The Last Mile:

Saving lives, improving livelihoods and increasing resiliency with tailored weather information services

Dr. Bonizella Biagini CIRDA Manager

15 March 2016Livingstone, Zambia

Support focused on

• Data and tech transfer• Identify and reach end users• Mainstream/integrate data into

development planning (NAPs)• Financial sustainability planning

Provides support to 11 countries.

Objectives• Support climate services in their

efforts to collect, analyse and disseminate climate information for long term planning and adaptation

• Meet the need to generate timely, high quality climate information that is comprehensible and applicable to end users

• Enable communities and policy makers to access climate information

CIRDA Overview

Benin

BurkinaFaso

EthiopiaThe Gambia

Liberia

Malawi

SãoToméandPríncipe

Tanzania

Uganda

Zambia

Sierra Leone

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3

Progress on Global Support

Technical Assistance to

National Teams

•On the ground support on hydrology, technology, meteorology and forecasting•Data rescue and digitization support •Workshops on forecasting and technologies (creating tools)•Procurement support to at least 7 partners•Establishment of Long Term Agreements (LTAs) to enable acquisition of CI technologies and services

Private Sector Engagement

•Market study to identify partnerships and potential for revenue streams •Workshops on private sector engagement (Uganda) and application development (Zambia)•Outreach to mobile phone companies, technology providers, financial sector and other PS potential partners

Knowledge Management

and best practices sharing

•Facilitating dialogue among government and non governmental stakeholders•Communication toolkit for national projects•Communication platform to share achievements, best practices and lessons learned•Creating new tools to communicate climate and weather information to a broad audience•South South Cooperation to identify best practices- missions and advice on training opportunities

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Project Progress IndicatorsCapacity Improvement (% achieved of targeted improvement) Technology Transfer (Equipment Procured) Direct CIRDA Support (# of field

missions)

Benin 29%

7 automatic agro-climatic stations3 automatic synoptic stations140 limnimetric staff-gauges

20 automatic limnimetric recorders1 sea buoy, 2 ADCPs

2 multi-parameters and portable analyzers of sea water19 hydrological stations were rehabilitated

2

Burkina Faso 10% planning procurement of 150 AWS and automatic rain gauges 1

The Gambia Preparatory phase Plan to use LTA9 AWS (WMO-compliant) 2

Ethiopia progress was registered - technical trainings and awareness-creation events

40 AWS1 upper air radio sonde 1

Liberia Preparatory phase

LTA11 lightning sensors

11 real time all-in-one AWS (the full service - includes renewal of services for up to 5 years)

1

Malawi progress was registered - NMHS staff attending university programmes, technical trainings and awareness-creation events

Plan to use LTA10 AWS 3

Sao Tome and Principe

progress was registered - technical trainings, project management and journalists' trainings

- the international tender process was finalized- technical requirements were sent to CIRDA for the development of

specifications

0Planned Q2

Sierra Leone Preparatory phase

LTA- signed contract with the Procurement Support Unit to outsource procurement- 8 lightning sensors with 8 surface observation stations and 2 synoptic stations

(mix between WMO-compliant and innovative technologies)

2

Tanzania progress was registered - technical trainings, awareness-creation events

16 AWS10 hydro stations50 river gauges

20 automatic rainfall gauges

3

Uganda 20%

LTA20 AWS

a lighting detection network5 sensors with 5 real time all-in-one AWS

4

Zambia 27% 26 AWS 3

Domestic NMHS financing – Zambia (increased 50%), Uganda (increased by more than 100% - radar acquisition), Benin (increased 10%)

General Challenges

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Building Capacity

Growing need for capacity building and specialized training

Need for procurement support

and other services, including

communication

Partnerships

Lack of institutional coordination and

information exchange, including resources

management

Identifying complementary roles

of governments, private sector and

civil society

Absence of regional cooperation even

among neighboring countries

Technology and Services

Going beyond hardware and

observations to forecasts and applications

Understanding and accessing innovative

technologies and services, know how

and software

Limited tools available in countries

to package and communicate

information sectorally for access to end

users

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Current ChallengesStatus of implementation:

Some countries are still in the process of acquiring technology that forms the basis for climate information and early warnings

Most countries that have acquired the technology have not yet transformed the basic observations from their systems into useful and actionable information

Next steps: weather and climate observations to be included into: Weather and climate forecasts Fundamental input to the NAPs Public “Last Mile” products and services (early warnings), and Private “Last Mile” products and services (sustainability applications)

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Goals of this Workshop1. Now we increasingly have the data collection. 2. How can we transform data to information, and communicate the last

mile to help vulnerable communities?

This is how:• Explore pathways to make the data available to end users through local

networks, technology, and partnerships, including identification of end users’ needs

• Consider market opportunities in the form of new weather products and services with the benefit of a Market Study in the 11 partner countries

• Explore relationships and partnerships with private weather services, NGOs, and others that can help national climate services reach the Last Mile – and become more sustainable

• With technical support, work on country strategies for the next phase of the CIRDA program to reach end users and get to last mile

• Engage with software developers here in a “hackathon” to design and develop new applications to transform and communicate weather data to end users

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Thank you

Dr. Bonizella BiaginiCIRDA Manager

UNDP-GEFbonizella.biagini@undp.org

www.undp-alm/porjects/cirdawww.undp-cirda.blogspot.com