African Regional Seas Team Webinar May 2026

On the 28th of May, at the first session of the OP-DCC African Regional Team webinar series, Dr Joseph Ansong from the University of Ghana and Dr Siva Reddy Sanikommu from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology showed how regionally optimized forecasting platforms are essential for providing locally relevant actionable information for ecosystem management, coastal resilience and offshore industry. 

The talks, attended by 40 participants from all over Africa and beyond, highlighted regional expertise and solutions that can drive the implementation of the Ocean Decade in Africa, ensuring that the continent's unique marine challenges are met with locally developed, data-driven solutions.

The African Seas Regional Team is the Oceanprediction DCC regional node for the mentioned region. The Regional Teams are the organizational backbone of OceanPrediction DCC community, and they are formed by individuals and organizations with very diverse background and interests: scientists and users, experts and interested persons, private and public sector, etc... 

The regional team will promote Operational Ocean Forecasting Services as a key tool for Blue Economy and ocean policy. It is also supporting the coordination and the cooperation of ocean forecasting-related Decade actions in the area, and it is advocating for the regional implementation of Best Practices, Standards and Tools derived from OceanPrediction technical activity. The Regional Team is active in the design and organization of regional events for capacity building, ocean literacy and other purposes, such as courses, workshops, hackathons, etc.

Working together with the regional teams in other regions, it will form a worldwide network to achieve all the above-mentioned objectives, ensuring that regional singularities are considered during the process.

Our chairs for this region (in alphabetical order) are:

Professor Kouadio Affian- Vice-President of the University Felix Houphouet-Boigny

Karim Hilmi - Head of the Oceanography Department and Research Director, National Institute of Fisheries Research

Siva Reddy - Researcher, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and 

Jennifer Veitch - Numerical Modeller, South African Environmental Observation Network

To learn more about the session, watch the recap videos of the presentations and speakers here!

Learn more about the African Seas Regional Team, check out the team page here: Regional Team: African Seas | OceanPrediction DCC