Capacity Development
Competency areas
The WMO Strategic Plan calls for WMO to develop and sustain the core competencies and expertise required for effective service delivery through education and training programmes focused on standards and recommendations. Competency frameworks are also considered essential for the establishment of a quality management system in the implementation of the WMO technical programmes. The present publication, which focuses on competencies in climate services, complements two other WMO publications published in recent years, namely: the Guide to Competency (WMO-No. 1205), and the Compendium of WMO Competency Frameworks (WMO-No. 1209). These three publications offer implementation guidance to Members, particularly in the areas of framework development, competency assessment of staff members and training design. While the high-level competencies have been published in the Technical Regulations (WMO-No. 49), Volume I – General Meteorological Standards and Recommended Practices, no single location was available for consulting the competencies for the provision of climate services in full detail.
Relevant Links for further reading:
Guide to Competency – WMO No. 1205
Compendium of WMO Competency Framework – WMO No. 1209
Competency-based Training
The competency framework for the provision of climate services approved by EC-68 is divided into the following five top-level competencies, with related performance criteria and suggested learning outcomes:
1. Create and manage climate data sets;
2. Derive products from climate data;
3. Create and interpret climate forecasts, climate projections and model output;
4. Ensure the quality of climate information and services;
5. Communicate climatological information to users.
Training of workshops in climate services are based on the above-mentioned areas and scope of activities. A detailed description of those five competencies, performance criteria can be found below and in the Compendium of Competencies (WMO-No 1209).
Quality Management System
WMO’s Strategic Plan, particularly under Strategic Objective 1.2 (Broaden the provision of policy- and decision-supporting climate information and services), it encourages National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) to adopt a Quality Management approach, applying Quality Management Systems (QMS) on weather, climate and water services.
The QMS training events for Members will assist them in the implementation of the climate services competencies in line with the WMO Quality Policy Statement Res.19 (EC-69), thus enhancing the satisfaction of their users through the improvement of services and products of their National Meteorological and Hydrological Services. In that sense, Members are urged to consider the timely implementation of the new provisions aimed at enhancing the quality management practices and procedures, taking into consideration relevant national requirements and normative frameworks.
The development and implementation of a QMS within an ISO 9001 quality management framework, will enhance the capacity of the NMHSs to better integrate weather and climate services, generate standardized climate information, establish strong user engagement and be capable to effectively use global and regional inputs in their national context. This achievement will further facilitate the establishment of a National Framework for Climate Services (NFCS) and enhance the provision of information through tools such as the Climpact to serve decision-makers across a wide range of climate-sensitive sectors.
The implementation of QMS is based on top-level functions of the Climate Services Information System (CSIS), which can be defined as (a) climate data management, (b) climate monitoring, (c) climate prediction and (d) climate projection. Furthermore, the climate service delivery component will complement the value chain and user engagement including:
Achieving standardized provision of climate data, monitoring, prediction and service delivery;
- Enhancing the level of capacity of the target NMHS in climate services;
- Determining the interfaces, risks and obstacles in climate services;
- Enhancing the capacity and competency of technical human resources;
- Implementing improved documentation with well-defined processes and procedures;
- Establishing corrective action systems to prevent risks and threats from recurring;
- Enhancing the focus on customer communication;
- Understanding the present and future requirements of customer needs, that are identified, leading to improved customer satisfaction;
- Increasing the efficiency and profile of the National Framework for Climate Services (NFCS); and
- Enhancing and broadening the continuity and consistency of climate service activities among WMO Members.