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Over the past decades, extreme weather-, water- and climate-related hazards have caused significant losses in lives and livelihoods worldwide. To reduce the impacts of these events, it is increasingly crucial that humanitarian organizations act before crises (to take anticipatory actions) and not “only” after the events (in response to the events). In response to the growing need for more proactive approaches, Anticipatory Action (AA) has become a strategic priority for the humanitarian community.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the UN and Humanitarian agencies have long recognized the vital importance of reliable and timely weather, water and climate information to support Anticipatory Action and Response and as such have been working in partnership for many years to address the specific needs. However, all stakeholders agreed that more is to be done to harness this rich seam of crucial information. Therefore, at Congress 2019 WMO Members endorsed a key resolution which will enhance the provision of information still further through what will become the WMO Coordination Mechanism (WCM).
In April 2020, the Swiss Federal Council decided to contribute to the development of this mechanism through the Weather4UN project. MeteoSwiss implements this project in close collaboration with the Swiss agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), WMO and its Members as well as the humanitarian community.
Weather4UN Pilot Project – a snapshot
Weather4UN pilot project consisted of two main components (showcases). The first one aimed to improve access to high value information and the second aimed to assess the impacts of hydrometeorological events. Both showcases seeked to rely on authoritative products and to develop a globally consistent approach.
The first part of the pilot project aimed to establish a prototype of a Global HydroMet Scanning Capability that enables the provision of the hydroMet information and expert advice to the Humanitarian Actors (HA), demonstrating WMO’s capability to support and inform Anticipatory Action. Using human expertise (“Watchkeeper”) and semi-automatic systems, the authoritative weather and climate existing information from WMO Members, WMO Regional Climate Centres, etc. is collected, analysed and compiled, providing added-value advice. This information is then distributed by the WCM to the HA through different products and tools (prototypes) specifically tailored to best meet their needs. This part of the project has been developed in close collaboration with the WMO Secretariat in Geneva.
The second part of the project focused on the development of a tool to estimate the combined risks and impacts of forecasted natural hazards. Based on a globally consistent probabilistic risk model (CLIMADA) coupled with probabilistic weather forecasts from WMO Memberand Centres, the estimation of multi-hazard impacts enable humanitarian actors to plan and anticipate the best responses to protect the most vulnerable populations.
This part of the project was developed in close collaboration with Prof. D. N. Bresch (Weather and Climate Risks), ETH Zurich and MeteoSwiss) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
Illustration adapted from Röösli et al. 2021
Throughout the Weather4UN pilot project, Switzerland fostered structured and trusted collaboration between the WMO Secretariat, National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), WMO Centres and major humanitarian agencies. The pilot project’s added value has been repeatedly acknowledged by organizations such as UNOCHA, UNHCR, IFRC and the Swiss Humanitarian Aid (SHA), which also used Weather4UN products in several missions.
Ultimately, the Weather4UN pilot project informed and contributed to the development and institutional establishment of the WCM. For example, it successfully supported the creation of the WCM Implementation Plan, which has been discussed in several WMO workings groups (e.g. the Expert Team WCM group and the Standing Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction and Public Services group) and has finally been approved by the WMO Executive Council in March 2023.
Thanks to this effort, the humanitarian community now benefits from systematic and reliable access to tailored weather-, water- and climate information, enabling earlier, more informed, and more effective humanitarian responses.
Given the success of the pilot project, Switzerland will continue its support to WCM implementation and activities.