92nd American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting (January 22-26, 2012)

Monday, 23 January 2012: 11:45 AM
Development in a Changing Climate: World Bank Support of Weather, Climate and Hydrological Services
Room 333 (New Orleans Convention Center )
Vladimir Tsirkunov, The World Bank, Washington, DC

Importance of weather, climate and hydrological information provided mostly by NMHS is growing due to the need to serve more elaborate societal needs, minimize growing economic losses and help in adaptation to climate change. But NMHS capacity in many regions is not adequate and degraded in some countries during the last 15-20 years. The World Bank is scaling up its support to this public sector by (i) helping NMHSs to raise their profile within the government using results of economic assessments and analytical work; (ii) identifying priority investment needs and developing feasibility studies; (iii) mobilizing resources to finance NMHS modernization project; and (iv)building partnerships with national stakeholders, international organizations (WMO) and donors. The World Bank and Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery have recently launched a Program of Strengthening Weather and Climate Information and Decision-support System (WCIDS). WCIDS is supporting preparation and implementation of projects aimed at improvement of weather, climate and hydrological service delivery in Central Asia, Vietnam, Nepal, Ghana, Mozambique and other countries.

Supplementary URL: