Enhancing water and food security and climate resilience, improved access to climate services and analysis is needed, this message/aim/objective will be conveyed to agricultural communities. These can be achieved through providing accurate seasonal forecasts and climate predictions for smallholder farmers.

Since its establishment in 2017 following the decision of the Executive Office of the Council of Minsters responsible for Meteorology and Climate, under the League of Arab States, the Arab Climate Outlook Forum (ArabCOF) has been generating consensus outputs on seasonal forecasts twice a year and carrying out regional climate change assessments. Also the ArabCOF experts discussed climate information needed and meteorological services that are provided to different sectors.

Seven Meetings of the ArabCOF and Four sessions of the GCC-COF were held during 2017 and June 2021 under the objectives of Generating Consensus outputs on seasonal forecasts and carry out regional climate change assessments, Facilitating knowledge sharing,  Capacity building of the Arab Meteorological Offices to generate common approach to ArabCOF outputs, and identifying climate information needed by end users.

8th Arab Climate Outlook Forum (ArabCOF-8) &  5th GCC Climate Outlook Forum (GCC-COF-5) will be held virtually during the period 6-7 December 2021. Within this context, ESCWA and its partners the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the League of Arab States (LAS) are organizing a “Workshop on Enhancing the Capacity of Meteorological Services on the Needs of the Agriculture Sector”. In preparation for this meeting, ESCWA has produced a paper for identifying local climate data gaps and guidelines on the use of climate data for improving agricultural productivity for selected agricultural communities.

Representatives from various Arab meteorological offices and partners will present current and anticipated conditions in their region, as well as on climate monitoring and assessment of the current state of climate. Participants also will discuss the verification of previous ArabCOF climate outlooks and preparation of the upcoming seasonal forecasts for the entire Arab region.