Ghana’s capital hosted the 3rd edition of the African Public Service Optimum Awards (APSOA) on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, which celebrates exemplary performances by senior public and private institutions across Africa.

At the evening gala, the Director of Meteorological Operations who received the award on behalf of the Director General of Agence Nationale de l'Aviation Civile et de la Météorologie (ANACIM) made a remark on climate change dimensions in our public programs and policies. Dr Ousmane Ndiaye accompanied by the Head of the Meteorological Information System service and colleagues from the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMET) dedicated this distinction to all weather users and partners but also ANACIM officers including those from the management of operations meteorological.

The African Public Service Optimum Awards (APSOA) aims of identifying and publicly recognizing exemplary performance by public servants and public institutions across Africa. Award winners is selected by a multinational Awards Selection Board, comprising 12 highly skilled and experienced experts on public sector performance across Africa.

ANACIM has in the recent past been delivering services to the public but also specifically to farmers and fishermen through text messaging, voice messaging in local languages, and community radio as well as social media. ANACIM has developed an early heat wave warning in collaboration with the national health department in Senegal.

All these services have raised public awareness leading to increased safety of lives and investments. ANACIM has also established a public private partnership with local startups to improve the delivery of climate services for improved generation of revenues, improve the service with new technology, and recover financial resources to sustain the service.

A debate on leadership in African public service preceded the award ceremony. In addition to ANACIM, the Agency for Development and Promotion of Industrial Sites (APROSI) has also received an award.

As part of activities leading up to the event, the Agence Nationale de l'Aviation Civile et de la Météorologie (ANACIM) visited Ghanaian meteorological agency (GMET) during the week of 3 to 8 June 2024. The visit was to exchange experiences on improving service delivery products and challenges including demand driven, coproduction, tailoring, delivery, and evaluation. During the visit, the Director General of GMET Mr Eric Asuman with his teams, Director of Senegalese meteorological service Dr Ousmane Ndiaye, and the chief of climate information services and the head of communication service shared experiences from Ghanaian expertise and on civil aviation services recovery and impact-based forecast.

They committed to develop a project proposal together, organize a workshop on economics of climate services, develop an exchange program for staff to mutually learn experiences, and the benchmarking of various products. The visit fell on the National Tree Day of Ghana which enabled the team from Senegal to plant two trees to symbolize this new south-south partnership.

Dr Ousmane Ndiaye receiving the award of Best National Meteorological
Service in Africa on behalf of the Director General of Agence Nationale
de l'Aviation Civile et de la Météorologie (ANACIM) at the African
Public Service Optimum Awards (APSOA) in Accra,
Ghana June 5, 2024. Standing in far right is the
Director Genenal of the Ghana Meteorological Service Eric Asuman.