By Mohammed Mohammed
It is no longer news that the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), has appointed Dr. Agnes Kijazi, as its Director for the African Office.
She has since assumed the Directorship Office since December 10, last year.
The pressing question to ask is what Dr. Kijazi, plans and intends to bring to the table especially factoring in the wave of climate vulnerabilities across the globe and in Africa. The continent was badly hit with unprecedented flooding never witnessed before 2022.
There is no doubt a lot of environmental concerns and challenges present itself before the new director.
Haven spent decades in the sector and no doubt conversant with the intricacies of the workings of the global body, the new director is expected to up her game of finding and proffering specialized and expertised solutions to tackle the mounting challenges of environmental and climate disasters in Africa.
The WMO, Public Information Officer, Dr Kosmos E. Akande-Alasoka, in a statement made available to the media, recalled that before her new appointment, she was the DG of the Tanzania Meteorological Authority (TMA) and Permanent Representative (PR) of Tanzania with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
According to Akande-Alasoka, she was also the 3rd Vice President of the Word Meteorological Organization.
She has more than 30 years of working experience in meteorology at national and international levels, a career she started in 1988.
Kijazi, has remained engaged in meteorological operations and management in various positions during this period.
She has vast experience in meteorological infrastructure and technology; research, modelling and prediction; data management and information sharing; and quality assurance and risk management.
Kijazi, has also served in various positions at the regional and global levels. She served as a member of the WMO Executive Council, member and Co-Chair of the UN-10 Member Group to support the Technology Facilitation Mechanism (TFM), Member of the International Affairs Committee of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and Chair of the SADC-Meteorological Association of Southern Africa (MASA).
She has extensively contributed to the development and implementation of various WMO programmes at the national, regional and global levels, SADC – Meteorological Association of Southern Africa (MASA), East African Community (EAC), the African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology (AMCOMET), Tanzania Meteorological Society (TMS), American Meteorological Society (AMS), Tanzania Commission of Science and Technology (COSTECH), Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TACRI) among others.
Kijazi, holds a PhD and MSc in Meteorology from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and a BSc in Meteorology from the University of Nairobi, Kenya.
It is noteworthy that the success and failure in her tenure will to a large extent depend on the synergy and collaboration she is able to muscle from the 54 African meteorological stations spread across the continent.
