Mapping OA Monitoring & Research Recommendations to Policy in Africa
The OA Alliance and the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) hosted a webinar on May 19 to provide an overview of and seek feedback on, “Mapping OA Monitoring and Research Recommendations to Policy in Africa,” a joint policy communications project they are undertaking together in 2023.
The policy communications project flows from the Western Indian Ocean Acidification (WIO) OA Monitoring project established by WIOMSA in conjunction with regional institutions and experts. The monitoring project resulted in the WIO OA report in 2022, which examines the state of OA and makes recommendations for future research and information priorities across 6 countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Mauritius, and Seychelles.
In order to support communication about the importance of advancing and funding this work, the OA Alliance/ WIOMSA policy communications project will enhance existing OA efforts in region, by illuminating their relationship to consequential policy goals and targets that decision-makers and managers are already tasked with implementing.
The policy communications project is being designed to help managers and decision-makers better understand the linkages between OA science & monitoring to achieving and implementing climate, marine and development priorities across the WIO region and the continent.
The aim is to develop materials that help policy makers understand the relevance of OA information to policies and targets they care about and develop content that will further support large scale regional funding requests for continuing this work.
Finally, the project provides a unique opportunity to engage additional stakeholders at continental, regional, and domestic levels that can be called upon to take up support for OA research and monitoring across their respective mandates.
