The four-year Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems Initiative (CREWS) Djibouti project – with USD 3.6 million in funding – aims to enhance the capacity of Djibouti’s national hydrometeorological and disaster management agencies. Jointly implemented by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Agency for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the project seeks to improve the production, delivery, and dissemination of Multi-hazard Early Warning Systems, enabling better preparedness, early action, and response to hazardous hydrometeorological events impacting Djibouti.The project is structured around six key outcomes: improving the service delivery of the national meteorological agency (ANM) and the Center for Research Studies of Djibouti (CERD), developing and making accessible risk information to guide early warning systems, strengthening information and communication technology, enhancing preparedness and response plans with operational procedures for early warning dissemination, creating knowledge products and awareness programs on early warnings, and providing gender-sensitive training and capacity-building programs.The CREWS Djibouti project is expected to contribute significantly to building resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate-related risks in Djibouti, supporting sustainable development and safeguarding communities against the impacts of climate change. 

The Early Warnings for All Accelerator for LDCs and SIDS project targets seven countries: Comoros, Kiribati,  Madagascar, Mauritius, Nepal, Solomon Islands and Tonga. Economic and social life in these countries is intricately linked to climate and the natural environment, making them more vulnerable to climate variations and change. While the scale of disaster and climate impacts vary from country to country, the vulnerabilities in these countries stem from common factors: topography and complex geographies; reliance on climate-sensitive economic activities; water dependency; high debt burdens; and climate variability and emerging risks. The countries suffer from a combined average annual loss to disasters of over US$ 300 million.

The four-year Denmark support to EW4All Project aims to enhance climate resilience and early warning systems in Niger, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda, and Tanzania. With a grant of CHF 4.9 million from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, this initiative addresses recurring natural hazards, such as flash floods and droughts, that significantly impact these countries, causing loss of life and substantial economic and material damage.The Danish support project will facilitate immediate actions required to implement an integrated approach across the four pillars of EW4All: disaster risk knowledge; detection, observations, monitoring, analysis, and forecasting; warning dissemination and communication; and preparedness and response capabilities. It will also strengthen anticipatory action through the WMO Coordination Mechanism (WCM), support the design, delivery, and uptake of climate and risk information services, and assist in managing the global enabling environment of EW4All.The main activities of the project will involve the implementation of Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems (MHEWS) in the five target countries. This includes the production, analysis, interpretation, and use of climate and risk information to strengthen MHEWS. The countries will also develop capacities to monitor and forecast priority hazards, generate and disseminate actionable early warning responses, and enhance community capacities to respond to, prevent, or mitigate the impacts of climate-related hazards. Furthermore, the project will foster an enabling policy environment to ensure effective coordination between relevant agencies and stakeholders in these countries.

The project was developed by WMO and external partners during mid-late 2022 in response to an EC Horizon Programme call under the 'Disaster Resilient Society’ topic, titled ‘Improved impact forecasting and early warning systems supporting the rapid deployment of first responders in vulnerable areas’. 

With support from USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, The EWS-F targets 14 Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in Central America, the Caribbean, the Pacific, and the Southwest Indian Ocean. The project was designed to expand WMO Members’ capabilities to better predict and manage  floods, namely, riverine floods, urban floods, and flash floods as well as drought and other related hydrometeorological hazards.  Integration with existing tools and interoperability of the systems are some of the core principles of this project. The efforts under this project are aligned with the EW4All initiative. 

The Water at the Heart of Climate Action project contributes to the EW4All initiative, which aims to ensure universal protection from hazardous hydrometeorological, climatological and related environmental events through life-saving multi-hazard early warning systems, anticipatory action and resilience efforts by the end of 2027, as called for by the UN Secretary General in 2022.The WMO grant of approximately EUR 7.3 million supports National Meteorological and Hydrological Services to strengthen their capacities and capabilities to weather and water related services value chain especially through monitoring, forecasting and early warning services to various stakeholders (national agencies such as disaster management, water resources agency, agriculture and irrigation, hydro-power company, transport, tele-communication etc.) including population. Underpinned by capacity development and knowledge management, WMO technical guidance will address improvement in hydrological observations, data, modelling and impact based forecasting and early warning system for the water related risks such as floods and drought  

East Africa has a diverse terrain and climate with a wide range of vegetation landscapes, biodiversity and human occupations. There has been a substantial increase in climate and weather-related impacts which further exposes the region around Lake Victoria to a slew of natural hazards such as floods, droughts, landslides, severe weather events. These major weather-related shocks lead to loss of life and major economic damages for shoreline communities. These impacts are projected to increase with climate change and there is a strong consensus for regional, operational warning systems to protect the safety of those exploiting the natural resources of the LVB.

Burkina Faso is a country facing climate risks. Its monsoon regime is associated with high temporal and spatial variability of rainfall. In recent years, extreme rainfall and severe flooding have devastated populations. Consequently, the country is preparing to consolidate warning services and reduce impacts on vulnerable communities. WMO has been supporting the Agence Nationale de la Météorologie (ANAM) and the Directorate Generale des Ressources en Eau (DGRE) to improve climate services through ClimSA and meteorological and hydrological services through CREWS Burkina Faso. Building on this, technical advisory support is being provided to the Government of Burkina Faso within the framework of the national GCF-financed HYDROMET project (P164078), funded by the World Bank.This technical assistance is aimed at supporting the modernization of meteorological infrastructures, and establishing a robust Early Warning System for floods (Sytèmes d’alerte précoce crues et inondations, SAPCI). In addition, cooperation between the main national institutions linked to warning systems is promoted and forecasting and warning operations processes are improved, prioritizing operational training. The support will build on the existing foundation, improve observation standards and their use in forecasting systems, foster cooperation between partners and projects to maximize technical support to national institutions, and increase operational training.

The WISER-EWSA team of meteorologists, academics, economists, and user engagement specialists from South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and the United Kingdom will work with Disaster Risk Management Agencies and non-governmental organizations, focusing on women and people with disabilities to reduce disaster risk through the co-production of new weather information services and early warnings. Working with people living in cities, including disadvantaged groups (such as women and people with disabilities) we can help to ensure that everyone receives these warnings, and knows what action to take, to reduce the risk of negative impacts. Adding to a growing range of weather and climate information services, nowcasting technology has recently been applied to early warning in other parts of Africa and beyond but this is the first project to do this in southern Africa. We will work directly with communities in Lusaka (Zambia), Maputo (Mozambique) and Katlehong (South Africa).

This project supports a larger project being carried out by GEF and GFDRR.

CREWS resources contribute to improvement of the Government of Togo’s early warning services for drought, flooding and other severe climate and weather events by enhancing the capacities of national services in charge of: i) meteorology and climate; ii) hydrology; iii) civil protection. CREWS resources supports provision of scientific and technical expertise as well as capacity development among stakeholders and communities involved in early warning (national services, population in areas prone to floods and agricultural drought, etc.)

CREWS resources contributes to the improvement of the Government of Chad’s early warning services for drought, flooding and other severe climate and weather-related events by enhancing the capacities of national services in charge of meteorology and climate, hydrology, civil protection, and food security and piloting selected products, which could be replicated and scaled up by larger investment projects. To this scope, CREWS resources leverages additional financing in the area of hydromet and early warning systems by development partners, such as the World Bank Group, the Green Climate Fund and others from within the Africa Hydromet Program.

The Volta Flood and Drought Management (VFDM) project has the ambition to provide the first large scale and transboundary implementation of Integrated Flood and Drought Management strategies through the complete chain of End-to-End Early Warning System for Flood Forecasting and Drought Prediction.  The project will empower the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) and other competent authorities of the six riparian countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali and Togo) with robust and innovative solutions for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, including capacity development for nature-based solutions and gender-sensitive participatory approaches.

The adverse impacts of climate change are a major challenge to the socio-economic development of developing countries, particularly the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Land-locked Developing Countries (LLDCs). The 79 Members of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) are considered to be the most vulnerable countries to the existential threats of climate change. Yet Member States of the OACPS have contributed least to greenhouse gas emissions.The Intra-ACP Climate Services and related Applications Programme (ClimSA) is a EUR 85 M initiative of the OACPS and the European Union. It is an important investment under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) aiming to strengthen the climate services value chain: from access to information, generation and provision of climate services to engagement and capacity building of users to ensure utilization of these services.ClimSA aims to support the climate information services value chain with technical assistance, financial assistance, and infrastructure and capacity building support to improve wide access and use of climate information and applications for decision making processes at all levels, in the six regions of the OACPS through eight Regional Climate Centres (RCCs).As main users of climate services and the bridge to other final users, the African Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the African Union Commission (AUC), the Caribbean Meteorological Organization (CMO) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) will be the focus of the action to ensure sustainability and utilization of climate services. 

West Africa is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate variability and change as it is exposed to climate shocks and stresses and has relatively low capacity to adapt. Hydrometeorological hazards, including droughts, sand and dust storms, flash floods and heavy rainfall result in loss of life and property. 

The CREWS Burkina Faso project is aimed at improving the operational capabilities within Burkina Faso, to produce and deliver hydrological, meteorological and climate services with respect to early warning and with an emphasis on: (i) flood-related risks and (ii) agriculture and food security. The focus of the project is to build capacity of the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and to strengthen its cooperation with key users and stakeholders in areas of urban development, flood risk management, agriculture and food security. Through this project, capabilities are being developed in data management and analysis, sustaining observing networks, monitoring and forecasting, and warning. The project also enables the strengthening of the interface with the users of this information.

Developing user-driven climate services for food security, health and disaster risk reduction in Malawi and Tanzania

Flash floods are among the world’s deadliest natural disasters with more than 5 000 lives lost annually. Their social, economic and environmental impacts are significant. Accounting for approximately 85% of flooding cases, flash floods also have the highest mortality rate among different classes of flooding, including riverine and coastal. Flash floods differ from river floods in their short time scales and occurrence on small spatial scales, which makes flash flood forecasting a different challenge from large-river flood forecasting. In flash floods forecasting, we are concerned mostly with the forecast of occurrence, and focus on two causative events: 1) intense rainfall; and 2) rainfall on saturated soils. Flash floods occur throughout the world, and the development times vary across regions from minutes to several hours depending on the land surface, geomorphological and hydrometeorological characteristics of the region. However, for the majority of these areas, there exists no formal process or capacity for developing flash flood warnings.

Funded by Norad, GFCS Adaptation in Africa Phase II builds on Phase I and aims to further improve national and regional coordination in Malawi and Tanzania. The aim of the project is to enhance capacity of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) to better anticipate and respond to extreme weather events and climate change. The implementation of Phase II is expected to improve climate services delivery for agriculture and food security, health, and disaster risk reduction. An external evaluation of the previous Norway programmes highlighted that while good progress was accomplished, a second phase was needed to ensure sustainability of activities and processes started in Phase I. Phase II is an extension of Phase I (2014-2017) and the purpose is to ensure the sustainability of Phase I efforts.

FOCUS-Africa aims to deliver tailored climate services in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region in four key sectors: agriculture and food security, water, energy, and infrastructure. The full-value chain of climate services will be demonstrated by piloting eight case studies in six countries involving a wide range of end-uses and beneficiaries. The case studies will illustrate how the use of climate science, forecasts and projections can maximize socio-economic benefits to specific national private and public sectors in the region. Pathways to scale-up the pilot cases are included for the whole Africa continent through the Regional Climate Fora.  The SADC countries are particularly vulnerable to climate variability, change and extremes: particularly water resources, agriculture, hydropower generation, ecosystems, and basic infrastructures are under stress as a result of increased frequency and intensity of floods, droughts and landslides. The development of improved climate information and forecasts of decision-relevant parameters are essential to address these challenges. Tailor forecasts such as rainfall onset and cessation are regularly requested by users, along with the associated skill information. Development and delivery of such products and services, and evaluation of socio-economic benefits are central to FOCUS-Africa. Both the science and the applications are targeted at specific requirements, capture through engagement with end-users through ongoing projects and consultations. Project end-users are either based, or have operations in Africa, and will therefore provide guidance on both the implementation and assessment of the case studies, and the ensuing delivery of the FOCUS-Africa climate services. Co-production between end users, climate scientists and sectoral service providers will also ensure effective delivery of climate services.  The project will not only benefit the SADC-based users, but the European consortium partners will also greatly enhance their knowledge in both the science and climate services provision. 

The Greater Horn of Africa is highly vulnerable to extreme weather and climate events that severely impact the region’s mostly rain-fed agriculture. The risks to rural agro-pastoral livelihoods from drought and floods are enormous. Persistent and deteriorating food and nutrition insecurity remain a major concern. The limited access to climate information and technical support to enhance agricultural productivity, as well as the inadequate funding for response and adaptation options, exacerbate the situation.ACREI is a US$ 6.8 million project funded by the Adaptation Fund and implemented by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC).

HIGHWAY is a 4,500,000.00 GBP project under the Weather and Climate and Information SErvices for Africa (WISER) programme, funded by the UK department for International Development (DFID) which looks to enhance the resilience of African people and economic development to weather and climate related shocks, with an inital focus on the Lake Victoria Basin (LVB). The LVB is the lifeblood of East Africa supporting approximately 25 percent of the population. The people and economy heavily depend on rain-fed agriculture and fish industries in this basin. On average, 3,000-5,000 deaths occur each year due to navigation accidents caused by strong winds and waves, and there were no regional, operational warning systems in place to protect the safety of those exploiting the natural resources of the LVB.

Kenya AMDAR is a WMO-led Public Private Partnership between the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) and Kenya Airways (KQ)  for the establishment and operation of a meteorological observing program facilitating the automated reporting of meteorological atmospheric information from a fleet of aircraft. The AMDAR program uses the aircraft’s existing sensors, avionics and telecommunication systems to gather, process, and disseminate data. The data is used directly by KMD to improve the accuracy of weather forecasting services to aviation and public weather applications that meet sector-specific needs.   The project also brings wider benefits to Kenya, the African continent and the global community through the positive impact of the use of data in applications associated with climate monitoring and prediction, environmental protection, agriculture, health, and disaster risk reduction.  AMDAR expansion into the data-sparse regions, specifically Africa, will yield greater incremental benefits for developing and emerging markets, which in many cases are more vulnerable to weather-related phenomena than developed economies.