Support countries to improve quality and use of
hydromet services and encourage the sharing
of hydromet information within and between
countries.
Hydromet systems potentially offer important
benefits, but are poorly maintained in many
countries especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Original Response: Agreed: World Bank: A lot of the work to implement this
recommendation has already started as part
of planned activities mostly within the Pilot
Program for Climate Resilience, but also in other
IDA and IBRD countries. This work includes South-
South knowledge exchange among practitioners
and exploration of some "open-data" initiatives
to promote sharing access and use of information
and data across ministries/organizations in
a country, at sub-national level and in water basins.
Management will continue such efforts over
the next four years as many of our activities move
towards implementation. We will also work with
international partners that are exploring ways to
get necessary information to the end-users using a
combination of new-and-old technology platforms
(e.g. web-streaming, SMS and local radios). In FY15-
16, we will synthesize lessons learned and success
in addressing challenges such as effective use of
existing information. We will also develop plans
for sharing these lessons beyond the countries currently
involved and assess how partnerships have
helped with effectiveness and service delivery.
Action 4A: Produce a policy paper on WBâs role in strengthening weather, climate and water information services (hydromet) globally.
Baseline: No existing WB-wide policy or strategy.
Target: A Bank-wide policy paper developed.
Timeline: End FY14
Action 4B: Develop a âHow-to-Guideâ with practical recommendations for development practitioners working on hydromet and climate information services.
Baseline: No existing âhow-to guideâ for development practitioners.
Target: How-to-guide developed and made available through various knowledge platforms.
Timeline: End FY14
Action 4C: Operational support and scale-up efforts for building sustainable weather, climate and hydrological services to inform climate-related disaster risk management and reduce vulnerability and in client countries.
Baseline: Limited support.
Target: scaled up support appropriate for at least 5 countries and emphasis on institutional integration of hydro, met, climate and DRM agencies.
Timeline: FY13-17
Action 4D: Monitor extent of hydromet work underway in lending program across various sectors (water, agriculture, environment, disaster risk management, urban).
Baseline: Some monitoring but not in all sectors.
Target: Consistent monitoring and reporting to examine extent and scale-up.
Timeline: FY13-17
Action 4E: Strengthen partnerships with key international stakeholders engaged in hydromet support (WMO, UNISDR, the Climate Services Partnership - e.g. USAID, CSIRO, IRI, NOAA, global forecasting centers) to improve functioning of hydromet system, accelerate adoption of remote sensing monitoring tools, and move to open data platforms.
Baseline: Partnerships are at early stages and not across all relevant organizations for various sectoral/regional needs.
Target: A more systematic approach to bring in experts into Bankâs work, develop partnership with key stakeholders to improve and sustain hydromet services, access to information for decisions at national and sub-national level, and sustained support for underlying institutions in at least two regions and 4-5 countries per region.
Timeline: FY13-17
Action 4F: Develop knowledge product on benefits of âopeningâ hydro-met data, effective use of hydromet data in decision-making, lessons learned making it widely available to inform decisions and share experience.
Baseline: Limited awareness of the importance of opening data, it use for climate resilient development amongst the national hydromet service agencies and other stakeholders.
Target: Knowledge product completed with active outreach in at least four international and/regional fora.
Timeline: End FY15
The Bank has made considerable progress in supporting hydromet systems since the time of the evaluation, especially with support from a dedicated GFDRR hydromet program. The Bank has taken on board the spirit and letter of the recommendation, with a significant scaleup in financial support to clients for hydromet - a tripling over 7 years and a substantial aggregate commitment.
For this recommendation, the action plan captured well the intent of the recommendation. The Management updates describe the progress that has been made under the specific action plan items:
4A: No specific paper on the World Bank role in hydromet was produced, but the creation of the dedicated GFDRR hydromet program with a mandate for hydromet support along with demonstrated ongoing support through investments provide some implicit indication of the role of the Bank.
4B: A How-to-guide for practitioners was developed and is being updated and improved.
4C: The Bank has substantially scaled up operational support for building hydromet services, surpassing its modest target of 5 countries by a significant degree.
4D: This action item on building a system to monitor hydromet support was critical in providing the data needed to demonstrate achievement of other action item steps.
4E: The management updates describe significant efforts made to develop partnerships and knowledge sharing activities, especially through workshops and studies, and in partnership with WMO and UNISDR.
4F: The "Valuing weather and climate: Economic Assessment of Meteorological and Hydrological Services" paper provides significant support for making the economic case for hydromet services, including both case studies, and advice for practitioners on how to conduct socioeconomic benefit analysis studies in specific cases.
During FY17, the GFDRR Hydromet Initiative continued to provide significant cross-support to hydromet modernization operations in SAR, AFR, EAP, LAC and ECA, and by the end of FY17, the WBG reached all the targets listed in 4A, B, C, D, and F. The Hydromet team participated in preparation of new projects in Ethiopia, Mali, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Zambia, and supported project implementation in Central Asia, Jamaica, Myanmar, Nepal, Pacific, Russia, Vietnam, among others. The team was actively engaged in launching and implementation of such programs as Africa Regional Hydromet and Climate Risk and Early Warning System (CREWS). The Hydromet Initiative contributed to the preparation of the first CREWS projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and Niger, all of which will become operational in FY18. Over the past seven years the hydromet investment portfolio has more than tripled and in 2017 it comprises 67 projects or components with total project funding of US$870 million, in part based on the support from the GFDRR Hydromet program. The monitoring system is in place with GFDRR keeping track of hydromet investments and potential beneficiaries in accordance with the World Bank Group Climate Change Action Plan 2016-2020. The investment support is complemented by various capacity building, knowledge management activities and by developing and strengthening partnerships. Several capacity building and knowledge exchange events were organized during FY17 focusing on better delivery of hydromet services, multi-hazard and impact based early warning services, and public-private engagement in hydromet service provision. Some of the highlights of these events include: - From September 12-15 2016, the GFDRR Hydromet team held the "Technical Deep Dive on Hydromet Services for Early Warning" (TDD), a knowledge-sharing event on hydromet services gathering 60 specialists from national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHS) and DRM agencies from 11 countries, experts from Japanese agencies, and international partners. (https://www.gfdrr.org/learning-from-japan-s-experience-in-early-warning…-) - The GFDRR Hydromet team also co-organized with UK Met Office and WMO, a conference on Flooding in the Greater Horn of Africa: Building Effective Early Warning Systems at Wilton Park, UK from September 28-30. The conference explored solutions to building and improving Early Warning Systems (EWS) to prevent/reduce the impact of flooding in the Greater Horn of Africa, stressing the need to build better links between the meteorological, hydrological and DRM communities. - On October 5, 2016, the GFDRR Hydromet Team supported the ECA DRM Team in the organization of a South East European Multi-Hazard Early Warning Advisory System Kick-Off Meeting and the 15th Session of the Informal Conference of South-East European NMHSs Directors, held back-to-back in Zagreb, Croatia. The meeting explored and endorsed the proposed South-East European Multi-hazard Early Warning Advisory Systems (SEE-MHEWS-A) approach, with GFDRR/WBG committing to serve on its advisory group. - On October 17-21, the GFDRR Hydromet team together with the WMO also co-hosted a Regional Stakeholder's Workshop to Implement the WMO Strategy for Service Delivery for National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in South-East Europe. Taking place in Tirana, Albania, the workshop was attended by the NMHSs and some of their key users from 10 SEE countries. Expert facilitation was provided by the Austrian Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG). (rometeorological-services-in-south-east-europe"> http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/speech/2016/10/18/remarks-albania-coun…) - In December 2016, GFDRR Hydromet team presented preliminary findings of the ongoing Assessment of the state of hydrologic al services in developing countries during the 15th Session of the WMO Commission for Hydrology. This is a joint study supported by GFDRR and Water Partnership Program with participation of WMO which will be completed by the end of FY17. They learned how to handle different types of warnings, including hydrological and meteorological phenomena. Representatives also learned about impact-based forecast and warning services, including ways that they can be implemented in national meteorological and hydrological services and disaster risk management organizations. (https://www.gfdrr.org/reducing-impact-hydromet-hazards) From December 12-15, 2016 the GFDRR Hydromet team, carried out the fourth edition of the Shanghai workshop on "Reducing the Impact of Hydro-meteorological Hazards" focusing on the gap between forecasts and warnings. The workshop organized in collaboration with the Shanghai Met Service brought together specialists in meteorology, hydrology and DRM from 14 countries of Africa, South and East Asia, Pacific and Latin America. They learned how to handle different types of warnings, including hydrological and meteorological phenomena. Representatives also learned about impact-based forecast and warning services, including ways that they can be implemented in national meteorological and hydrological services and disaster risk management organizations. (https://www.gfdrr.org/reducing-impact-hydromet-hazards) - On March 22-23, 2017, the Hydromet team delivered the special sessions on public-private engagement in the delivery of hydromet services at InterMET Asia, the annual event that gathers public and private weather-service providers in Singapore, where representatives of both sectors affirmed their commitment to the Global Weather Enterprise (GWE) and their common mission to protect lives and property, and to enhance the economic development of citizens everywhere. The GFDRR supported participation of 14 NMHSs from developing countries to this event. A set of recommendations was formulated with the participants on how the GWE could jointly grow to meet ever increasing societal needs in an effective manner, which was presented at the WMO Executive Council in May 2017. (https://www.gfdrr.org/fair-weather-friends-strengthening-a-global-weath…) - On May 22-23, 2017, together with UNISDR and WMO, GFDRR co-lead the session on Investments in Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems during the MHEW Conference, organized by the WMO in the margins of the 2017 DRR Global Platform in Cancun. The conference gathered close to 400 participants. GFDRR supported participation of representatives of 11 developing countries. The session provided an opportunity for beneficiaries, development partners and donors discuss issues of insufficient coordination between national DRM/EWS and hydromet institutions, the need to invest in increasing capacity of these institutions as a critical prerequisite of strengthening country resilience, and others. Special focus was made on how to maintain early warning systems so that countries could continue delivery of critical social services in a reliable and timely manner. (https://www.gfdrr.org/fair-weather-friends-strengthening-a-global-weath…) The capacity building events held in FY 2017 trained overall over 150 of specialists from national meteorological, hydrological and DRM agencies of at least 20 countries. Partnerships continued to grow in FY 2017. As part of the Partnership Strengthening agenda, GFDRR enabled the signing of the Framework Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the World Bank. The MoU which was signed on March 20, 2017 represents an updated framework of collaboration between the WMO and the World Bank. Besides expanding the scope of cooperation by including new areas like climate-smart agriculture and food security, climate-smart urban infrastructure, public health, the MoU focuses on the need to establish more operational implementation modalities for development support. In addition, the Bank, acting through GFDRR, also signed two MoUs - with the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) as an ongoing initiative of GFDRR to build relations with the best performing and advanced national meteorological and hydrological services to tap on their expertise and knowledge to be able to serve clients from developing countries even better. GFDRR's hydromet engagements are likely to grow substantially thanks to support from GFDRR partners and targeted programs like the Climate Risk Early Warning Systems (CREWS) initiative, for which GFDRR is one of the implementing partners along with WMO and UN-ISDR. These engagements are expected to complement larger investments, allowing for quicker preparation of investment projects and acting as a catalyst for funding from other financial partners, such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) as well as IBRD/IDA. In terms of analytical products, GFDRR Hydromet team carried out the Global Assessment of the State of Hydrological Services which has been done in collaboration with the Water Partnership Program and shared with the WMO for endorsement. Another significant achievement was the development of a tool that would help national meteorological and hydrological services develop technical specifications which is one of the most challenging areas for a lot of clients. Meanwhile the PPCR program through a partnership with the European Space Agency facilitated the uptake of satellite EO technologies as an effective way to deliver data and information for enhanced climate resilience across a range of sectors, including addressing urban development, water resources management, agriculture and rural development, as well as climate resilience. This included missions in multiple countries (Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Bhutan, and Malawi) which has nurtured proactive pipeline of climate services investments in the PPCR strategic programs for climate resilience. In addition, a report on Valuing Weather and Climate: Economic Assessment of Meteorological and Hydrological Services, prepared in conjunction with the WMO and USAID, provides an in-depth look into how to assess the socio-economic benefits of meteorological and hydrological services (http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/amp/pwsp/documents/wmo_1153_en.pdf). Finally, the E-Platform on Weather and Climate Services for Resilient Development: A Guide for Practitioners and Policy Makers aims to demonstrate Weather and Climate services as a system of inter-connected parts and processes. The course raises awareness of this important agenda in the context of climate resilient development, and will help teams and project managers in integrating Weather and Climate Services considerations into their projects, both in terms of project conceptualization and delivery (https://olc.worldbank.org/content/e-platform-weather-and-climate-servic…).
The Bank continues to make progress on increasing operational support and scaleup for hydromet programs. The newly launched Hydromet Program by GFDRR appropriately covers three key pillars, of analytical work, capacity building/technical assistance, and investment activities. It supports the goals of working in partnership with other key agencies including WMO. The Bank deserves credit for significant support across many countries â beyond what was committed to at the time of the IEG evaluation â and ongoing leadership in engagement with partners.
The âValuing weather and climate: Economic Assessment of Meteorological and Hydrological Servicesâ paper provides significant support for making the economic case for hydromet services, including both case studies, and advice for practitioners on how to conduct socioeconomic benefit analysis studies in specific cases.
The management update does not comment on whether the planned Weather and Climate Services e-module has been completed, on whether the Bank still intends to produce a policy paper on the Bankâs role in strengthening hydromet (though this is somewhat obviated by the creation of a program with a clear strategy for how to support hydromet).
As a result of ongoing efforts including the findings in the Weather and climate resilience report, in 2016, a new Bank-wide Hydromet Program was established. It facilitates mainstreaming hydromet services into economic sectors including agriculture, water by advising WBG operations teams during project preparation and implementation. The Program works in close collaboration with development partners including the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), bilateral donors and national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHSs) in donor countries. With the World Bank, the Program has strengthened support to hydromet related operations and is also facilitating monitoring and reporting on the portfolio.
In FY16, the Hydromet Program contributed to investment and technical assistance activities in at least 30 countries as well as supporting regional activities. Examples include conducting national needs assessments such as the identification of socio-economic benefits of improved weather services in 14 countries (Senegal, Sri Lanka, and Uruguay amongst them) and strengthening integrated hydromet programs in 15 countries (for example in Myanmar, Vietnam, and Mali. At least four integrated hydromet modernization projects currently under implementation are scheduled to be under implementation in the coming year or so.
The Hydromet Program has supported extensive knowledge generation and analytical work. Multiple reports are launched including "Global Assessment of the state of national hydrological services" that highlights the need to increase and improve support to hydrological services which have been degraded over last 1-2 decades in many developing countries, and "Valuing weather and climate: Economic Assessment of Meteorological and Hydrological Services" of work that advocates for increasing the evidence on socio-economic benefits of hydromet services. Five workshops (with 270 participants in total) were conducted and discussed priority themes such as Public Private Partnerships and coordination of development partners to improve efficiency and harmonization of support to NMHSs in developing countries. Collectively these are helping advocate for the importance of the hydromet to countries and also opening up opportunities for investments. Example is that of the analytical and knowledge work contributing to Mali successfully accessing US$29.5 million from the Green Climate Fund to support their adaptive capacity and climate resilience of vulnerable communities and the economy through strengthening national hydro-meteorological and early warning services.
GFDRR in collaboration with WMO co-organized the First Development Partners Conference in April 2016 with the aim to increase international support and improve the efficiency of hydromet investments by improved coordination amongst donors. This event brought together 37 major development partners (such as NMHSs regional entities, bilateral donors, MDBs to agree on Guiding Principles, Good Practices and future actions. Specific actions include the decision to establish regular information exchange and convene annual meetings to coordinate activities to further scale up engagements area of risk reduction.
Overall, the Bank continues to demonstrate good progress on supporting countries to improve the quality of hydromet services.
4A: The Bank has not yet produced a policy paper on the Bank's role in strengthening weather, climate, and water information services globally. (As noted in the 2014 IEG Update, the "Weather and climate resilience: effective preparedness through national meteorological and hydrological services" is a useful technical paper but is not a policy paper on Bank strategy.)
4B: Good progress has been made on developing the Weather and Climate Services e-module, which is almost complete. This guide appears to offer a practical approach that emphasizes the need to follow the full value-chain from data collection to delivery to end-users.
4C: The Management update discusses ongoing support in a number of countries, especially in Africa, where the need is highest. This represents good progress in expanding the Bank's earlier work in Central Asia to other high need regions. Progress surpasses the initial target of 5 countries.
4D: The Management Update does not comment specifically on the degree to which the Bank is monitoring the extent of hydromet work across sectors, but it does demonstrate and list a large number of examples of the work that is ongoing, indicating that there are central authorities carrying out some tracking work.
4E: The Management update discusses ongoing engagements with key stakeholders including the World Meteorologicl Congress, the WMO, the African Development Bank, the French government, InterMET Asia, ISDR, GFCS, AMCOMET, USAID, and UK Met Office. Some of these are limited to discussions and fora, but others appear to represent the kind of partnership in operational work envisioned in the action plan.
4F: The Management update does not address progress on producing a knowledge product on the benefits of "opening" hydromet data.
A "Weather and Climate Services for Resilient Development: a value chain approach to Project Management" note and e-module is being finalized. It is aimed at development professionals designing targeted Hydromet and Climate Services (HCS) projects and provides practical recommendation for developing such services. The Beta platform and four module content was shared at the International Conference for Climate Services in Uruguay in Dec. 2014 and also discussed and validated by external partners (WMO, ESA, US Government, CSP, CCAFS) in January 2015. The platform was shared in a Climate Services Day learning event at the 2015 PPCR meeting. It is being converted into an animated learning form.
Several activities have provided operational support which in turn is helping scale up hydromet services. The Bank is financing several activities in multiple countries in Africa, Asia and elsewhere to improve hydromet services. Examples include: upgrading of hydromet equipment, enhancing forecasting and operational decision support systems in Malawi financing Ethiopia's first Doppler weather radar and river basin hydromet system, and developing a modernization program to improve delivery of weather, climate, and hydrological services to strengthen resilience to natural hazards developing a road map for strengthening hydrological services in Cameroon, Madagascar, Tanzania, Senegal and Zambia providing technical assistance for development impact based forecasting pilot in Mozambique (with WMO and UKMet) supporting the rehabilitation of various hydromet stations in Uganda improving early warning system and agro-met services in Moldova strengthening hydromet services in Central Asia, particularly in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan improving climate resilience in Nepal and Myanmar through provision of better weather, climate and hydrological services strengthening hydromet services in Haiti.
The Africa Regional Framework Hydromet program was launched during the World Meteorological Congress in 2015 jointly with WMO and African Development Bank. WBG/GFDRR are participating in preparation of the Climate Risk and Early Warning System Initiative sponsored by the French government. They also jointly provide regional training programs on evaluation of socio-economic benefits of hydromet services development of new business models and interactions with private sector (InterMET Asia). WBG/GFDRR participate in Conferences, Coordination Meetings and other significant fora of WMO, ISDR, Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology (AMCOMET), USAID led Conference on Lessons Learned, etc. In 2015 two MOUs between WBG/GFDRR and WMO and UK Met Office have been signed to support joint developments on strengthening national meteorological and hydrological agencies.
PPCR program has expanded support for hydromet and includes hyrdomet related infrastructures, institution and capacity building and sharing of weather information to the beneficiaries in the 6 countries mentioned in the last reporting period. In addition, projects in Haiti and Jamaica were given additional US$5million as was Nepal.
Capacity building and networking has continued - the PPCR supported five countries in the participation at the ICCS4 in Uruguay. The Pilot country meeting July 2014 - which included participation of about 24 countries included two days dedicated to climate services - showcasing operational experiences in countries. This included one day with European Space Agency showcasing innovations on the use of earth observation combined with hydromet data.
The WBG continues to engage with key external partnerships, working in climate related issues. This Climate Service Partnership is crucial for knowledge platforms and support to countries in providing hydromet information, facilitating open data systems in these areas. Through the Climate Change Knowledge Portal and the PCPR, the WBG has engaged with IRI, WMO, ESA, NOAA, NCAR, USAID to learn and share knowledge on climate related issues. This engagements have provided new guidance on use of climate data and available resources to client countries.
As noted in the management update, the Bank has continued to provide a wide degree of support on hydromet issues, including analytic work, investment operations, and partnerships. Though many of the specific elements of the action plan are not yet complete, IEG sees progress since the evaluation as on the right track. Continued action on these elements along with new investment operations will likely lead to achievement of the recommendation. IEG notes that while the analytic paper on hydromet services described in 4A of the management update is a valuable technical paper, it does not constitute a Bank-wide policy paper that outlines the role of the Bank in strengthening hydromet as was planned under the action.
As noted in the evaluation, the biggest gaps in hydromet reporting are in Africa, and so specific program focused on Africa could have big payoffs. IEG looks forward to seeing examples in future of greater information sharing within and between countries, and of information that leads to products that directly benefit the poor.
Action 4A: A paper on âWeather and climate resilience: effective preparedness through national meteorological and
hydrological servicesâ was produced. The link to the publication can be found at: https://www.gfdrr.org/publist. The book
is a helpful guide for Hydromet project preparation and implementation and also includes background material about NMHSs
and how weather services operate with many practical examples.
GFDRR Hydromet Program organized several events for TTLs to discuss the findings of the book and how design and
implementation of the Hydromet projects can potentially be improved.
Action 4B: A âHow-To-Guide for Hydromet & Climate Services Investmentâ is being finalized and will be made available as
an online e-learning platform. This course has a two-fold objective: (i) to raise awareness of decision makers on the
importance of weather and climate services to achieving climate resilient development and (ii) key considerations to
integrate weather and climate services into project conceptualization and delivery â targeted to task teams and development
practitioners. The development of this product is now been broadened to work with key international partners (including,
WMO, IRS, USAID, ESA).
Work to date has produced technical and pedagogical content which will form the basis of the e-learning platform. As part
of pilot test conducted till March 2015, the platform, the content will be validated by external partners and task teams.
Action 4C: The GFDRR Hydromet team started preparation of an equipment guide for hydrometeorological observations to be
used for TTLs within the Bank to get an overview of meteorological and hydrological equipment including cost estimates and
links to pages with companies providing these equipment and services and other relevant information.
The GFDRR Hydromet team provides operational support to Bankâs projects with hydromet components by mobilizing expert
consultants as well as by direct participation of Hydromet team members.
PPCR is supporting hydromet and climate services investments through the Bank in six countries (Nepal, Haiti, Jamaica,
Yemen, Tajikistan, Mozambique â see also under 4D) and smaller investments in other 12 of the PPCR countries (with an
investment of more than $100m). Some of the investments in the PPCR are under implementation (Tajikistan, Nepal,
Mozambique, Yemen) Some of these investments are stand-alone hydromet projects, while others are linked to sector based
(e.g. water, agriculture) investments investing into Early Warning Systems and Capacity Building for use of hydromet
information.
These countries include support from GFDRR in some cases â as technical assistance or grants. The aim of such support is to
help scale-up and sustain the hydro-metrological services in the countries.
Action 4D: As part of the PPCR process and GFDRR effort, there is now a consistent monitoring of the support for
hydromet.
In collaboration with WMO and AfDB, a regional hydromet modernization program for Africa is being developed. The support
will help scale up efforts for strengthening weather, climate and hydrological services in Africa. It is expected that the
Program will become operational in FY15 and support multiple countries.
Together with WMO, GFDRR-based hydromet information exchange has been started. It is a web-based global database of
projects in the hydromet sector aimed to simplify and encourage the entry of new partners for supporting the hydromet
sector.
Action 4E: The GFDRR Hydromet team maintains close collaborations with WMO, AfDB, JICA, DFID, USAID, Norway, EU, Swiss,
CGIAR-CCFAS, global forecasting centers and NMHSs (UKMet Office, US NWS, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Norway
Meteorological Institute, Japan Meteorological Agency, China Meteorological Administration, ECMWF and others), facilitates
the exchange of information and ideas, and ensures access to and mobilize appropriate expertise during the different phases
of WB projects, when necessary.
The WBG has engaged with key external partnerships, such as the Climate Service Partnerships, working in climate related
issues. This partnership is also crucial for knowledge platforms and support to countries in providing hydromet
information, facilitating open data systems in these areas.
Action 4F: In December 2014, the CIF-WB PPCR program supported the participation of 4 PPCR countries (Niger, Nepal,
Tajikistan, Mozambique and at the 3rd International Conference for Climate Services (ICCS) where there was a targeted
session on the lessons, needs and gaps from the hydromet and climate services investments in these countries.
Representation of PPCR countries is also being planned for the 4th ICCS in December 2014 in Uruguay.
GFDRR/WB in collaboration with WMO and USAID will launch the report on "Forecast Value: Economic Assessment of
Meteorological and Hydrological Services" in March, 2015, which will contribute to the discussion on benefits of open data.
Meetings such as 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (March 2015), the Pacific DRM-Climate Resilience Platform
in (June 2015) will be amongst those targeted for outreach.
A further hydromet/climate services agenda is planned to be included at the meeting of the PPCR Pilot countries planned for
Feb. 2015.