Gunjur’s Tijani Bojang has attended WMO Conference on “Meteorology enabling aviation decision support” held in the English city of Exeter in the United Kingdom. He was a principal delegate representing the Gambia at the UK conference as a member state.
Meteorologist and Chief Forecaster Tijani Bojang at the WMO conference in Exeter, UK
The Conference, which was given the theme “The future is now: Meteorology enabling aviation decision support” was organised by the Commission for Aeronautical Meteorology of World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) at the University of Exeter from 23rd – 27th July 2018. The Conference brought together, WMO Member States including participants from International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) among other stakeholders.
The Commission for Aeronautical Meteorology is a WMO designated Constituent body that regulates the standard operation of Air Navigation and safety of flights with regards to provision of weather information across the entire World. The Body is also responsible for setting standard regulations, principally for safety of Flights operation.
The Exeter conference was the Sixteenth Session of the Commission and it was conducted on the objective of formulating new resolutions and to advance recommendations for the improvement of service delivery in the aviation sector.
The five day event provided participants with the opportunity to reflect on issues that pose challenges to the Aviation Industries, reviewed and passed new resolutions and recommendations that are deemed to enhance Air safety navigation Worldwide.
Speaking to GunjurNewsOnline about the outcome of the WMO conference and what he has learned from attending this very important gathering, the East Anglia University graduate lamented:
“It is not a capacity building programme per se but Gambia’s participation among few African countries put the problems of National Meteorological Services in the Continent on the global platform. Resolutions and recommendations such as capacity building of Meteorological infrastructure and human resource development has been placed on priority agenda”
Further asked about the benefits to his department and Gambia as whole from the Exeter conference, Gunjur’s first and only Meteorologist stated:
“The Conference addresses pertinent issues such as formulating and reviewing resolutions pertaining to International Air Navigation safeties, encouragement of WMO to assist the Least Developing Countries with capacity building of National Meteorological Services, gender equality and empowerment of women in the field of Meteorological Service, strategy for Competency assessment of operational staff in Aeronautical Services and impacts of climate change on Air navigation among others.”
On his advice to young and aspiring would be meteorologists, the chief forecaster offered the following advice. His words:
“The field of Meteorology is quite a fascinating scientific field where the primary task is to save lives and properties as well as to contribute to socio-economic development of the global economy. In the Gambia, we have serious human resources capacity deficits that affect our operational services delivery because most of the youths opt to venture in other sectors where they are seeing fast economic gains. If one takes the stock of our service delivery, you would realize that the sector plays significant socio-economic contribution to the National Development and I am therefore highly encouraging youths to embrace the Meteorology discipline for better Gambia.”
Editor’s note:
Tijani Bojang is the Chief Forecaster at the Central Forecast Office of the Department of Water Resources of The Gambia. He was first employed at The Meteorology Department in 1989, before becoming a Forecaster in 1998. He holds a Higher Diploma in Meteorology from the Institute for Meteorological Training and Research (I.M.T.R), from Nairobi, Kenya in 1997, a B.Sc (Honours) in Meteorology & Oceanography, from the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom, obtained in 2008; and an M.Sc in Applied Meteorology and Climate with Management, from the University of Reading, United Kingdom, obtained in 2014.