Replicating national participatory platforms and committees to co-develop climate services value chain

ENANDES “Enhancing Adaptive Capacity of Andean Communities through Climate Services”  is a regional project funded by the Adaptation Fund and implemented by WMO in coordination with the national hydro-meteorological services of Chile, Colombia, and Peru together with CIIFEN as the regional climate centre for Western South America. ENANDES aims at enhancing the provision of “climate services” at the national and regional levels focusing on the full-service value chain through activities ranging from service design, participatory user engagement and socio-economic benefit analyses. Indeed, the timely production, translation, and delivery of climate information for decision making, will support both climate risk management and adaptation plans, addressing three priority sectors: agriculture and food security, water, and energy. The goal of the project is to strengthen the capacity of society and communities in Chile, Colombia, and Peru to adapt to climate variability and change. The project started in February 2021, and despite the COVID-19 pandemic, it is succeeding in promoting, supporting, and generating regional dialogue and articulation aiming to exchange and scale up best practices in addressing data management, climate monitoring and adaptation planning. During the first year, the project focused on the design, production and communication of climate and water information and services (component 1), and the institutional coordination to facilitate the targeting of information, products, and services to user needs (component 2). Intending to pursue these objectives, ENANDES efforts are focused on capitalizing national successful experiences such as the Local Technical Agroclimatic Committees (Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas or MTAs in Spanish and herein LTACs) and the Technical Roundtable on Energy set up by the Meteorological Directorate of Chile (DMC) and the Chilean Ministry of Energy.  

Colombia is a reference country regarding LTACs, having local committees in several departments, including Cauca, where ENANDES demonstration areas are located. LTACs have become essential platforms to support decision making processes on adaptation strategies, where representatives from multiple sectors and institutions exchange knowledge on agro-climatic sensitive practices to open the analysis and debate on how to cope with impact scenarios. Conversely, Peru and Chile are implementing LTACs with a view to align them as in Colombia, for which ENANDES is an opportunity to advance and strengthen the multilevel articulation of LTACs in these countries.

To address and collect information on the energy sector needs, participatory platforms are also to be considered a successful and priority tool. In Chile and Colombia, national hydro-meteorological services have already set up a dialogue mechanism to assess the kind of information that may be provided or processed for guaranteeing business continuity to energy utilities and distributors.

ENANDES strategy builds on regional cooperation among countries, exchanging and replicating experiences and tools to consolidate local capacities and expand project benefits beyond its national borders.