First South West Indian Ocean Climate Outlook Forum Warns of Low Precipitation Forecasts

The first South West Indian Ocean Climate Outlook Forum (SWIOCOF) was co-organized by Météo France, the Indian Ocean Commission (projet Acclimate) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). This first Forum built the capacity of meteorologists on the methods and tools used to develop seasonal climate outlooks, and tailoring them to the challenges faced by islands.
SWIOCOF took place from 24 September-2 October 2012, in Reunion, at the request of the member States of the IOC, namely the Union of the Comores, Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion/France and Seychelles. It was based on the countries' desire to develop seasonal climate outlooks adapted to the challenges specific to small island developing States (SIDS), such as those outlooks that exist for the Caribbean or Pacific regions. The Forum was open to neighboring countries as well, including India, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.
The Forum followed a high-level meeting on the implementation of the framework for climate services in Africa, which led to the adoption of the Addis Ababa Declaration on 30 September 2012. In the Declaration, signatories express their conviction that the global framework defined in 2009 by WMO will "enable Africa to develop a climate risk management strategy that takes into account the specificities and vulnerabilities of small island States."
Forum Documents

Source: IISD