Guidance on Modernizing NMHSs
Box 6.4 Technical Insight: Component 1: Institutional Strengthening, Capacity Building, and Implementation Support Component 1 aims to (a) strengthen the legal and regulatory framework of the National Meteorological Service (NMS); (b) improve its institutional performance as the main provider of weather, climate, and hydrological information for the country; (c) build capacity of its personnel and management; (d) ensure operability of future networks; and (e) support project implementation. The approach applies to both NMSs and National Hydrological Services (NHS). Where they are separate organizations, ensuring close collaboration is vital to enable flood forecasting and management. The institutional component can have three groups of activities or subcomponents: • Institutional strengthening, which may include such activities as • Review of institutional development and networks restructuring options • Development of a legal and regulatory framework for the NMS operations, including assessing new business models and enhancing public-private partnerships • Twinning support between the NMS and one or more advanced NMSsa • Capacity building, which may include • NMS staff training, retraining, and professional development • Professional orientation of the NMS senior management • Education support for the staff • Joint workshops with the major users of the NMS’s products and services, including agriculture, emergency, health, water resource management, energy, and transportation • Systems design and implementation support, which may include • Detailed design of the NMS systems and implementation support through general consultant or systems integrator or similar technical support • Development needs assessment and design of the observation and monitoring networks • Project management, monitoring, and evaluation a. Pairing or twinning an NMS in a developing or least developed country with an NMS in a more advanced country is a way to ensure sustainability of the service provision, especially if staffing is weak in the developing country’s NMS, which is often the case. The advanced twin agrees to provide technical expertise and know-how, including numerical weather prediction (NWPs) and other guidance that the beneficiary can use in its service provision.
Identifying Projects Despite the evident benefits of strengthening weather, climate, and water information systems and modernizing NMHSs, considerable efforts are needed just to convince client governments and World Bank teams (at the country and sectoral level) to proceed with project preparation and to commit resources for preparing and implementing complex and often relatively small hydromet modernization activities (see box 6.7 technical insight).
Monitoring Networks Clients pay the most attention to modernizing monitoring networks and instruments, usually the most expensive part of the program. Modern observation Weather and Climate Resilience • http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-0026-9
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