The World Meteorological Organization hosted on October 18, 2022 a side event to present testimonials and milestones of the 20+ years of activities implemented by the APFM during the SERCOM-2 meeting.
The side event objective was to underline the impacts of the APFM in promoting and implementing the concept of Integrated Flood Management to WMO and presenting the way forward in the expansion of its HelpDesk. The main articulations of the event revolved around presentations on APFM 20 years of achievements and related activities.
The first presentation was delivered by the Volta Basin representative on the Volta Flood and Drought Management Project which is implemented in the Volta Basin countries jointly by APFM and sister programme IDMP. It focused on some of the challenges that hampered the implementation of the project such as the COVID-19 outbreak and travel restrictions for Project partners. Despite those difficulties, activities are ongoing for the current year and extended to the year 2024.
This articulation was followed by a presentation on the AWAKE project by the youth winner Graziela Olua. AWAKE stands for “Awareness and Knowledge about Early Warnings”, and its focus is to create learning materials about flood and landslide for kids and people with disabilities. The project which is implemented in Papua, Indonesia is promoted with stakeholders, communities, and NGOs to enable the successful implementation of the project.
The final presentation was centered on gender mainstreaming in flood management in West Africa and some important recommendations were discussed such as to ensure that gender is effectively taken into account in the flood risk prevention, preparedness and management activities.
This side event was also an opportunity to identify current flood management issues in WMO member countries and how APFM programme and Support Base Partners could potentially support the National Hydrological and Meteorological Services in the timely managing of flood events.
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