MET Norway has been active on the scene of capacity building for a long term, with a more systematic approach since 2011 when the Foreign Ministry approved a cooperative project with Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD). This project had 4 work packages, each with a joint leader team in Norway and Bangladesh, thus ensuring BMD’s involvement in the governance of the project. This structure is kept as a core in the structure of the further engagement in other countries.

Currently MET Norway is involved in projects in Bangladesh and Vietnam in Asia, and Ethiopia, Mozambique, Malawi, and  a new initiative in Tanzania, in Africa.  In addition, we have previously had engagements in Cuba, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and India. The six countries where MET Norway currently is engaged show both common needs and a clear diversity in needs and capabilities, e.g. in the area of climate the engagement has covered everything from data rescue to downscaling of climate projections dependent on local needs and capabilities. This leads up to the main lesson learned from our engagement, the questions we need to ask repeatedly: “What is the need of your service to develop in the short and long term?” and “How can our cooperation aid your progress towards where you want your service to develop?”. And let the answers of these questions shape the engagement and training of personnel in the recipient countries.

NORAD, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, asked MET Norway to coordinate all our projects into one major project. This coordination into one project, called SAREPTA, combined with the diverse needs in the recipient countries, resulted in a project containing a menu of possible work packages and sub projects for each country. These sub projects were built from the possible work packages reflecting the country's needs and available human and technical resources. For all work packages open source tools are used, and the resources are prioritized on training personnel in these tools, rather than on tools that require licenses. We believe that this approach is more efficient and better allows continuity in the long run.

MET Norway is also engaged in SOFF and CORDEX, explicitly engaging in SOFF only in countries where MET Norway has activity through SAREPTA thus enabling coordination between the national efforts in SAREPTA and SOFF. The CORDEX Flagship Pilot Study (FPS) southeast Africa is coordinated by Mozambique’s national meteorological services, and aims to build a regional network of competence within climate research, and is supported by MET Norway.

How to cite: Demissie, T. D., Kuya, E. K., Hygen, H. O., Skjervagen, I. H., Hole, L. R., Østvand, L., and Benestad, R. E.: SAREPTA - MET Norway's involvement in capacity building, EMS Annual Meeting 2024, Barcelona, Spain, 1–6 Sep 2024, EMS2024-446, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2024-446, 2024.

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.

How to cite: Eerikäinen, M.: International Development Projects of the Finnish Meteorological Insitute , EMS Annual Meeting 2024, Barcelona, Spain, 1–6 Sep 2024, EMS2024-856, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2024-856, 2024.

The Weather and Climate Services (WISER) programme delivers transformational change in the quality, accessibility and use of weather and climate information services at local, national, and regional levels. Since its inception in Africa in 2015, WISER has built resilience to the impacts of climate change and supported long term sustainable development for people, communities, and institutions. The WISER programme is funded via the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and is managed by the UK Met Office.

Between 2015-2021 WISER focused primarily on building weather and climate information services capacity in the East Africa region, with additional focussed activity in the Sahel and since 2022, the WISER programme has expanded in response to other regional weather and climate vulnerabilities. The suite of programmes now includes an expanded footprint in East, West and Southern Africa, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and from 2023 it has built on the successes of the Asia Regional Resilience to a Changing Climate (ARRCC) programme to support South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands.

The existing WISER programme builds on the transformational change delivered through previous iterations of WISER and provides an opportunity to replicate, innovate and expand into new areas, build on existing and new regional partnerships, and drawing on lessons learnt and good practice. The activities now aim engage with a wider range of stakeholders to support and improve the uptake and mainstreaming of weather and climate information services into policy, planning and decision making.

This presentation will look at the history of the WISER programme, the principles of the WISER approach, particularly It’s approach to gender equality and social inclusion (GESI), and provide examples of WISER projects currently underway.

How to cite: Strachan, J.: A WISER Approach - co-development of Weather and Climate Information Services across Africa, Asia and the Pacific through the UK Government funded WISER Programme, EMS Annual Meeting 2024, Barcelona, Spain, 1–6 Sep 2024, EMS2024-895, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2024-895, 2024.

In light of the rapidly changing climate, it is crucial to advance weather and climate services across the world. Cooperation and partnerships are important to accelerate such efforts around the globe. Due to the existing gaps in early warning systems, UN’s Early Warning 4 All (EW4ALL) campaign was launched to ensure that every person on earth is covered by early warning systems by 2027. In 2021, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)-Global program was launched to support weather and climate services focusing on countries with the largest gaps.

Effective early warnings require chains from observations to analysis to communication to their use to avoid impacts. As one contribution to such chains, KNMI contributes to the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF) as a fundamental step towards achieving EW4ALL. SOFF is a financing mechanism to improve (sharing of) basic weather and climate observations in around 60 of the Least Developed Countries. KNMI acts as a peer-advisor for five countries, i.e. Cabo Verde, Sao Tome & Principe, Uganda, Senegal, and Suriname. In the first phase of SOFF, the Readiness phase, we have analysed and reported on the country’s capacity gaps and hydro-met status, through collaboration with the hydro-meteorological service and local stakeholders. In many countries, there is already a high density of weather stations, yet issues around data policy, data management and communication hamper the international sharing of such data. Stakeholders often recognize the high value of climate and weather services, but stronger collaboration and partnerships are needed to advance products and services.

Additionally, SOFF Uganda is an important pillar of the Water at the Heart of Climate Action programme, which launched in 2023. This programme is an ambitious and collaborative initiative geared towards mitigating the impacts of water-related risks and disasters and increasing the resilience of communities in Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, and Rwanda through effective early warning systems.

Drawing from practical experiences and lessons learned, we will highlight best practices, quick wins, and common challenges encountered during our collaborative international efforts under KNMI-Global to advance weather and climate services in diverse contexts.

How to cite: Pereira Marghidan, C., van der Schee, M., Kraai, A., Verver, G., Wijngaard, J., Struijk, S., Konijn, R., and van Aalst, M.: KNMI-Global: Lessons learned during the first phase of the SOFF as a peer advisor to 5 countries , EMS Annual Meeting 2024, Barcelona, Spain, 1–6 Sep 2024, EMS2024-656, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2024-656, 2024.

Climate change is already causing havoc, especially in vulnerable regions, where every minute and every action counts.  During 2021 COP26, WMO, UNDP, UNEP joined efforts and established the Systematic Observations Financial Facility (SOFF) as a new focused UN financing mechanism to foster climate action through the development of sustained and sustainable observational networks. While observations are the critical component in the weather information value chain supporting informed weather and climate-based decisions, they are often addressed project-based and under a limited in time funding approach.  SOFF brings together the national weather service, a peer advisor from a pool of National Hydrological and Meteorological Services worldwide and an implementing entity, one of the Members of the Hydromet Alliance, to make sustained weather observations a long-term reality.  SOFF builds on the 2019’s Global Basics Observation Network (GBON) establishment by the 193 members states and territories of WMO. GBON defines the requirements for data collection and international sharing to provide the essential data needs for global and regional weather and climate models. However, although the requirements are set, GBON is not yet widespread achieved. This is particularly relevant in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs), therefore becoming the initial target countries for the SOFF venture.

Sharing expertise to support the global meteorological community is an important part of GeoSphere Austria's core mission. Austria has supported the SOFF initiative since its inception.  In a joint approach with four implementing entities, GeoSphere Austria is peer-advising 8 countries worldwide and defining their path towards GBON compliance with a sustainable approach. The work of GeoSphere Austria is based on the analysis of the current situation in the countries. It then focuses on the value chain as the backbone for shaping the national development plan, while building a long-term commitment that enables shared growth as national weather services.

This work shows the overall approach, best practices and lessons learnt from GeoSphere Austria’s international cooperation under SOFF and provides a walk-through of the activities performed. The steps that include on-site assessment, the design of a national contribution plan and the initiation of its implementation plan, are shown based on a SOFF front-runner country, South Sudan.

How to cite: Arnold Arias, D., Gershtein, G., Wotawa, G., Senoner, W., Krieger, V., and Schaffhauser, A.: How observational empowering is brought into action in South Sudan: GeoSphere Austria’s activities under the WMO Systematic Observation Financing Facility umbrella , EMS Annual Meeting 2024, Barcelona, Spain, 1–6 Sep 2024, EMS2024-494, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2024-494, 2024.

Since COP 27, three UN agencies (FAO, UNESCO, and WMO) have established a partnership to place users at the center of the co-production of weather and climate services in agriculture. This initiative not only aligns with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture recognizing solutions that are context-specific, but it also contributes to the Early Warning for All initiative, which recommends the integration of scientific and technological advancement with local, traditional, indigenous, and generational knowledge. On this regard, AEMET and SMC have developed solid databases and observations methodology for phenology observations based on EU action COST 725.

Indigenous and Local knowledge  (ILK) is a diachronic database of know-how, skills and practices that are developed, sustained, and passed on from generation to generation within a community, often forming part of its cultural or spiritual identity. Thus, ILK is grounded on nature observation based on empirical evidence of stars, skies, birds, insects, and plants and transformed into decision making  at community level. ILK inclusion in societal science and climate change adaptation plans is a challenge for the UN, international and national agencies because the inclusion of citizen science into national policies and plans is often neglected. Weather and climate information and derived services lack contextual specificity and are not tailored to user’s needs, are not delivered on a timely manner, and/or communicated in a user-friendly way or are too technical.

Phenology is the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate and plant and animal life. National Meteorological Services (NMS) in Europe have long term practices recording data on crops and tree phases, birds and insect behavior and mapping changes across the territory and along the years. These observations are related both to climate variability and climate change at local level. Phenology databases, observation manuals and guides on operational practices are easy tools to blend with traditional knowledge. This enables the incorporation of local culture, languages and religious aspects into comprehensive documents, reports and plans in developing countries, preserving those traditions for future generations.  Data recorded is of great support for the co-creation of national adaptation plans and the development of climate services at local level.

Based on this experience, a respectful approach with ILK on climate change oriented projects for developing projects will include an update of phenology observations adapted to country ILK and enlarged databases to record climate change aspects based on plants, birds and insect behavior impacts that are highly significant for biodiversity, climate and societal studies.

How to cite: Camacho, J. L., Alvar, J., Busto, M., Romero, R., and de Cara, J. A.: Traditional knowledge at IA and climate change times, EMS Annual Meeting 2024, Barcelona, Spain, 1–6 Sep 2024, EMS2024-565, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2024-565, 2024.

CONFER is an EU-funded research project focusing on climate adaptation through the Co-production of Climate Services for East Africa. The main objective of the project is to co-develop dedicated climate services for the water, energy and food security sectors with stakeholders and end-users, to enhance their ability to plan for and adapt to seasonal climate variability and extremes. This presentation will focus on the training and capacity building component of the project, which aims to build skills and knowledge across a wide range of climate information producers and users. The purpose is to train people in the East Africa region in interpreting and applying climate information and services in a way that benefits and supports resilience against weather and climate variability.

Following a user needs analysis, the WMO designated Regional Climate Centre for East Africa, ICPAC (the IGAD Climate Prediction and Application Centre), with support from the Met Office and NORCAP, developed and delivered Synergy Building training workshops targeting a diverse range of participants in ten countries in the region, namely Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Djibouti, Somalia, Rwanda, and Burundi, with sessions being held in Uganda, Sudan, Kenya, Djibouti, and Rwanda. The workshops brought together experts and stakeholders from countries based on shared languages to enhance engagement and interaction. Overall, the training workshops empowered 240 participants from different media houses in East Africa, meteorological experts, policymakers, and the private sector, selected by their national institutions. In-person training was delivered alongside online training via a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) developed by BBC Media Action. The MOOC on ‘climate reporting’ for journalists from vernacular radio and national broadcast media across the region, aimed to bridge the ‘last mile’ gap that exists from NMHSs to the user community.

Additional training was also provided to National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) forecasters in the East Africa region via annual “Foundational Seasonal Training”, building capacity on underpinning seasonal forecasting knowledge and techniques. Representatives were then involved in seasonal forecast production at the three annual Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forums (GHACOFs).

CONFER also contributed to the Climate System Analysis Group (CSAG) annual ‘Navigating Climate Risk’ School, a 5-day programme where sector specialists in water and disaster management, agricultural administrators and planners, health workers etc. meet and are trained in how to use climate services effectively, to enable enhanced planning against climate-related risk.

How to cite: Strachan, J. and Lines, S.: Building capacity to develop, communicate and use climate information through the H2020 Co-production of Climate Services for East Africa (CONFER) project, EMS Annual Meeting 2024, Barcelona, Spain, 1–6 Sep 2024, EMS2024-897, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2024-897, 2024.

ENANDES+ "Enhancing Adaptive Capacity of Andean Communities through Climate Services" is the extension of the ENANDES project funded by the Adaptation Fund (AF). ENANDES involves the national hydro-meteorological services of Chile, Colombia and Peru and the WMO Regional Climate Centre (RCC) for Western South America. The contribution of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to ENANDES+ includes the national hydro-meteorological services of Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. Although not identical, ENANDES and the SDC contribution to ENANDES+ share most of the project objectives. The overall objective is to make Andean societies more resilient to climate variability and change. This will be achieved by improving the provision of weather, water and climate services at national and regional levels by strengthening the partners' technical, user involvement, socio-economic and human capacities. Ultimately, ENANDES+ aims to establish user engagement in selected sectors in two target regions, i.e. the catchment of the rivers Pastaza in Ecuador, and the transboundary Pilcomayo in Bolivia and Argentina, where socio-economic benefits of user-specific services will be assessed. Where possible, synergies will be sought to co-design and develop regional, national and local data and forecast products and services, e.g. for drought monitoring or frost warnings.

To address this challenge, it is a specific ambition of ENANDES+ to exploit, and possibly boost, the regional collaboration capacities present in the region. The so-called nucleo regional de experticia, or NUREX for short, is designed to help establish, coordinate and monitor peer-to-peer collaborations amongst the project partners as appropriate and required for the project implementation. Moreover, the NUREX, in close collaboration with the WMO Regional Climate Centres in Ecuador and Argentina as well as the WMO Regional Training Centres of Argentina and Peru , is tasked to channel and manage the extra-regional knowledge transfer into the region, which in this project comes mainly from Switzerland.

This paper will focus on highlighting the complexities arising from the multi-partner nature of the project, the need to address the entire hydrometeorological value chain, and the management requirements for coordinated regional peer-to-peer collaboration for project implementation. The need for a dedicated regional, project-specific technical coordination will be motivated. We argue that this task is easily underestimated and emphasise that sufficient time and effort be allocated to the establishment of such a structure; appropriate coordination with existing regional structures, e.g. the WMO regional Working Groups, adds to the complexity. The sustainable embedding of the best practices into such structures is particularly desirable. In summary, the paper will reflect on the inter- and intra-institutional, interdisciplinary complexities, as well as national and regional challenges related to improving weather, water and climate services to meet a common goal in the context of the Andean region.

How to cite: Rossa, A., Polato, R., Läderach, P., Chasco, M. J., Avalos Roldán, G. J., de los Milagros Skansi, M., de Lourdes Condor Quishpe, A., Ferreira, L., García Vilca, T. G., Gonzalez, Y., Jimenez Sanchez, J. G., Nahir Mezher, R., Rocha, W., and Torres Aravena, G. L.: ENANDES+ Enhancing the Weather, Water and Climate Services Value Chain in the Andes: The Challenges of a Coordinated Regional Project Implementation, EMS Annual Meeting 2024, Barcelona, Spain, 1–6 Sep 2024, EMS2024-883, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2024-883, 2024.

Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) and Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center (UHMC) have together worked towards enhancing weather, early warning, and climate services in Ukraine since January 2022. The co-development includes automating the whole value chain of service provision from observation station to customer interface. Additionally, the impact of war on air quality and hydrometeorological observation infrastructure have been analyzed.   

In addition to developing weather and early warning information exchange with general public, national stakeholders and customers through enhancing service provision, UHMC aims at exchanging information with European meteorological services. As a result of development collaboration with FMI, UHMC publishes operationally land and marine area early warnings in CAP format through Meteo Alarm programme. In return, UHMC is provided with weather forecast data from the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecast and South-East European platform, as well as European weather radar data from EUMETNET OPERA programme.

Enhancing the visbility and creditability of UHMC is a measure of success for the collaboration project. Thus, the next steps of FMI-UHMC collaboration will include enhancing web page platform to effectively share new products and the implementation of mobile phone application to ensure an easy access to weather and early warning information as well as to reach people in the most vulnerable situation with the best effort basis.      

The bilateral collaboration project between Finland and Ukraine in the field of meteorology has been funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. During the 2024 annual meeting of the European Meteorological Society the key results of the project as well as identified best practices in successful peer-to-peer learning will be presented.

How to cite: Hirsikko, A., Skoropad, O., Bilozerova, A., and Pietarila, H.: Co-development of weather, early warning, and climate services in Ukraine, EMS Annual Meeting 2024, Barcelona, Spain, 1–6 Sep 2024, EMS2024-338, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2024-338, 2024.

Climate services are recognized as an essential tool for sustainable development in strategic and climate-sensitive sectors. In developing countries, particularly in Africa, the literature offers successful examples of application, especially in the agricultural sector, which is dramatically sensitive to climate variability and change. While, initially, particular emphasis was placed on the outcomes of these services and the benefits they provide to users, several authors have recently focused their attention on the process. A climate service is understood as a cyclical process in which various actors interact, exchange knowledge, and establish relationships and mutual trust. This co-production process primarily serves to bridge the gap between science and society, making it particularly suitable for developing countries. While several authors claim that the  co-production process improves the service usability, the intrinsic value of the process is rarely recognized. This study aims to describe the process and document its added value using the example of Niger as a case study. In Niger two services addressing drought and floods have recently been developed, tested, and operationalized. This experience provides valuable lessons that can benefit researchers and practitioners in both developed and developing contexts. The value of the collaboration between different disciplines (transdisciplinarity) and roles (complementarity), along with the iterative and interactive learning process, emerge as key elements allowing a continuous improvement of the services and strengthening relationships among actors.

Based on the experience and perception of the stakeholders involved in Niger, we suggest considering the following four dimensions in evaluating the added value of the co-production process in climate services:

• Value added to the Climate Service co-production: the value created beyond more conventional approaches in service production, as well as the progressive technical enhancement resulting from the co-production process;
• Value added to the Climate Service functioning: on the service efficiency/effectiveness in terms of access to information, uptake of the services, action by users and Monitoring/Evaluation;
• Value added to the expansion of the service: on the service scaling-up, expansion and financial sustainability of the service beyond the initial funding period;
• Value added toward new services: capacity building among actors and stakeholders to envision and develop new services.

While the results of this process are qualitatively described in the paper, they could serve as guidance for researchers and practitioners in adopting such an approach. Additionally, they could represent a tangible example for funders and policymakers of the  added value of the process. Finally, the paper recommends the capitalization of pilot experiences through the national and global frameworks for climate services.

How to cite: Tarchiani, V. and Bacci, M.: The added value of the co-production process delivering climate services in Niger, EMS Annual Meeting 2024, Barcelona, Spain, 1–6 Sep 2024, EMS2024-8, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2024-8, 2024.

The global climate is changing, and Bangladesh is not spared. Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) and Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway) have collaborated since 2011, and in 2016 we co published a report on the current status of the climate of Bangladesh called Climate of Bangladesh. The same cooperation has resulted in a new report that was published this year. The new report goes beyond the baseline of today's climate and explores detected changes in the Bangladeshi climate for the last 40 years through the weather observations in Bangladesh. 

In this report, a homogeneity test of the Bangladeshi observations is performed, and shows that data from about 1980 has an acceptable level of homogeneity. Based on this, trends have been calculated for maximum and minimum temperature, daily temperature range, precipitation amount and frequency, and sunshine hours and cloudiness. The major picture is that in Bangladesh all of these elements show clear signals of change consistent with the global pattern of climate change. This analysis also indicates regional differences with a more rapidly warming climate in the north and east of the country. 

More details of the effects of the changing climate on heatwaves and cold outbreaks have been analysed. This analysis shows a tendency to later onset of the heat, and, more worryingly, a tendency of increased heat waves in the monsoon season. A similar analysis of heavy to very heavy rainfall does not reveal any clear shift.

The monsoon is very important for the agricultural sector, and has received special attention in the report. The dates for the onset of monsoon, as documented by meteorologists at BMD, is published, and a small analysis shows no significant change in onset day. The rainfall in the monsoon is changing, and a pattern of decreased rainfall in most of the country is emerging but not statistically significant.

The report is co-published at the websites of BMD and MET Norway

How to cite: Rashid, Md. B., Sultana, A., Hassan, S. M. Q., Kuya, E., Parding, K., and Hygen, H. O.: Changing climate of Bangladesh, EMS Annual Meeting 2024, Barcelona, Spain, 1–6 Sep 2024, EMS2024-444, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2024-444, 2024.