JEAI-MOCAs: A multi-institutional initiative to build marine research capacity in Mozambique

Among other countries in the southwest Indian Ocean, Mozambique has a greater number of environmental problems to solve. Many of these problems can be monitored, so that remedial action can be taken, by conducting sustainable institutional collective research. Therefore Mozambican institutions should attain adequate capacity of human resources in strategic research areas. It was because of the aforementioned problems that, for the first time, an initiative developed by a Mozambican research group to focus on oceanic and atmospheric dynamics was established. The Mozambican Ocean-Atmosphere scientific research programme (JEAI-MOCA) relies mostly on the experience collected over 15 years of international scientific collaboration between the South African institutions -- the Department of Oceanography at UCT and Marine and Coastal Management -- and the French Institut de Recherche pour le Developpment. The ultimate goal of JEAI-MOCA is to create and strengthen the research capacity of a well-motivated group of oceanographers and atmospheric scientists in Mozambique.