Study on Innovative Collaboration

A study of the non-technical aspects of international collaborative ventures that implement the World Weather Watch Programme of the WMO

Ruth Patton
Met Office, UK

All those individuals and organizations who very kindly took the time to complete the questionnaire and answer follow up questions are gratefully acknowledged. Without their valuable input, the report would say nothing at all.

Thanks also go to Dave McGuirk of the WMO Secretariat for his prompt advice and guidance throughout the course of the study.

Finally, thank-you to the Met Office for nominating me to conduct the study and giving me the time to carry it out. It has been a most interesting project.

The Twelfth Session of the Commission for Basic Systems discussed "The Significance of Innovation in the Implementation of the WWW" (please refer to paragraphs 7.5 – 7.8 of the Abridged Final Report). The emphasis of the innovation was on the NON-technical aspects of collaborative ventures. This means the administrative, contractual, financial and organizational arrangements relating to the collaborations.

The Commission concluded that many different approaches to collaborations were being adopted. These ranged from full global or regional co-operation through CBS and Regional Associations to bilateral arrangements. Some groups of countries had successfully set up joint institutions either to carry out specific major tasks or to provide a framework to run joint projects. For some functions an NMHS could act on behalf of other services (with agreement). The right approach depended on the particular problem being addressed and was a matter of choice for each NMHS.

The Commission established a Rapporteur to study and report to CBS on existing co-operative arrangements and agreements which are specifically relevant to the implementation of the WWW System and to evaluate the results of these efforts so that all Members may benefit from the experience gained.

The expected long-term outcome of this study is the promotion and strengthening of successful co-operative arrangements/agreements for the implementation of the World Weather Watch system.

A questionnaire was sent to all Members requesting information about existing collaborative ventures and their success relative to the original aims and objectives of the venture. Each Member was asked to complete questionnaires for ventures which are related to the Implementation of the WWW Programme of WMO. Questions were asked about the objective, the membership and the administrative, contractual, financial and organizational arrangements. They were also asked about the success of the venture and whether it had resulted in any additional funding for their organization. A copy of the questionnaire is given in Annex 1 (pdf).

A second strand of questionnaires were sent to the co-ordinators of 12 projects identified to fit into one of the 4 ‘challenges’ as outlined by the CBS Management Group. A list of these projects and their associated challenge and WMO region is provided in Annex 2.

An explanation of the terms used is provided in Annex 5.

A total of 30 questionnaires were received covering 25 different collaborative ventures. Additional information was found over the internet and where appropriate, additional questions seeking clarification were sent to respondents.

Where questionnaire responses were not received for the specific ventures, an additional approach was made at the working level to augment information gained over the internet. Therefore, a total of 31 different ventures were studied.

Each of the ventures that provided a response is summarised in Annex 3.

The detailed analysis of the results of the survey are given in Annex 4. The responses were grouped according to the:

• different methods and approaches used by the ventures

• venture size (number of members);

• geographical scope;

• challenge type,

It is worth noting at his point that comparing like with like is not easy. As noted in the venture summaries, some ventures use combinations of contractual and/or financial arrangements to create the organizational framework of the venture. Similarly, some ventures cover 2 or more types of challenge. This again makes analysis difficult.

In the final section of Annex 4, the analysis then looks at the influence of the organizational approach on the success of the venture.

All of the ventures researched in this study rated themselves to have met the objective completely, to a large extent or in part. However, even completely successful ventures may have encountered obstacles along the route to that success. Overcoming these obstacles is of particular interest so that all can learn from the experience gained. The obstacles given below are a selection of informative examples that those embarking on a collaborative venture may wish to bear in mind at the planning stage.

Where a partnership is undertaken there is a possibility of gaps in technical expertise. The use of technical co-operation, such as training activities can be used to bridge any gaps. This is borne out by the fact that many of the ventures researched in this study use technical co-operation as an integral part of their approach to meeting the objective.

Different governments delegate different levels of contractual and financial authority to their National Meteorological and Hydrological Services. As a result, the time taken to approve contracts and accept cost analyses can vary enormously from one country to the next. The discussion of the time-scales required for these matters will ensure that all parties have the same expectations for the time taken to implement the project as a whole.

You will have noted that some ventures use several contractual mechanisms to formalise the collaboration. Combining contractual mechanisms in this way may enable the differing requirements of governments to be met.

Some trade regulations are however, beyond even national control. Regional economic communities can favour local suppliers of equipment and overcoming this and similar issues in the procurement process can be prohibitively lengthy. The scope of this study does not stretch to solving such obstacles but I mention it here as something to be considered.

Whilst there was an excellent response to the questionnaire, it would also be fair to say that the 31 ventures studied provide a very small snapshot of the enormous number of international collaborations undertaken to further the implementation of the World Weather Watch Programme of the World Meteorological Organization.

The limited nature of the sample becomes apparent when one tries to break down the contractual, financial and organizational approaches used as a function of size, geographical scope and associated challenge(s). The sample was too small and the range of approaches too large to enable the identification of patterns within these groupings.

One must also remember that the success of ventures is purely subjective and dependent on the view of the respondent.

One final limitation that must be bone in mind is the potential for misunderstanding in the use of terminology, particularly where language difficulties play a role. I have endeavoured to clarify and verify all input received so it is hoped that such misunderstandings are kept to a minimum.

• Contracts or a combination of a contract with another formalisation tool were the most common contractual arrangement used. 13 of the 31 ventures used a contract either in isolation or with at least one other contractual tool.

• The most common financial calculation used was simply for "individual amounts" to be used. For the most part this comprised the covering of own costs and voluntary technical co-operation contributions. 16 of the 31 ventures used "individual amounts".

• No venture calculated contributions on an equal amounts basis.

• Any payments/transfers of funds that were made, were most commonly done so on a routine basis. 13 of the 31 ventures study made their payments routinely. 2 of those 13 also made ad-hoc payments.

• No venture made payments/transferred funds at the end of the project.

• Most common organizational approach was code number 3 (7 of the 31 ventures) followed by code number 11 (5 of the 31 ventures).

Note: Code 3 is 1 leader, implementation done by all/some, funds are transferred.
Code 11 is Technical Co-operation.

• 9 of the ventures studied had a technical co-operation component.

• No-one used organizational approach code 7 (2 or more leaders, implementation by all/some, funds are transferred)

• Of the 16 ventures that were completely successful, 7 had a technical co-operation component.

• It was not possible to identify any preferred organizational, financial or contractual arrangements for a given size of venture.

• It was not possible to identify any preferred organizational, financial or contractual arrangements for a given geographical scope of venture.

• It was not possible to identify any preferred organizational, financial or contractual arrangements for any specific challenge or combination of the challenges facing the World Weather Watch Programme.

There are very many ways to collaborate. Different approaches have been tried, with varying degrees of success.

There is no right or wrong way to collaborate internationally. Each venture has its own unique set of variables that will determine how its membership should best organize itself in order to meet its objectives.

A collaborative venture does not need to be overly formal, nor overly complicated to meet its objectives. In fact, if one considers the cost overhead required in the application of the more formal approaches, successful informal organisational approaches can be far more cost efficient.

This report encourages all WMO members to consider all available options for working with one another for mutual benefit BUT encourages arrangements to be as simple as possible.

Lateral thinking, flexibility and a continued focus on the benefits to be gained are the most probable contributors to a successful international collaboration.

An informal network, for discussions about non-technical aspects of international collaborations may be a useful way of learning from the experience of others. An internet newsgroup or other email exchange mechanism, where collaborators can informally exchange ideas and ask for input from others may be the most cost effective way of implementing such a network.

If such a networking mechanism is created, the objective could be: "to facilitate innovation in the non-technical aspects of international collaboration and therefore to further enable the implementation of the technical components of the World Weather Watch Programme".