Climate Exchange

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tion to manage weather extremes for vulnerable populations, within

many government agencies (such as disaster management, health

and water resources) and weather- and climate-sensitive sectors

(agriculture and hydropower). None of the potential users of

climate information is fully supported at the moment.

The projects will be conducted over five years. In Nepal,

the next step will be for the World Bank and GoN to appraise

and negotiate the project followed by implementation of the

programme of work.

The projects are scaled to meet many of the GoN’s and GoY’s

basic needs to improve their resilience to climate change. In both

cases the projects focus on agriculture and flood warnings for

civil protection as the principal beneficiary of the new services in

the first instance. Further investment will enable this experience

to be included more explicitly in other climate-sensitive sectors,

such as health.

Further projects

There is a growing need for better quality weather, water and

climate information particularly to enable early warning, to

support disaster-reduction strategies and to improve operations

in climate-sensitive sectors. The improvement of hydrometeoro-

logical service delivery in participating countries will focus on

providing technical assistance and equipment to help build the

capacity to deliver these services to end users.

Central Asia

The Central Asia Hydrometeorology Modernization Project

will strengthen regional coordination and information sharing

between participating NMSs (to be implemented by the Executive

Committee of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea), and

hydromet services in the Kyrgyz Republic (to be implemented by

Kyrgyzhydromet) and the Republic of Tajikistan (to be implemented

by Tajikhydromet). The project will provide much needed equip-

ment and capacity-building to NMSs in Central Asian countries.

Most importantly, emphasis will be placed on improving service

delivery through institutional strengthening and building partner-

ships with key stakeholders. New business models will be developed,

tested and implemented to help partly recover costs for sustainable

development.

Benefits will include reduced human vulnerability to natural

hazards, reduced risk of damage to property and the potential for

overall reduction of economic losses as a result of natural disas-

ters. Coordination and information exchange among the NMSs will

be improved, as will regional cooperation in support of climate

adaption, through the generation of more reliable data that better

responds to clients’ needs.

The project is still in its early phases: the regional coordination

and Republic of Tajikistan components have recently begun and

the Kyrgyz Republic component is yet to start. As such, the initial

start-up is slow and the project management units are not yet fully

functional. It will take four to five years to put the results on the

ground and to achieve the desired impact.

Jamaica

In Jamaica, a project is underway to improve quality climate infor-

mation for effective planning and action at local and national levels.

The project entails upgrading the data collection, processing and

forecasting system of the meteorological services, replacing the

current, almost obsolete radar and upgrading the data

acquisition network with automatic recording systems

that can transmit real-time data. Business processes and

the technical expertise of key personnel will be reviewed

and updated, and strategies formulated to ensure greater

sustainability and more effective customer services. The

project will also determine the feasibility of developing

climate goods and services for private sector clients.

Climate change scenarios specific to Jamaica will

be developed, including high-resolution scenarios at

the national and sectoral levels, to enable effective

planning and design of adaptation initiatives. This

will also entail building sector-specific methodologies

for climate-resilient planning and design, to improve

the capacity of professionals to apply the scenarios in

development planning.

A vulnerability assessment and risk information

platform will be developed to improve the under-

standing of how climate change affects other risks

and vulnerabilities within the sectors, such as the

relationship between future rainfall changes and rain-

fed agriculture. Specialized vulnerability assessments

will be carried out using climate scenarios to assess

the expected consequences of climate change for each

priority sector. These assessments will enable the

convergence of socioeconomic data and climate data

to more meaningfully devise adaptation strategies.

There will also be a detailed vulnerability assessment

of the health sector, and a costed plan of action will

be developed outlining the actions necessary to make

the key health facilities climate-resilient. Low-cost

but critical actions will be implemented to enhance

resilience in pilot facilities.

A further component is to develop a climate change

risk information platform based on intensive assess-

ments of end-user needs and updated climate scenarios.

This will give Jamaicans a common medium for sharing

information and learning in order to facilitate better

adaptation to climate change risks. Climate change

awareness and education activities will be implemented,

including demonstration projects such as a rain water

harvesting project at a school located in a community

with demonstrated water deficit. This component will

also scale up the ‘Voices for Climate Change’ awareness

and education project, which was successfully imple-

mented in selected communities across the island.

The platform is intended to improve the knowledge,

attitudes and practices of the Jamaican public towards

climate change by 50 per cent. It will provide guidance

for decision makers and planners, and serve as a tool

for awareness building and decision-making at national,

sectoral and local levels.

These projects illustrate the work being done to

enable better gathering, analysis and sharing of hydrom-

eteorological services, so that PPCR countries that are

currently highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate

variability and change can build the solid hydromet and

climate information services that they need to support

decision-making and enhance resilience.

apacity

evelopment