AMCOMET Africa Hydromet Forum 2017

We, as CIAT, were invited to attend the Africa Union (AU)'s Hydromet Forum took place from September 12-15, 2017. It was at the headquarters of AU commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The aim of the forum was to modernize the weather, water and climate information services and data in Africa. It was a high level official meeting where all government diplomats and ministries attended, but also various academia, private organizations, innovators participated. 

Hydromet (i.e. hydrological and meteorological) services is a key for improving Africa's resilience to climate change, natural disasters, save live and increase investment. It was a great pleasure to attend the event, and also promising AU in collaboration with world bank seems at the right track in this. Lots of information is available in the World bank website.

First the overview of the conference can be seen from this YouTube:

Some background information about the forum here , here and here.

Tracking the progress of hydrological understanding

This paper by Sivapalan and Blöschl is accepted in journal of WRR, seems very demarcating the track of hydrology as a subject. I didn't read it yet, but will do soon. I believe, in addition to working on the dots of scientific discovery, which is really essential, connecting these dots and looking forward for providing solution for grand global challenges in hydrology is a key. It is also important that those experts working in the subject for decades provide guidance on the track and direction of researches agenda. As the Big bang Theory's (the TV series, not the real) Sheldon Cooper said it once, "I never said that you were not good at what you do. It's just that what you do is not important." So it is energy and time saving that seasoned scientists direct the early scientists what is worthwhile to spend money and time!!!   Please find the paper here. And one more thing, now we are in the Co-evolution era where "big data" play a key role.

What can research offer for the Government of Ethiopia achieve its land restoration and Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) goals

Some times ago, I have been asked to present what I do as researcher can contribute for the development of Ethiopia, and below is how I described research contributes and guidance for government policy, particularly to land restoration and Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) strategy of Ethiopia. Please click here to open the whole presentation.