2-2,session Ii Capacity Building 2008 Ven Tsui

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Workshop of Advisers on External Relations for RA II/V, Jeju, 28-30 April 2008 Capacity building for developing countries

Dr Venantius Tsui Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology

Australian priorities  Australia’s top priority for technical cooperation is with AsiaPacific countries; scientific evidence has shown that observations closer to home have a greater impact on the quality of the NWP outputs; also Australia wishes to establish geopolitical alliance with these partners;  The objective of technical cooperation is 'capacity building'; in return, it will benefit both parties.  Since VCP is a form of Official Development Assistance, our aim is to alleviate poverty and to promote sustainable development. Hence, we target the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). As 49 of the 50 LDCs are located in Africa, Asia and the SW Pacific, our second priority is to focus on capacity building for Africa. 2

Least Developed Countries  RA I: 33: Madagascar, Angola, Malawi #, Benin, Mali #, Mauritania, Burkina Faso #, Mozambique, Burundi #, Cape Verde *, Niger #, Central African Republic #, Rwanda #, Chad #, Comoros *, Sao Tome and Principe *, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Djibouti, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia #, Sudan, Gambia, Guinea, Togo, Guinea-Bissau *, Uganda #, United Republic of Tanzania, Lesotho #, Liberia, Zambia #  RA II: 9: Afghanistan #, Bangladesh, Maldives *, Bhutan #, Myanmar, Cambodia, Nepal #, Lao People’s Democratic Republic #, Yemen  RA III:  RA IV: 1: Haiti *  RA V: 4: Samoa *, Solomon Islands *, Kiribati *, Vanuatu *  RA VI:  3 are non-WMO Members (Equatorial Guinea, Tuvalu * and Timor-Leste *). * Also Small Island Developing States (SIDS) # Also Land Locked Developing Countries (LLDCs)

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Example: Country participation in DipMet Course in BMTC                   

1990: Fiji, Malaysia (2), Zimbabwe (2) 1991: Vanuatu 1992: Malaysia (2), Malawi (2), Mauritius (2) 1993: Fiji, Pakistan 1994: Papua New Guinea 1995: Fiji (2), Zimbabwe (2) 1996: Fiji (did not complete) 1997: Fiji (2), Papua New Guinea 1998: Fiji, Hong Kong, Zimbabwe 1999: Singapore (2), Zimbabwe 2000: Lesotho, Singapore (2), Zimbabwe (2) 2001: Hong Kong, Lesotho, Malawi, Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe 2002: Malaysia (2), Mauritius, Singapore (2), Swaziland, Vanuatu, Zimbabwe 2003: Namibia 2004: Fiji (2), Lesotho, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Singapore, Tonga 2005: Lesotho, Singapore 2006: Singapore (2) 2007: Sri Lanka, Fiji (3), Solomon Islands (2) 2008: Nil (no Course)

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20 08

20 06

20 04

20 02

20 00

19 98

19 96

19 94

19 92

19 90

Number of overseas students

DipMet Course

9

8

7

6

5

4 Series1

3

2

1

0

Year

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Definition of Capacity Building

 UNDP defined 'capacity building' as the creation of an enabling environment with appropriate policy and legal frameworks, institutional development, including community participation (of women in particular), human resources development and strengthening of managerial systems, adding that, UNDP recognizes that capacity building is a long-term, continuing process, in which all stakeholders participate (ministries, local authorities, non-governmental organizations and water user groups, professional associations, academics and others).

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Definition of capacity building (continued)  According to UNCED 1992, capacity building encompasses the country’s human, scientific, technological, organizational, institutional and resource capabilities. A fundamental role of capacity building is to enhance the ability to evaluate and address the crucial questions related to policy choices and modes of implementation among development options, based on an understanding of environment potentials and limits and of needs perceived by the people of the country concerned.

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Capacity building areas  Policy development  Legal framework  Governance (organization, accountability, clarity of objectives, transparency, oversight), including involvement of stakeholders  Participation of women, indigenous communities  Human resources development (Meteorologists and Meteorological Technicians) and use of associated equipment  Training (scientific and technological, management etc)

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Policy development  Normally done by the NMHS Executive, composed of the Director (CEO), Deputy Directors and Chief Scientist.  Assisted by an Advisory Board and reviews initiated by the Minister.  Formulates policies on: public goods; social justice; relations with provincial/state government; data access; resource mobilization; specialized services & commercialization; charging policy; private meteorology & fair trade practices; media cooperation; university meteorology & training; international cooperation; water issues; overseas visits  Policy development opportunities: visits to WMO and other countries; WMO Symposium on international cooperation; through MOUs

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Legal framework  Highly preferable to have national legislation to define the functions and powers of the NMHS  Legal framework in the form of an Act of Parliament or Congress, Presidential or Royal Decree, Meteorological Law, or Meteorological Regulations  NMHS could be an Executive Agency, a Government Department, part of a Government Department, or a commercial company  Capacity building opportunity: information exchange

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Governance  Governance includes: - Integrity (in organizational structure) - Accountability (of responsibilities) - Clarity of objectives (Forward planning) - Transparency (in program, use of funds) - Oversight (no fraud, audit processes)  Stakeholder relationship  Governance building opportunities: WMO management seminars; information exchange; senior staff exchange and attachments

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Participation of women and indigenous communities  Congress-XV adopted a WMO Policy on Gender Mainstreaming  Equality between women and men is both a human rights issue and a pre-condition for sustainable people-centred development, promulgated by the United Nations  Other social justice issues: indigenous people, minority race  Capacity building opportunity: participation in WMO expert meetings on gender mainstreaming

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Human resources development  It is Government responsibility to provide national resources to train up Meteorologists and Meteorological Technicians for NMHSs  The Public Services Commission should ensure that the conditions of service of Meteorologists are comparable to those of other professionals so that the chance of “brain drain” is minimised  Special shift-duty allowance for working abnormal hours

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Human resources development (continued)  Those that undergo formal overseas training should be asked to sign a contract of service for at least 3 years after the completion of the Course  VCP should be used to complement national sources in human resources development: VCP(F), Equipment and Services, including training and fellowships  Examples of human resources development opportunities in AsiaPacific: RMTC/Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology (NUIST); RMTCs in Pune, Tehran, Tashkent and Manila; Bureau of Meteorology Training Centre’s Graduate Diploma in Meteorology; New Zealand’s Meteorologist Course; fellowships; exchange of instructors

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Short-term training  NMHSs should actively participate in WMO short-term (less than 3 months) training courses/symposia/seminars/workshops on various meteorological or related topics, including management, eg Southern Hemisphere Training Course on Tropical Cyclones, Melbourne  Unless specified otherwise, WMO (sometimes the host country) normally covers the travel and per diem of one participant from each developing country.

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Examples of capacity building opportunities with Australia  Passing on of Olympic meteorological support experience: Atlanta 1996 to Sydney 2000 to Athens 2004 to Beijing 2008  DipMet Course for participants from SW Pacific, Africa and Asia; several of the graduates subsequently became Heads of NMHSs  VCP & bilateral projects for SW Pacific, Asia and Africa (about USD 0.5M pa), eg radar, satellite, integrated forecast workstation, AWS/DCP, GTS including CMSS, surface & upper-air observational equipment, tropical cyclone module, RANET, seasonal forecasting (SCOPIC), data rescue & CDMS, sea-level gauges, staff secondment (notably Solomon Islands and Fiji), training attachments and courses (including on meteorological economics), technical feasibility studies (eg Changing Climate in Paradise, assessment of capacity to receive and respond to tsunami warnings), needs analysis, Registered User Internet Services (eg smoke haze trajectory forecasts, WMC Melbourne products, TXLAPS)

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Australia’s contributions to VCP VCP contributions by Australia 800000 700000 600000

USD

500000 400000

Series1

300000 200000 100000 0 2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

Year

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Request for VCP support  Letter from PR to Secretary-General of WMO, with detailed requirements on VCP proforma, including the identification of the possible Donor  Request through your Ministry of Foreign Affairs to a Donor’s development assistance agency (re Country Programs)  If a MOU exists between your NMHS and that of a donor country, make a request through the formal Joint Working Group  Bilaterally, by writing to the PR of a Donor country

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Matching of priorities  Success of VCP(ES) depends on appropriate matching (alignment) of priorities.  Different parties have different priorities: - WMO priorities are based on decisions made at constituent bodies, especially Regional Associations - Recipient countries have priorities based on the needs of their NMHS - Donor countries have priorities based on their meteorological requirements, available expertise, funds available, and political directives from their Ministry of Foreign Affairs

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Work plan for INTAD2 and INTAD5 on capacity building Since capacity building is of great importance to international advisers:  Select a Chair for each of INTAD2, INTAD5 and appoint task leaders  Information sharing through online networking  Establish directory of international advisers, with details on expertise (questionnaire)  Develop templates for various types of reports (eg development plan; needs analysis)  Maintain inventory of national capacity building requirements  Develop inventory of resource providers  Q&A eg how to develop a NWP capability, what systems are available for climate database management, QMS, best practices, links to useful webpages (eg RMTCs, RSMCs, country blogs) 20

National/Regional capacity building requirements  Each developing country should constantly review its capacity building requirements  One of the major roles of the WMO Regional or sub-Regional Offices is to keep an updated record of all capacity building requirements within the Region  Needs analyses or assessments should be conducted when resources become available; depending on their skills, some NMHS international advisers could become consultants/experts in these assessment missions; in this connection, a directory of experts should be maintained by WMO  Sometimes, building Regional Capacity using shared resources could be a more viable solution to do things that cannot be done individually

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