Standing up to climate change related challenges has become a priority for Guinea-Bissau. This country is systematically listed among those most vulnerable in the world regarding climate change, due to its geographical configuration, which defines it essentially as a coastal region, put at high risk by rising sea levels, which constitute a serious challenge for socio-economic growth.

In this context, under the aegis of the Bissau-Guinean Meteorological Institute, and with the backing of the UNDP and the GEF, today the presentation and debate workshop concerning the Project Document "Strengthening climate information and early warning systems for climate resilient development and adaptation to climate change in Guinea" was held in Bissau. Technical consultancy was provided by EBD-Antea.

In his speech, the Deputy Resident Representative of the UNDP, José Levy, thanked everyone present for their participation and praised their engagement in Climate Change related questions. He pointed out that this project will be centred on setting up appropriate infrastructure for improving the observation and generation of climate related information and an early warning system in Guinea-Bissau. Furthermore, the project will engage in capacity building and integrating climate related information into local development plans and decision making procedures. In José Levy’s words, “Human development for all Guineans is not a dream, but an aim within our reach if pursued with dedication, professionalism and integrity”.

For his part, the head of the Meteorological Institute, João Lona Tchedná, acknowledged in his opening speech the technical and financial support from the UNDP and GEF, as well as the importance of the event for assuring ownership of all key actors. Further he stressed that “the project aims to bolster the capacity of climate monitoring, early warning and information systems to respond to climate-related disasters and to plan adaptation to climate change in Guinea-Bissau”.

In the course of the event, the individual components of the project document were presented and discussed, more precisely i) Justification and obstacles; ii) project strategy; iii) project structure; iv) basic initiatives (co-financing and technical integration); budget; v) institutional organization and implementation; vi) risk management, among other issues. Furthermore, the participants had the opportunity to debate topics in several work groups.

This project aims to strengthen the capacities in terms of infrastructure and human resources of the Meteorological Institute and of the sector of hydric resources concerning the collection, treatment and dissemination of data, which will allow not only to start setting up an early warning mechanism for populations, but to obtain and make available reliable data for informed decision making and planning.

The workshop was attended by the representatives of the Meteorological Institute, Environment, Agriculture, Waters and other sectoral departments, besides Civil Society and Private Sector representatives and international experts.