Climate Exchange

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The Climate Change - Mitigation and

Adaptation international training programme –

a Swedish initiative

Daniel Holmstedt and Bo Holst, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute

limate Change - Mitigation and Adaptation is an advanced

international training programme for capacity build-

ing in developing countries, funded by the Swedish

International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The

overall objective is to increase, and transfer knowledge and

capacity related to climate change and its consequences.

Experiences from the programme have been very positive and

it is obvious that this type of training programme fulfils a need

for many organizations. It is also clear that it contributes to

the improvement of climate services by promoting informa-

tion exchange and dialogue between climate experts and

community planners. The programme organizer is the Swedish

Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) along with

its partners Sweco and the Stockholm Environment Institute.

The programme is designed for individuals who have key positions

in organizations related to national, regional or local community

planning. In other words, those who are active in reform processes

of strategic importance at various levels. Participants are expected

to be well acquainted with climate change issues from an adaptation

perspective and to have a university degree in technical, natural or

social sciences. The programme aims to provide methods for the

identification of vulnerable sectors in society. Mitigation and adapta-

tion to future climate conditions and the development

of action plans are other important aspects. The inten-

tion is that the programme will contribute to capacity

building and strengthening of institutions in the partici-

pants’ home countries. Participants are recruited from:

• Ministries

• Authorities (local, regional or national)

• Environmental institutes and research organizations

• Non-governmental organizations

• Consulting firms

• Industries.

The main target group for the training programme is

decision-makers rather than, for example, staff at national

meteorological and hydrological services (NMHS) who are

already knowledgeable in climatology and climate change.

Therefore the number of participants from NMHSs

amounts only to about 10 from least developed countries

(LDCs). However, out of the total 160 participants from

LDCs, about 80 are recruited from organizations that are

immediate users of climate services from the respective

national hydrometeorological agencies and institutes.

Most of them come from governmental or regional organ-

izations in direct need of climate information for their

planning and decision-making processes. Examples are

ministries of environment, water, energy, forestry, agri-

culture and fishing, and health, as well as national disaster

management committees and specific development coun-

cils, commissions and projects are represented.

Programme outline

The programme has four main components:

• Preparation

• Training in Sweden (four weeks)

• Project work in the home country (six to eight months)

• A follow-up regional seminar.

The preparation phase includes the selection of partici-

pants by the programme organizer. This is based on a

formal application which contains a brief presentation

by the applicant, including an outline of their role in the

home country and a description of the individual project

work, which is an important part of the programme.

apacity

evelopment

Distribution of participants from the training programme

Out of the total 450 participants, 160 come from LDCs (Asia, Africa and

French speaking West Africa).

Source: Elin Sjökvist, SMHI