International Development Projects of the Finnish Meteorological Insitute

The expert services of the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) has been working over fifty years internationally in improving of the services provided by the different national hydro-meteorological services (NHMS’s) worldwide. The cornerstones of the cooperation with different institutes have been formed around improved disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change. So far, the assistance and transfer of know-how has reached more than 100 countries worldwide, mainly concentrating on the developing countries. The main objective of the projects has been to improve the quality, dissemination and effectiveness of the hydro-meteorological forecasts and warning services for the societies first to decrease number of fatalities related to natural disasters and to decrease the economic losses related to the same events.

Currently FMI is working in over 20 countries with over 40 on-going projects. These projects have a versatile range of activities related to development of the different sectors in the service production value chain, from observations to end-user forecasts and early warnings, in our sister institutes in emerging countries. 

Today, as the number of funding sources and mechanisms is constantly increasing in the meteorological field and on the other hand increasing number of developed NHMS are engaged in similar projects in the emerging countries, it has become more vital than ever to share the best practices and coordinate the project activities among the implementing institutes. An overview on the current international development activities of FMI in the emerging countries will be presented and best practices and lessons learned will be shared in the 2024 annual meeting of the European Meteorological Society.