Coordination of international development collaboration enhances impact

Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) has been implementing the FINKERAT cooperation and development project funded by the ministry of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland with the Kenya Meteorological Service Authority (KMSA), the Rwanda Environmental Management Authority (REMA), The Rwanda Meteorology Agency (Meteo Rwanda), and the Tanzanian Meteorological Authority (TMA) since early 2022. The project aims at modernizing and automating the value chain of early warning and weather services in the three countries, as well as support REMA enhancing air quality services in Rwanda.

East Africa is increasingly affected by severe hazardous weather events. At the same time, the production of weather services still relies heavily on manual processes, and the resulting information is often poorly accessible and insufficiently actionable for the most vulnerable segments of the population. Thus, several donors and entities support the region by directing funds and collaboration activities on early warning and weather service development and dissemination (including last mile). These include among the other the programmes coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization (e.g. CREWS – Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems Initiative, SOFF – Systematic Observations Financing Facility), as well as bilateral projects funded by single countries.

The FINKERAT project has established partnerships and synergies with these initiatives to align activities and maximize impact. This kind of collaboration has helped beneficiary organizations to recognize that systems and tools can be integrated into a single service-delivery value chain, reducing the risks for duplicative systems. Also, such coordination supports better planning and enables the tailoring of capacity development activities while reducing costs and engaging wider audience.

During the European Meteorological Society’s annual meeting, examples of lessons learned will be discussed, for example, ensuring that deliverables lead to operational products and services rather than pilots that typically end with the project.