AFRICA project.
He has also been putting his personable skills and knowledge to good use recently, supporting the Southern African Development Community and Tanzania-based end users during a recent three-day training session he gave at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The training was designed to equip participants with Python Programming Language skills for use analysing climate data, and Meshak gave a demonstration of WEMC’s easy-to-use climate visualisation Teal tool.
Meshack’s professionalism rewarded with great feedback!
Meshack received some great feedback during and after the training session, a testament to his enthusiasm and imparting of knowledge!
“The training was so innovative, informative, and instructive; linking our minds to ideas, possibilities, and unforeseen circumstances of analysing climate and weather information by using Python scripts and the Teal Tool, which made access to climate information easy and accessible to everyone regardless of not having a background in science.”
“I anticipate seeing more of this training coming up because of its impact on people’s lives. If it continues, we will be able to align the current skills into our daily activities sooner or later.”
High-quality climate services
Training sessions, such as this one, help to deliver one of FOCUS-AFRICA’s objectives to address the current lack of local knowledge that can aid the mitigation and management of climate risks in Southern Africa, and the need to put in place localised high-quality climate services. This transfer of knowledge will, in turn, support the measures needed to address the impact of rapidly changing weather conditions in the area and the socio-economic benefits that will come.
Inspiring participants with newfound knowledge
The interactive training session left a lasting impression with the participants and Meshack received some great feedback during and after the training session. All participants were inspired with their newfound knowledge and wanted to share with colleagues back home.
Meshack and his dedicated WEMC colleagues, Alberto Troccoli, Penny Boorman, and Omari Hamisi, involved in the FOCUS-AFRICA project, reaffirm their commitment to delivering actionable climate predictions for the region. Their ongoing dedication, supported by the free-to-use data Teal tool, ensures sustainable efforts well beyond the project’s lifecycle.
