EC-69/INF.16.3, p. 1

World Meteorological Organization
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
Sixty-Ninth Session
Geneva, 10 to 17 May 2017 / EC-69/INF.16.3
Submitted by:
President
26.IV.2017

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL WORKING GROUP ON STRATEGIC AND
OPERATIONAL PLANNING (WG-SOP)

PROPOSAL FOR WMO CONSTITUENT BODY REFORM

CONTENT

1. The Charge

2. Purpose of document

3. Rationale for Change

4. Today’s Realities

5. Purposes of the Convention and Expectations

6. Considerations: Future, Principles, Critical Factors for Success

7. Rethinking an Operating Model and Governance for WMO

8. Proposal for restructuring

8.1 Executive Council

8.2 Regional Associations

8.3 Technical Commissions

8.4 Suggested Meeting practices

8.5 WMO Secretariat

8.6 Cost estimates

9. Plan to Develop, Approve and Implement the Change

Annex I - Stakeholder Survey

Annex II - Composition of Executive Council Panel of Experts on Polar and High-mountain Observations, Research and Services (EC-PHORS)

Annex III - Key processes involved in delivering weather, climate and hydrological services linked with WMO mandate

Annex IV (a) - Mandatory Functions of TCs and RAs

Annex IV (b) - TCs responsibilities and contributions to WMO Technical Regulations

Annex V - Evolution of Technical Commissions by Congress

Annex VI - Evolution of WMO Programmes by Congress

Annex VII - Technical Commissions SWOT and Flexibility Analysis provided by presidents of TCs

Annex VIII - Structure diagrams: current and proposed structure

Annex IX - Cost estimates

PROPOSAL FOR WMO CONSTITUENT BODY REFORM

1. The Charge

In the face of growing expectations,mounting challenges, increasing budget pressuresand emerging trends, Members atthe Seventeenth World Meteorological Congressrequested the Executive Council to:

(a)Provide recommendations to the Eighteenth Congress on constituent body constructs, as appropriate, including possible new structures for technical commissions, regional associations and the Executive Council;

(b)To provide recommendations on rules, procedures, processes, working mechanisms, and duties of constituent bodies, WMO Officers (Presidentand Vice-Presidents) and the relationship between them and the WMO Secretariat;

(c)To enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the Organization and of good governance.

2. Purpose of document

Under direction from the Executive Council, its Working Group on Strategic Operational Planningreflected onvarious considerations and options for better governance. This document summarizes the key elements of the group’s thinking, its recommendations, areas for further study and a path forward.

3. Rationale for Change

WMO Programmes have been expandingand increasing in complexity due to growing societal pressures, and needs to addresspoverty eradication, sustainable development, coping with the risks of natural disasters and resilience to climate change, in addition to a range of institutional and technological issues. Today, such issues include:

(a)Increasing role of the private sector in the meteorological and hydrological enterprise;

(b)Rapid growth in data and information, crowd-sourcing and new providers;

(c)Changing technology, increased user capabilities and social mediaimproving global access and exploitation of data;

(d)Adaptation to increasing frequency and intensity of weather extremes and to climate change and variability;

(e)Increasing budgetary pressures impactingNMHSs;

(f)Potential challenges to the authoritative voice in an increasingly competitive weather, climate and water enterprise.

Alongside these growing and changing needs, financial constraints are driving WMO and all its Members to be more innovative, effective and efficient.Apart from Secretariat resources there are substantive investments made by Members; manycollectively offer additional resources, travel support and access to significant expertise to advance the work of the Organization. At last count, there were some 5,000 Members’ experts supporting various constituent bodyworking groups.

In light of these challenges it is importantthat the work of technical commissions, regional associations and the Executive Council are both effective andwell-coordinated.Member States and Territories are expecting WMO to ensure their contributions supportfit-for-purposeapproaches and strategies, and improve its efficiency and performance in realizing concreteoutcomes and benefits.

4. Today’s Realities

The current structure and operation of WMO:

(a)Congress, with 191 Members, meeting once every four years;

(b)Executive Council, meeting annually, with nine subsidiary bodies, most having 1-2 meetings during the financial period;

(c)Six RAs, with 85 subgroups and around 1000 contributing experts;

(d)Eight TCs, with more than 200 subgroups and around 3100 contributing experts;

(e)GFCS, GCOS, WCRP and IPCC all have their own separate governing structures;

(f)WMO Secretariat.

The work of WMO isorganized under 31 Programmes, which further break down into over 200 sub-programme elements. Thenumber of existing structures and working groupshave been a reflection of demand by Members todevelop standards, produce or revise technical regulations or guidelines, implementprocesses and systems and establish global and regional centres, in addition to other substantive matters.

While the growing number ofprogrammes, technical commission and regional association structures reflects the changing needs of Members, itdoes implicate the efficiency and effectiveness ofWMO, yieldingincreased transaction costs, overlapping activities in some cases, and establishment of inter-Commission mechanisms, which have also implicated regional associations.This large variety of parallel structures complicates the coordination work of the Secretariat,leading to inefficiency.

The current Commissions have been longstanding with little variation since the 1980s, primarily structured around Programme building blocks, important service sectors or science disciplines. Regional associationstructures have also been deeply rooted in history when geographic proximity wasa necessity and the needs of the participating Members were more homogeneous. Annex IV (a) and (b)provides acomparative analysis of the contribution of these structures against the mandated purposes of the Organization, contribution to technical regulations, and specific normative responsibilities. This analysis confirms that constituent bodies support these functions rather independently. In today’s context of fostering efficiency and more interdisciplinary engagement, it is important that the currentorganizational structures are reviewed to ensure they remain fit-for-purpose.

In 2016, the WMO Secretariat conducted a stakeholder survey to assess Member satisfaction and expectations on the operations of the Organization. One hundred and sixteen Members from all six Regions responded.While key conclusions are captured in Annex I, the overall conclusion is that Members are seeking more simplicity, better flexibility and alignment, and an increased“value for money” proposition.However, this is contrasted to a smaller survey of PRs and TC experts in January 2015, where there was recognition of the improvements to WMO’s internal governing processes, the positive feedback on the performance of the TCs and the Secretariat,and there were many examples ofeffective joint working. This survey further identified that well-functioning RAs are important, as they canarticulate regional needs and organize their Members to represent and serve their Region effectively.

5. Purposes of the Convention and Expectations

The Convention succinctly spells out the role, responsibilities and governance of the Organization. Recognizing the collective role of its Members’ NMHSs, working together to observe and understand weather, climate, hydrology and related geophysical aspects of the environment, WMO performs a clear regulatory role to ensure standardization, uniformityand interoperability in the exchange of data and information, and to foster and promulgate the research and capacity development amongst its Members.

The WMO Convention describes the functions of the World Meteorological Congress, the Executive Council, and the regional associations. The process diagram below demonstrates the WMO process, based on the function of each of these bodies:

The Convention permitssufficient latitude to create and modify itsconstituent bodies structures, governance and functions.As shown, at each Congress, Membershavethe authority to establish or redefineregional associations and technical commissions. In fact, the first ten Congresses (1951-83) utilized this authority and modified the composition of the TCs at almost eachCongress (Annex V).

WMO should deliver the purposes of the Organization as stated in Article 2 of the Convention whilst also:

(a)Making best use of all available financial and human resources in delivering to the purpose and priorities of the Organization;

(b)Increasing our responsiveness to new challenges in a world which is changing rapidly in how technology and services are delivered across the weather enterprise;

(c)Ensuring the role and authority of WMO and the NMHS community are understood and recognized among Governments and with key stakeholders.

6. Considerations: Future, Principles, Critical Factors for Success

Future considerations and directions

At each World Meteorological Congress, Members collectively deliberate and decide on the future strategic directions, priorities, strategies and implementation mechanisms that contribute to building solutions to the grand challenges of society such as climate adaptation, food security, water scarcity, disaster prevention, clean energy, health, and human migration.Seventeenth Congress has already emphasizedthe importance of Disaster Risk Reduction, the Global Framework for Climate Services, Aviation Weather Services, WIGOS Implementation, Capacity Development, and Good Governance.

Building on the EC-WG-SOP discussions, “form should follow function” where the vision, mission, priorities and strategies of the Organization should guide key actions and initiatives, which in turn should shape the creation of the appropriate working structures and mechanisms.

Guided by the discussion, a vision for WMO could encapsulate…

… We see a world in 2030 where all WMO's Members are more resilient to the societal consequences of extreme weather, water availability and climate change,andsupport their sustainable development through better weather, climate and hydrological services for all, especially the most vulnerable, whether over land or sea…

while a “mission statement” for WMO could be expressed as… WMO being recognized as the world’s authoritative body for international cooperation in the field of meteorology, climatology, hydrology and related sciences, contributing with efficiency to the safety, welfare, development and economy of all countries and regions of the planet…

and where WMO actions would contribute to:

(a)Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals that are strongly linked to Disaster Risk Reduction and Adaptation to Climate Change;

(b)Closing the capability gap between Developed and Developing Statesin providing services which respond to their user’s requirements;

(c)Better monitoring, prediction and early warning of high-impact weather, water, climate and related environmental (air quality) events that threaten life and property and economic prosperity especially in the clean energy and transportation sectors.

Constituent body considerations

EC-68 recommended that following elements should be considered in any future structure:

(a)Global climate;

(b)Weather, disasters and safety;

(c)Oceans and water resources;

(d)Data and technology.

Presidents of regional associations and technical commissions, at their joint meeting, underscored the importance of stronger collaboration in the planning and implementation phases among constituent bodies, particularly between RAs and TCs. The presidents emphasized the following key points:

(a)Members, through regional associations and Congress, should set the Organization’s priorities, action plans with annual milestones and targets, and clear implementation responsibilities of Members, RAs, TCs and the Secretariat;

(b)A formal process should be established for developingplans andpriorities based on needs of Members and developments in science and technology;

(c)The scheduling of RA sessions should align with the development cycle for priorities, plans, budget and programme implementation for maximum efficiency and effectiveness, and a simple set of performance indicators should be established to monitor progress;

(d)Constituent body structuresshould align to the implementation of WMO’s Strategic Plan, respecting the WMO Convention, leveraging contributions from partners and stakeholders, preserving key strengths and values, while remaining flexible to allow effective response to emerging challenges;

(e)Emphasis should be given to more cost-effective meetings that are focused and deliver concrete and tangible results.

Presidents of technical commissions undertook a self-diagnostic assessment (Annex VII). This was discussed at the Joint Meeting of Presidents of Regional Associations and Technical Commissions in January 2017 where TC presidents presented their individual SWOT analyses, highlighting significant benefits of the current structure. The presidents underscored the “regulatory” nature of their work, the efficient, “fit for purpose” structure in terms of management and execution, the access to competent and committed scientific and technical expertise and “volunteer workforce”, the engagement of relevant partnerships, and the importance of the intergovernmental nature of the Commissions to garner consensus to their technical regulations, practices and guidelines.

However, the current structure also has significant weaknesses in terms of their relationships, visibility and engagement. There were at least six general issues raised for further consideration:

(a)Relationships with regional associations are weak, lacking structures for taking global level guidance to regional and national levels;

(b)Relationships with other technical commissions lack effective horizontal linkages leading to some duplications;

(c)Necessity to strengthen and engage key stakeholders in the work of the TCs;

(d)Difficulty to engage national volunteers to contribute to the work of TCs where the visibility of WMO is low with constituenciesthat are not associated with NMHSs;

(e)Relationships in the subgroup structures of the EC and the TCs are unclear;

(f)Time frame between Commission sessions are seen as being too long.

Principles and factors of success

Principles and critical success factors (CSF) are important to guide Congress in its decisions relating to the merits of the various working mechanism considerations based on effectiveness (outcomes), relevance (stakeholders’ engagement and contribution) and efficiency (value for money). In this regard, theWMO governance/constituent body structuresshould:

(a)Respect mutual dependence of all Members for contributing to and benefiting from global public good;

(b)Serve the Members' needs in the most effective and efficient fashion; spending Members' resources in an effective responsible way and making sure that they will engage in the global endeavour with a clear two-way benefit;

(c)Holistically structure its constituent parts, with alignment and cohesion among the various structures, functions and activities of WMO, and using intergovernmental mechanisms only where essential, taking into consideration that a key role of WMO is to consistently organize a global system, building on a foundation of Earth science;

(d)Establish constituent bodies that will have strategic leadership with the skills, commitment, effort and time required;

(e)Have better linkages and benefits flowing at global, regional and national levels so the NMHS community is collectively stronger;

(f)Attract the best possible experts from its Members, including from funding organizations, development partners, academia, private industry and NMHSs, to volunteer and contribute their expertise to the Organization’s work;

(g)Shift towards a paradigm of end-user/customer driven R&D, which fosters innovation and reinforces WMO as a UN user-driven R&D organization improving downstream capacity of resource mobilization. The goal is to minimize the gap between R&D and operations, utilizing the potential for societal services and innovation based on Earth system knowledge and data streams;

(h)Have its role and authority recognized and utilized by global partners;

(i)Establish a sustained and dynamic design of administrative and technical structures, with the flexibility to respond to emerging issues;

(j)Be resilient, responsive and flexible to bring new technology and data sources, open to all innovation, and engage partners outside NMHSs;

(k)Help to solve global problems for all Members, e.g., global infrastructure;

(l)Position WMO as authoritative voice for weather, climate and water (currently no recognition for water);

(m)Strengthen collaboration, limit duplication and enable flexibility among WMO’s various constituent bodies.

7. Rethinkingan OperatingModeland Governancefor WMO

An operating model should best support and align to WMO’s mandated functions, strategic principles and priorities. The operating model provides the high-level representation of how WMO components are configured and how they function together to execute on WMO strategy. Given the mandate of WMO, its operating model should consider internal dimensions (governance, efficiency, organizational transformation), external partnership or user sector aspects as well as changing geographic interests, capacities and alignments.

For WMO, the World Meteorological Congress sets out the strategies, directions and priorities, defines the programme of work and budget, and assigns authorities to its constituent bodies or its working processes. In a global context, the Executive Council serves as its policy, programme and oversight body during the intersessional period, while the Commissions it establishes, execute assigned responsibilities primarily scientific and technical in nature. Regional associations, bringing together Members, self-organize to act upon resolutions or decisions of Congress and the Executive Council as regionally appropriate. In the various Articles of the Convention, the role of Congress and the Executive Council are rather specific. However, the Articles of the Convention are not directive about the composition and functions of regional associations, and even less so for the creation and functioning of Commissions.

The following factors are desirable in a new structure and have been used as the basis for an assessment of the different options structure options which were considered by the WGSOP (Annex VIII):

(a)Doing no harm –WMO’s core business is, at a minimum, maintained during and after transition to the new structure;

(b)Building all WMO Members' resilience to the consequences of weather, hydrological and climate hazards;

(c)Yielding improved relevance, effectiveness and efficiency through a flexible structure, improving WMO’s ability to deliver its core functions and respond to change;

(d)Evolution toward a seamless Earth system approach whilst minimizing the gap between research and operations;