Weather and Climate Information Services: A thematic evaluation across three regions

The Issue

Climate change is increasing average temperatures and the severity and unpredictability of extreme weather events (floods, droughts, temperatures) across the globe. High-quality and accessible climate and weather information are pivotal to build resilience to climate change.

The UK Meteorological Office (Met Office)’s Weather and Climate Information Services (WISER) is working in collaboration with FCDO to deliver transformation in the generation and use of weather and climate services, to support decision making at local, national, and regional levels, building resilience to the impacts of climate change. The WISER programme has been delivering transformational change to support sustainable development since 2015 through two targeted interventions in East Africa and Asia which have been completed; and three current targeted regional climate programmes in Middle East and North Africa, Africa and the Indo-Pacific region.

Tropical Health along with one of its FCDO Global Evaluation and Monitoring Framework Agreement (GEMFA) consortium partners, GFA Consulting Group, have been commissioned to deliver a thematic evaluation of the five WISER programmes across the three regions.

Our Approach

With a lean high-quality women led team, the evaluation is currently in its inception stage working with key stakeholders to design a mixed methods approach to the evaluation; this stage is due to conclude in January 2024.
The evaluation will synthesise evidence and learning across different contexts and geographies to understand which approaches have been more effective in co-producing weather services, particularly in Fragile and Conflict Affected States (FCAS).

In addition to contributing to the FCDO’s reporting on the implementation of its climate agenda, the evaluation will primarily inform the design of the WISER components of the three new regional climate programmes, and therefore its primary audience is the FCDO climate teams, the UK Met Office and the other implementing partners.

Our Findings

The evaluation is due to conclude towards the end of 2024, at which point findings will be shared.