NOAA and International Partners Participate in Third Indian Ocean Capacity Building Workshop
The Third WMO/IOC Data Buoy Cooperation Panel (DBCP) Western Indian Ocean Capacity Building Workshop will be hosted by the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) on April 16-20, 2012, in Mombasa, Kenya. The working goal of the workshop is to demonstrate the socio-economic value and benefits of new Indian Ocean Observing systems, such as the Research Moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction(RAMA) for reducing disaster risk such as from droughts and floods, managing fisheries, and improving predictive capacity for the Western Indian Ocean States. NOAA contributors will include representatives from the Climate Program Office, National Data Buoy Center, National Weather Service Office of International Affairs and Climate Prediction Center.
In addition to technical training on observations and modeling, highlights of the workshop will include the keynote address by the Republic of Kenya’s Minister of Environment and Mineral Resources who will discuss actions to mitigate piracy in the region, which was one of the goals included in the African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology’s Nairobi Declaration. A long-term scientific work program and an associated capacity building and training road map will also be adopted at the workshop.
In exchange for contributions to this year’s training workshop, NOAA is receiving twenty-two gratis ship days on the Research Vessel Algoa for the deployment and servicing of NOAA’s RAMA moorings. This is one of the terms per the Memorandum of Agreement NOAA signed with the United Nations Development Program’s Agulhas-Somali Current Large Marine Ecosystem Project one year earlier at the Second Western Indian Ocean Capacity Building Workshop. Later in the year, similar ‘resource-sharing’ partnership meetings will be held in Jeju, South Korea, in July and Chennai, India, in November.