Dr. Agnes Lawrence Kijazi
Co-Chair of the 10-Member Advisory Group; and Director General, Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA), United Republic of Tanzania
Dr. Agnes Kijazi is currently the Director General of the Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA), the permanent representative of Tanzania with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), member of the WMO Executive Council, Vice Chairperson of the Meteorological Association of southern Africa (MASA) and Member of the Board of the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH). She rose from the lowest ranks of TMA, which she joined in 1987 as a Meteorological Assistant. She is the first woman in the East African Region to hold such a post and to be elected to the WMO-Executive Council. She has actively contributed in the development and implementation of various national, regional and international programmes including programmes of WMO, MASA, African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology (AMCOMET), Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), American Meteorological Society (AMS), Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP), East African Community (EAC) and Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TaCRI). A desire to serve and help her country to better cope with the impact of extreme weather events motivated her to join the undergraduate program in Bachelor of Science in Meteorology at the University of Nairobi (1996-2000) and went on to do a Master’s in Environmental Science at the University of Cape Town (2002-2003). Ms Kijazi joined the PhD program at the University of Cape Town (2004-2008) and earned her Doctorate in Meteorology in 2009. She has several scientific publications in peer reviewed Journals. Her dedicated lifelong companion Mwara, her three children, Doreen, David and Elizabeth, has supported her career which brought her satisfaction, and great achievements to the National and Global Meteorological community including the certification of Tanzania aeronautical meteorological services in ISO 9001:2015 standard.