By: Fatoumatta Gassama & Sariba Manneh
The Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources in partnership with Global Framework for Climate Services,(GFCS),WMO-OMM and ECOWAS on Tuesday, started a two days validation workshop on the action plan of national framework for climate services in The Gambia.
The event held at the Metzy Residence Hotel in Kololi, is geared toward implementing plans and disaster reduction in the country.
Minister of Fisheries and Water Resources James F Gomez, said the provision and utilization of climate services is crucial for sustainable economic development, particularly in the content of changes in climate but climate services infrastructure are available and needs to be improved.
He added that the government of The Gambia is committed in reducing poverty and improved the wellbeing of the population.
He also said the challenges in improving disaster of communities in climate vulnerabilities risk and disaster is a key element of the strategy and solution and vision by the government of The Gambia
Dr Pascal Yaka,WMO/GFCS representative said these national framework for climate services would coordinate and enable institutions to work together to co-design, co-produce, communicate, deliver and make use of climate services for decision making in climate sensitive socio-economic sectors.
According to him, the framework would contribute to generate a consensus and awareness amongst stakeholders about the benefits of investing in weather, water and climate services and early warning systems to sustain the social and economic development of The Gambia.
“The framework would also create the platform for governments, regional organizations, donors, private sector, civil society, academia, technical community and gender advocates to discuss and also designed the future course in terms of provision, communication, using of climate information and services,” he pointed out.
Blessing Chika Chuke, ECOWAS representative commended the Gambian authority through the process toward the validation of priority action plan, revealing that the process has been launched in several countries, including trees action and has been validated in 2018/2019.
Lamin Mai Touray, Director and Permanent Representative of The Gambia with World Meteorological Organization Department of Water Resources, described the objective of The Gambia national framework for climate services action plan as consolidation and promoting the production, provision, access, effective application of relevant and easily understand weather and climate information and services to support strategic action plan.
According to him, a view has been set for the needs to improve the understanding of climate variability and climate predictions for way in which climate data and information can be analyses and provides to serve the needs of the society.
He noted that climate change has emerged as one of the most devastating environmental threats and a key challenge to the development in the world over.
He added that the framework will also enhanced local decision making process through improving access to global climate data and products.
