About the WMO DRR Programme

About the WMO DRR Programme

In 2003, WMO Congress XIII established the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Programme to strengthen capacities for provision of meteorological, hydrological and climate services of its Members and its operational and research networks to support various aspects of DRR decision-making. Through this crosscutting programme, WMO is developing an organization-wide coordination framework at the international, regional and national levels

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Vision

Long Term Objective

Purpose and Scope

Supporting DRR Decision Making

Benchmarking DRR capacities

Work Plan

Governance

Resource Mobilization Strategy

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DRR Programme Work Plan (2012-2015) - Approved by EC 64

Vision

"To enhance the contributions of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), in a more cost-effective, systematic and sustainable manner, towards the protection of lives, livelihoods and property, through enhanced capabilities and cooperation in the field of disaster risk reduction at national to international levels."

Long-Term Objective

The main long-term objective of the WMO DRR Programme is to contribute to the strengthening of institutional capacities with respect to the provision of meteorological, hydrological and climate services and cooperation in supporting disaster risk reduction for the protection of lives and property and contributing to sustainable development of Members.

Purpose and Scope

The purpose of the WMO DRR Programme is to assist WMO Members to provide and deliver services that are directed towards the protection of lives, livelihoods and property, in a cost-effective, systematic and sustainable manner.

The scope of the Programme is defined through its five strategic goals underpinned by the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters (HFA)and approved by WMO Congress XV in 2011:

Development, improvement and sustainability of early warning systems in particular related to scientific and technical infrastructures, systems and capabilities for research, observing, detecting, forecasting and warnings of weather-, water- and climate-related hazards;
Development, improvement and sustainability of standardized hazard databases and metadata, systems, methods, tools and applications of modern technologies such as geographical information systems for recording, analyzing and providing hazard information for risk assessment, sectoral planning, risk transfer and other informed decision-making;
Development and delivery of warnings, specialized forecasts and other products and services that are timely, understandable to those at risk and driven by requirements of disaster risk reduction decision processes and operations engaging socio-economic sectors;
Stimulate a culture of resilience and prevention through strengthening of capacities for better integration of meteorological, hydrological and climate products and services in disaster risk reduction across all socio economic sectors, such as land use planning and infrastructure design and continued public education and outreach campaigns; and
Strengthening cooperation and partnerships of WMO and NMHSs in national, regional and international user forums, mechanisms and structures for implementation of disaster risk reduction.

Meteorological, Hydrological and Climate Services to Support DRR Decision Making

As countries are strengthening their institutional capacities in disaster risk reduction, there is increasing need for core and customized meteorological, hydrological and climate services by a diverse group of DRR stakeholders (e.g. government authorities, public and private sectors, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), general public and media, etc).

Meteorological, hydrological and climate services are fundamental in supporting a number of decision areas such as early warning systems & emergency response operations, Sectoral preparedness planning, inventory management, insurance contracts, strategic & scenario building, Infrastructure investment & land zoning, government risk financing, and international policy negotiation. (See Figure 3 on the DRR Programme homepage ).

Through its crosscutting DRR Programme, WMO is working to align the activities of its constituent bodies, technical programmes and global operational network and its strategic partners to strengthen NMHS to (Figure 1):

Engage effectively in the National DRR governance and institutional frameworks;
Identify, prioritize, establish partnerships and service delivery agreements with national DRR user community engaged in various DRR activities such as risk analysis, Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems (MHEWS), sectoral risk management, disaster risk financing and transfer (DRR users);
Develop and deliver core and specialized products and services (e.g., data, forecasts, analysis, technical advices and a range of other value-added products and services) defined by the requirements of the “DRR users” for DRR decision support (e.g., hazard/risk analysis, multi-hazard EWS, sectoral risk management and disaster risk financing and risk transfer) in a cost-effective, systematic and sustainable manner;
Ensure that core operational capacities (e.g., observing networks, forecasting systems, telecommunication systems, data management systems, human resources, etc.) are built upon the principles of Quality Management Systems (QMS) to support product and service development and delivery;
Establish partnership agreements with other national technical agencies (e.g., hydrological services, ocean services, etc.) and with global and regional specialized centers (e.g. Global Producing Centres (GPC), Regional Specialized Meteorological Centres (RSMCs), Regional Climate Centres (RCC), Tsunami Watch Centers, etc.), with standard operating procedures; and
Engage in regional and global efforts for development of risk information for large scale and trans-boundary hazards, through strengthened regional and global cooperation.

Figure 1: Schematic representation of linkages between meteorological services and DRR stakeholders

Benchmarking national meteorological, hydrological and climate capacities to support DRR decision Making

In 2006, WMO conducted a national survey to benchmark existing capacities, gaps and needs of its Members for development of meteorological, hydrological and climate-related information to support disaster risk reduction. The national survey addressed capacities of NMHSs to contribute to all aspects of disaster risk reduction including risk identification, sectoral planning, early warning system, education and knowledge sharing. Of the 187 members of WMO at the time, 139 (74%) countries participated in this survey.

The overall results of the assessments show that more than 60% of the WMO NMHSs indicated the need for appropriate observing networks, human and financial resources to maintain them, data rescue programmes and data management systems. Nearly 70% of NMHSs require guidelines for maintaining standard databases of hazards, metadata and tools for hazard analysis, Furthermore, there is need for development of disaster impact databases for various sectors as well as hazard and risk analysis tools for quantification of exposure and vulnerabilities (e.g. casualties, construction damages, crop yield reduction, and water shortages). The results of the survey have been synthesized into a report “Capacity Assessment of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in Support of Disaster Risk Reduction”.

DRR Programme Work Plan

Based on the assessment of the capacities, gaps and needs, the DRR Programme of the WMO aims to facilitate better alignment of the activities of WMO constituent bodies, technical programmes and global operational network as well as strategic partners to support capacity development of NMHS (See Figure 2, a—f). This is achieved through the implementation of a two-tier Work Plan (hereafter referred to as the DRR Work Plan) which was approved by WMO Congress XVI in 2011 (Figure 2). The components of the DRR Work Plan includes: (i) development of thematic guidelines, standards and training modules, based on documentation and synthesis of good practices; and (ii) coordinated DRR and climate adaptation national/regional capacity development projects.

Two Tier Work Plan

Figure 2: Two-Tier Schematic of the Implementation Approach of the DRR Programme

Governance

The guidance and oversight to the DRR Programme is provided by the WMO Executive Council Working Group on Service Delivery (EC WG SD).

Resource Mobilization Strategy

Implementation of resource mobilization in support of the crosscutting DRR Programme is an integral part of the WMO resource mobilization strategy, with consideration for:

The development of DRR Programme implementation priorities based upon the WMO’s Strategic and Operating Plans;
Identification of strategic donors, understanding of their priorities and interests in investing in DRR projects in different regions and their engagement in the projects from early stages of assessments and project identification; and
Realization of post-disaster funding opportunities such as the UN Flash Appeal led by the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) and reconstruction planning, led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - World Bank - European Union.

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