The eagerly awaited launch of the Climate Research for Development (CR4D) took place on the sidelines of the AMCOMET meeting in Praia, Cabo Verde on the 23rd February 2015.

Presiding over the programme's launch, Mr. Pa Ousman Jarju, chair of the Least Developed Countries Group (LDC) and The Gambia Minister of Environment, Climate Change, Water Resources, Parks and Wildlife underscored the central role climate research plays in informing development and policy formulation in Africa.

He called on the initiative to urgently address critical development sectors including agriculture, energy and water resources. On disaster risk reduction, the minister noted that climate information and climate information services are robust approaches for mitigating disaster risk.

On the governance structure of the CR4D programme, Dr. Fatima Denton, Special Initiatives Director at ECA noted that the perfect alignment of research, policy and the CR4D initiative will make good business and operational sense as the programme is nested at ACPC with oversight from AMCOMET and the rest of the ClimDev-Africa continental institutions, notably AUC and ADB. Dr. Joseph Intsiful, a senior climate science expert at ACPC advocated for a CR4D programme that is used to inform development, policy and decision making.

Mr. Elijah Mukhala from the WMO Regional Office in Nairobi reaffirmed WMO's continued support to African initiatives such as CR4D, the global weather climate services, and the drafting of the Africa Ministerial Conference on the Meteorology (AMCOMET) strategy document.  Full Article