Country Hydromet Diagnostics

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A peer-to-peer, standardized approach to assess hydromet services

The Country Hydromet Diagnostics responds to the need for a standardized, integrated and operational tool and approach for assessing National Meteorological Services, their operating environment, and their contribution to high-quality weather, climate, hydrological and environmental information services and warnings.

The Diagnostics is an umbrella tool that draws on and adds value to existing WMO assessment material by synthesizing existing approaches and data into an easily interpretable form, validating the information provided by WMO Members through a peer-review process, and obtaining missing information.

The Diagnostics aims at informing policy and investment decision-making, in particular guiding investments of the members of the Alliance for Hydromet Development.

The Diagnostics uses peer review as its overarching approach, following examples of other organizations, including the OCED process for the peer review of member’s development assistance. As peers, advanced National Meteorological and Hydrological Services from developed and developing countries will undertake the Diagnostics, strictly following the tool. This will enable coherent and standardized Diagnostics across countries.

2023-2024 Reports

Africa

Cabo Verde

PEER REVIEWER:
Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

Chad

PEER REVIEWER:
GeoSphere Austria

Comoros

PEER REVIEWER:
General Directorate of Meteorology, Morocco

Democratic Republic of the Congo

PEER REVIEWER:
MeteoSwiss, Switzerland

Ethiopia

PEER REVIEWER:
Norwegian Meteorological Institute & Finnish Meteorological Institute

Guinea-Bissau

PEER REVIEWER:
Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA)

Liberia

PEER REVIEWER:
Nigerian Meteorological Agency

Madagascar

PEER REVIEWER:
Deutscher Wetterdienst, Germany

Malawi

PEER REVIEWER:
Norwegian Meteorological Institute & Icelandic Meteorological Office

Mozambique

PEER REVIEWER:
South African Weather Service

Rwanda

PEER REVIEWER:
Finnish Meteorological Institute

São Tomé and Príncipe

PEER REVIEWER:
Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

Senegal

PEER REVIEWER:
Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

South Sudan

PEER REVIEWER:
GeoSphere Austria

Tanzania

PEER REVIEWER:
Danish Meteorological Institute

Uganda

PEER REVIEWER:
Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

Zambia

PEER REVIEWER:
Met Office, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Asia

Bangladesh

PEER REVIEWER:
Norwegian Meteorological Institute& China Meteorological Administration

Bhutan

PEER REVIEWER:
Finnish Meteorological Institute

Cambodia

PEER REVIEWER:
Met Office, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Maldives

PEER REVIEWER:
Finnish Meteorological Institute & BMKG, Indonesia

South America

Guyana

PEER REVIEWER:
GeoSphere Austria

Suriname

PEER REVIEWER:
Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)

North America, Central America, Caribbean

Antigua and Barbuda

PEER REVIEWER:
Met Office, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Belize

PEER REVIEWER:
Met Office, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Cuba

PEER REVIEWER:
Agencia Estatal de Meteorología, Spain

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

PEER REVIEWER:
GeoSphere Austria

South-West Pacific

Fiji

PEER REVIEWER:
Bureau of Meteorology, Australia

Kiribati

PEER REVIEWER:
Bureau of Meteorology, Australia

Nauru

PEER REVIEWER:
Bureau of Meteorology, Australia

Papua New Guinea

PEER REVIEWER:
Bureau of Meteorology, Australia

Samoa

PEER REVIEWER:
Bureau of Meteorology, Australia

Solomon Islands

PEER REVIEWER:
Bureau of Meteorology, Australia

Timor-Leste

PEER REVIEWER:
Finnish Meteorological Institute & BMKG, Indonesia

The 10 elements of the
Country Hydromet Diagnostics

The CHD provides a maturity assessment of the National Meteorological Services, their operating environment, and their contribution to high-quality hydromet services. The ten elements are grouped into four categories, helping to identify where additional focus and support may be needed:


Enablers

A - Governance and institutional setting

How the NMHS mandate is formalized, and how it is implemented, overseen, and resourced.

B - Effective partnerships to improve service delivery

How the NMHS brings together national and international partners to improve its service offering, including academic, research, private sector, and climate and development finance institutions.

Observation and data processing system

Service and product development and dissemination

F - Warning and advisory services

NMHS’s role as the authoritative voice for weather-related warnings, and its operational relationship with disaster and water management structures.

G - Contribution to climate services

NMHS’s role in and/or contribution to a national climate response framework.

H - Contribution to hydrology services

NMHS’s role in and/or contribution to hydrological services according to its mandate and country requirements. Currently, the CHD does not evaluate the hydrological services if outside the NMHS.

I - Product dissemination and outreach

Effectiveness of the NMHS in reaching all public and private sector users and stakeholders

User and stakeholder interaction

J - Use and national value of products and services

Engagement with public and private sector stakeholders in delivering services and ensuring continuous improvement.

The CHD have been developed through a phased and learning approach

In the first phase, a multi-stakeholder working group supported the development of the CHD, its methodology and approach. Alliance members then partnered with 16 countries to road-test the tool as either peer reviewers or reviewed countries: Afghanistan, Austria, Chad, China, Côte d’Ivoire, India, Kyrgyz Republic, Liberia, Maldives, Morocco, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Sierra Leone, Switzerland, and Turkey.

The COVID-19 pandemic restricted travel, meaning that all peer-review assessments were conducted remotely. To conduct the assessment, peer-reviewers made use of the WMO’s Community Platform datasets which contain information suitable for assessing many of the element maturity levels for each NMHS. Reviewers also worked in collaboration with the country’s WMO Permanent Representative, respective country stakeholders, and Alliance members to obtain additional information necessary to complete the full assessment of each of the ten elements. CHD reports were then drafted by reviewers in consultation with the WMO Secretariat support team, whom also moderated the process, ensuring consistent application of the assessment tool across all countries.

Following completion of the assessments, feedback was collated from all participants to inform refinement and scaling-up of the tool in the next phase. The road-testing was completed in June 2021.

The second phase saw the tool being refined based on the lessons learned from phase one, again supported by a multi-partner working group. The updated CHD tool has since been offered to Alliance members that request the diagnostics for the initial stage of project development in a country.

In the third phase, the delivery of the CHD has been fully integrated into the SOFF as an “on-demand” step of the ‘readiness phase’, which all eligible countries requested so far.

Moving forward, assessments will be periodically updated for all SOFF supported countries to track progress in closing the capacity gap and inform future investment priorities.

2021 Road Testing

Afghanistan

PEER REVIEWER:
Turkish State Meteorological Service

Chad

PEER REVIEWER:
Direction Générale de la Météorologie, Maroc

Cote d’Ivoire

PEER REVIEWER:
Direction Générale de la Météorologie, Maroc

Kyrgyz Republic

PEER REVIEWER:
MeteoSwiss (Switzerland)

Liberia

PEER REVIEWER:
NiMet (Nigeria)

Maldives

PEER REVIEWER:
IMD (India)

North Macedonia

PEER REVIEWER:
ZAMG (Austria)

Sierra Leone

PEER REVIEWER:
NiMet (Nigeria)

Kazakhstan

PEER REVIEWER:
ZAMG (Austria)

Related Publications

Alliance for Hydromet Development
Published by: WMO; 2024
The Hydromet Gap Report 2024 presents an analysis based on Country Hydromet Diagnostics (CHD) conducted in 20 least-developed countries and small island developing States in 2023-2024.
Alliance for Hydromet Development
Published by: WMO; 2021
The Alliance for Hydromet Development’s first Gap Report to track progress on closing the global hydromet capacity gap, based on the application of the Country Hydrmet Diagnostics in partnership with 16 countries.
World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
Published by: WMO; 2023
The 2022 update of the Country Hydromet Diagnostics reflects lessons learned and feedback from the CHD road-testing with 16 countries that took place in 2021 and further consultations with stakeholders.
World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
Published by: WMO; 2020
The Country Hydromet Diagnostics responds to the need for a standardized, integrated and operational tool and approach for diagnosing National Meteorological Services. In the first phase, a draft prototype has been developed to be road-tested with selected countries.