The South African National Framework for Climate Services (NFCS) is based on the World Meteorological Organisation’s (WMO’s) Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) pillars, namely:

User Interface Platform, Climate Service Information System, Observation and Monitoring, Research, Modelling and Prediction, and Capacity Development.

The NFCS is designed to be user driven and to address the entire value chain for the production and application of climate services. The NFCS is aimed towards producing water sector specific products to promote effective Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and improve decision making in climate-sensitive sectors. These policy dialogues will introduce the NFCS and its implementation to the relevant stakeholders, specifically in the water, agriculture and food security sectors. It will allow for stakeholders to articulate their needs for sector-specific products and services to ensure that South Africa is adequately prepared to implement the NFCS in the water sector.

The outcome of the series of policy dialogues is to understand the current status quo of climate services, provide background information towards developing climate services programmes for water, as well as create an opportunity to foster collaboration between South Africa (SA) and the European Union (EU) partners through the SA-EU strategic partnership.