The central objective of FOCUS-Africa is to develop sustainable tailored climate services in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region for four sectors:

• agriculture and food security
• water
• energy
• infrastructure

The proposed co-production amongst end-users, climate scientists and sectoral service providers will ensure that the full value chain for the delivery of the climate services is effectively realised. This will be demonstrated by piloting eight case studies in six countries involving a wide range of end-uses to illustrate how the application of new climate forecasts, projections, resources from Copernicus, GFCS and other relevant products can maximise socio-economic benefits in the Southern Africa region and potentially in the whole of Africa.

An innovative aspect of FOCUS-Africa is to address the recurring sustainability and exploitation challenge of climate services in Africa. To achieve this, it will assess dynamically the socio-economic value of the proposed services during the development of the prototypes to better adapt pilot products to the local situation. End-users and service providers will be fully involved in the definition of the associated exploitation strategies using the innovative Flourishing Business Canvas to design business models that are socially beneficial, gender-sensitive, environmentally regenerative and financially viable. This approach will ensure that each of the co-designed climate product can be operationalised through WMO operational infrastructure (e.g. ECMWF, Regional Climate Centres and National Meteorological and Hydrological Services) in support of sustained country level service delivery on regional and global scales. 

Ultimately, FOCUS-Africa climate services are expected to become a fundamental part of sectorial adaptation strategies at different levels (from local to national and regional) and contribute to the implementation of Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.