Credit: Fernanda Baumhardt 
National consultations have taken place in the United Republic of Tanzania (7-9 May) and Malawi (9-11 June) as part of the GFCS Climate Services Adaptation Programme, which aims to build resilience in disaster risk management, food security and health. The meetings agreed on a series of measures to move forward with the Climate Service Adaptation Programme, such as the creation of permanent mechanisms to strengthen dialogue between weather and climate service providers and a wide range of stakeholders. 

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Credit: UN Photo/John Isaac
A new GFCS initiative is being launched for the Sahel as a direct contribution to the UN strategy for the Sahel. The initiative builds on existing initiatives in the region and will benefit from the support from the Norwegian Refugee Council, which will deploy a regional coordinator to Dakar as well as technical experts and national project managers.

Credit: UNEP
On 26-28 March a consultation was held in Senegal to bring together experts from ANACIM (Agence Nationale de l'Aviation Civile et de la Météorologie du Sénégal), stakeholders from the different sectors, key decision-makers and users. It facilitated the identification of appropriate mechanisms and networks to improve and sustain the flow of climate information for different users from the agriculture, water, health, tourism and energy sectors. 

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On 6 May, the joint WMO-WHO climate and health office became operational as part of the GFCS office. The joint office will support better use of climate information and coordinate the implementation of the GFCS health exemplar. 

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The new GFCS website launched in May provides a much clearer user friendly structure and flow of information. The website features a new section on projects with information accessible through a map as well as dedicated pages for each project. 

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The first session of the Management Committee of the Intergovernmental Board on Climate Services (IBCS) was held on the 15th and afternoon of the 17th of June  at the WMO headquarters. The meeting was attended by 21 members of the Management Committee, 5 alternates and 24 advisors/ observers. The meeting focused on reviewing the progress made in implementing the GFCS and the preparations for the second session of IBCS that will be held on 10-14 November 2014 in Geneva.

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A side event on "Helping Countries Deal with Climate Adaptation" was held on 6 June in conjunction with the Fortieth session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  The side event was co-organized by:  WMO, Global Water Partnership (GWP),  World Federation of Engineering Organization (WFEO), World Food Programme (WFP), and Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) and GFCS. The event focused on how to better support the UNFCCC process for national adaptation plans (NAPs) and it recognized the need for a closer linkage between GFCS and the NAPs.

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Credit: UN photo
A side event on "Fisheries, food security and climate services" was held at the Fifteenth meeting of the United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea (ICP). The side event was co-organized by FAO and WMO to promote awareness of the importance of climate information products and services for fisheries, both capture and aquaculture, whose contribution to food security is threatened by climate change.

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Recognizing the need to accelerate the recovery of the region’s large volume of invaluable historical climate records, governments met in Maputo, Mozambique on 21-24 April to establish the Indian Ocean Data Rescue (INDARE) initiative. The International Workshop on the Recovery and Digitization of Climate Heritage in the Indian Ocean Rim Countries and Islands also adopted a declaration and agreed to finalize an INDARE implementation plan.

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