From 12–15 May 2025, three staff members from Météo Madagascar, all of whom are supported by WMO as part of ACACIA, took part in a regional training and workshop organised by the REPRESA (Resilience and Preparedness to Tropical Cyclones across Southern Africa) project.

REPRESA is an international collaboration co-led by the Global Change Institute (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa), Eduardo Mondlane University (Mozambique), and the University of Bristol (UK). The project brings together social and physical scientists, national hydro-meteorological services, and local practitioners to improve flood and cyclone preparedness in Madagascar, Malawi, and Mozambique. Objectives include enhancing the use of forecast products in vulnerable communities, strengthening impact-based early warning systems, and co-developing actionable local response strategies.

The Ampefy workshop brought together participants from across the region for training on tools such as GloFAS (for flood forecasting), CP4A (for climate projections), and LISFLOOD (for hazard mapping). Participants worked with real climate data, examined past extreme events such as cyclones CHEDZA and FREDDY, and used platforms like QGIS and Jupyter Notebooks to visualise potential impacts.

Later sessions focused on the development of climate storylines: narratives that help ground scientific data in real-world planning contexts. Through group work, local engagement, and multisectoral planning exercises, participants co-developed risk scenarios and adaptation strategies for sectors such as agriculture, health, and WASH.

The workshop concluded with discussions on strengthening collaboration, improving sustainable data access, and enhancing early warning systems to better meet the needs of at-risk communities.

This was a valuable learning opportunity for the ACACIA-supported team at Météo Madagascar, helping to build technical capacity while also contributing to collaborative approaches for managing climate risks in the region.