Dawit Solomon (AICCRA Ethiopia Leader, AICCRA East and Southern Africa Leader) will deliver welcoming remarks. 

Robert Zougmoré (AICCRA West Africa Leader) will chair the first session of the second day of the workshop. 

This knowledge-sharing platform is jointly organized by:

• AICCRA East and Southern Africa
• Regional Africa Office of The World Meteorological Organization
• African Climate Policy Centre at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
• Intergovernmental Authority on Development Climate Prediction and Application Centre (IGAD-ICPAC)
• Agrometeorological, Hydrology, Meteorology (AGRHYMET) Regional Center

The main objective of this workshop is to provide a platform for the IGAD-ICPAC and AGRHYMET Regional Centre to exchange experiences and build on best practices and ideas along the value-chain of climate information services (CIS) in Africa, thereby promoting South-South cooperation.

Specific objectives are to exchange knowledge and best practices on:

• Objective weather and climate forecasting;
• Hydrological monitoring and forecast; crops monitoring and yield forecast using models;
• Practical practice on Onset Forecasting based on daily GCM data from the C3S data store;
• Regional Coordination of RPCA (Reseau de prévention et de gestion des crises alimentaires); PREGEC (prévention et gestion des crises Alimentaire), monitoring of crop saison (climate/weather conditions, phytosanitary monitoring, desert locust monitoring, crop and yield assessment).

The outcomes of the proposed initiative include identifying and documenting the best practices and technical arms of AGRHYMET and ICPAC, as well as enhancing the capacity of experts in Africa.

ICPAC is a Climate Center accredited by the WMO that provides Climate Services to 11 East African countries to boost resilience in a region deeply affected by climate change and extreme weather.

It provides services in various areas, including environmental monitoring, capacity building, climate forecasting, disaster risk management, water resources, climate information dissemination, agriculture, food security, and climate change on various Spatio-temporal scales.

The workshop will, therefore, provide an opportunity for the exchange of technical experts with valuable lessons, new analytical techniques and tools, and experiences, as well as 'best practices that can enhance the capacity of these regional institutions to provide better climate services.

The AGRHYMET Regional Center, a specialized institution of the Permanent Interstates Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), was created in 1974 in the aftermath of the severe droughts that affected this region in the early 1970s.

The mission assigned to the Center was to train personnel, provide adequate equipment for the meteorological and hydrological station networks, and set up regional and national multidisciplinary working groups to monitor the meteorological, hydrological, crops, and pastures conditions during the rainy season.

It can be considered the West Africa drought monitoring center, similar to its younger counterparts in Eastern and Southern Africa.

After 40 years of existence, AGRHYMET's scope of activities expends now beyond the geographical boundaries of CILSS member states to include the whole of West Africa, thanks to several initiatives it has been implementing on behalf of the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) on food security and environmental issues, including climate change.

Hence, through the organization of the planned knowledge-sharing platform between AGRHYMET and ICPAC, both institutions could share their best practices and knowledge in the areas of their comparative advantage.

Moreover, this knowledge-sharing platform helps professionals connect, perform better, and become stronger while saving money on training, capturing, and keeping knowledge.