HEALTHMET: Workshop on Climate and Health in Dakar (Senegal).
A workshop has been held in Dakar from 19 to 21 July, co-organized by the National Agency of Civil Aviation and Meteorology (ANACIM) of Senegal and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States, with participation of meteorological and health services authorities coming from four countries in the region (Senegal, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso), as well as national and international experts.
The objective of the workshop was to strengthen the relationship and cooperation between meteorological and health services of the participating countries, aiming to identify and develope weather and climate information products to assist decision-making by health authorities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are heavily involved through the Global Framework for Climate Services (MMSC) in the development and implementation of such Early Warning Systems (EWS).
The HEALTHMET project of Afrimet has been represented at the meeting by its coordinator, along with the regional expert and focal point of the project in Burkina Faso. Throughout its history, the project HEALTHMET has facilitated the training of technicians of meteorological services in the region on issues such as the detection of atmospheric dust and climate-health relationships, and has promoted the creation of working groups on national Climate-Health in Mauritania and Burkina Faso.
HEALHMET projet has been presented to the participants of this workshop and partnerships with NOAA and with meteorological and health services of the participating countries have been identified, with the common aim of promoting the creation of national SATs in the countries concerned, in line with the results of the Conference of Nouakchott.
HEALTHMET: AFRIMET participates in the 1st Africa / Middle East Expert Meeting and Workshop on the Health Impact of Airborne Dust.
This meeting, organized by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Programme for the Environment (UNEP), the European Agency for the exploitation of meteorological satellites (EUMETSAT) and AEMET, was held in Amman (Jordan), from 2 to 5 November, with the participation of representatives from the fields of meteorology, the environment and the health of 16 countries, together with international experts.
AFRIMET’s HEALTHMET pilot project has joined the initiative with the participation of representatives of the meteorological services of the two countries that have already launched their national Climate and Health Working Groups (CHWG), Mauritania and Burkina Faso.
The meeting has focused on assessing the state of knowledge on the subject, and on promoting measures to tackle the problem of pollution by mineral dust from the sanitary point of view.
The Healthmet project has been presented at the meeting. This pilot project, which aims to strengthen links and cooperation between the meteorological and health services in the countries involved, launched in 2011 the national CHWGs in Mauritania and Burkina Faso. After a period of inactivity, in 2015 the project is has approached the ClimHealth Africa initiative and the joint office WHO/WMO of the MMSC. Participation in this workshop is intended to be the takeoff of the re-launch of the CHWGs and the implementation of activities aimed firstly to evaluate the data and available resources and needs, on the way to the establishment of early warning systems for health services.
Spain leads the world prediction of dust and sand storms through the first operating center in the world recognized by the WMO. The Barcelona Dust Forecast Center (BDFC), created in February of 2014, produces and distributes daily predictions of atmospheric mineral dust for North Africa, Middle East and Europe. The Center is managed by AEMET and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC). These predictions are essential to establishing national early warning systems allowing the mitigation of the adverse effects of mineral dust.
During the workshop, the city of Amman lived an exceptionally intense episode of airborne dust. Data and forecast were discussed at the meeting.
You can find the presentations of Mauritania, Burkina Faso and HEALTHMET at AFRIMET documents’ archive.
Prediction of meningococcal meningitis incidence trend in Burkina Faso and Niger for year 2014.
It’s available in Afrimet’ files the prediction of meningococcal meningitis incidence trend in Burkina Faso for year 2014 prepared by the Working Group on Climate and Health from Burkina. Find the English version and French version.
More information on the method of work here
Creation of the Burkina Faso National Climate-Health Work Group
On the 15 and 16 of Decembre 2011 the workshop for the launch of the Burkina Faso National Climate-Health Work Group (NCHWG) was held in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), being Burkina the second of the countries participating in the project HEALTHMET that sets up the NCHWG.
Creation of the Mauritanian national Climate-Health Work Group
On the 28 and 29 of June 2011, the workshop for the launch of the Mauritanian national Climate-Health Work Group (CHWG) was held in Nouakchott (Mauritania) being the first of the countries participating in the project HEALTHMET, set up by CHWG.
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Strengthening capabilities to create links between meteorological, climatological and health services
In agreement with the Niamey Action Plan (2008), AFRIMET launched the Pilot Project for strengthening the links between meteorological, climatological and health services. The Plan was finalised in Niamey (Niger) during a workshop aimed at defining how interinstitutional Climate and Health Work Groups could be created in each of the participating countries: Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The workshop also aimed to propose a project plan to be sent to the Directors' Conference.
The Banjul Conference Action Plan (2010) approved the Healthmet project, with the aim of promoting National Climate-Health Work Groups' development. Two more countries were also included in the Project: Mauritania and Nigeria.
Previous activities:
- The Burkina Faso and Niger local Focal Points (Healthmet Project) attended the Climate Information for Public Health course at the New York IRI Summer Institute, from 17th to 28th May 2010.
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- The Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Nigeria focal points attended the SDS-WAS Products course in Barcelona (Spain), from 15th to 19th November 2010.
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