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.