RAIV-17/INF.4.9, p. 2

World Meteorological Organization
REGIONAL ASSOCIATION IV (NORTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN)
Seventeenth Session
San José, Costa Rica, 27 to 31 March 2017 / RAIV-17/INF.4.9
Submitted by:
Secretary-General
21.III.2017

PARTNERSHIPS

Members of the regional association continued to benefit from targeted cooperation activities undertaken by WMO in collaboration with fellow UN system agencies as well as regional entities and other international organizations. Further to decisions taken by Congress at its seventeenth session (Cg-17) and the Executive Council at its sixty-eighth session (EC-68) regarding WMO’s contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Secretariat is developing practical and focused actions to support Members’ implementation of the Agenda at a regional level. Members of the Region increasingly recognize the value of communications for raising the visibility of NMHSs and WMO in the Region.

WMO cooperation with the UN system and other international organizations

Regional Organizations

Cooperation for the development and implementation of programmes and projects related to meteorology, mitigating climate change and disaster risk reduction has continued with the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), Caribbean Community (CARICOM),the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Comité Regional de Recursos Hidráulicos (CRRH), Sistema de Integración Centroamericano (SICA), Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), Caribbean Meteorological Organization (CMO) and el Centro de Coordinación para la Prevención de los Desastres Naturales en América (CEPREDENAC). It is expected that collaborative activities will continue and be enhanced with these entities.

WMO Regional Office

The Office for North America, Central America and the Caribbean has participated in the various regional activities including the RA IV Hurricane Committee meetings, the Caribbean Meteorological Organization meetings, and sessions of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Tsunami and other Coastal Hazards Warning System for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions and the Conference of Directors of Ibero-american NMHSs.

WMO contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the centrepiece of the global development agenda adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015, identifies 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 169 associated targets and highlights a number of international mechanisms for supporting its implementation. It is recognized that WMO and its community, through their explicit mandates to protect lives and property, already contribute to the overall Agenda and various SDGs, both directly and indirectly, as well as through active participation in related processes of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the new urban agenda under Habitat III.

Members can benefit from WMO’s status as a UN specialized agency through the unique network of partnerships and opportunities developed and generated with other communities, sectors and disciplines, and through platforms like the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) in the area of climate services.

Additionally, the WMO Strategic Plan for 2016-2019, sets out WMO priorities that are fully aligned with actions to enable its Members to meet the demands of the new agenda for improved information, products and services across the weather, climate, hydrological, marine and related environmental spectrum. At the regional level, Decision 70 (EC-68) - WMO contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, outlines ways through which the Organization and its Members can support implementation of the Agenda in the sectors of food security, health, water and sanitation, urban development, climate change and ocean and coastal management.

Communications and Public Affairs

The Communications and Public Affairs (CPA) Office has remained firmly committed to strengthening the interaction between Information and Public Affairs (IPA) Focal Points at NMHSs and UN communication staff in promoting WMO’s messages, developing materials and sharing best practices. This collaboration has contributed to meeting the needs of the media and the public at large for accurate and in-depth information about weather, climate and water and the value provided to society by NMHSs. The CPA Office also regularly sent by e-mail to Focal Points the daily update “In the Media” to inform NMHSs about the press coverage received by WMO and WMO issues.

NMHSs are assisted every year in the celebration of the annual World Meteorological Day (WMD) as a way of increasing the visibility of NMHSs. WMO implemented outreach activities to support the Sendai Conference on DRR and other events in the Region.

The CPA Office is now fully active and present on the main social media channels of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr, in particular to engage younger meteorologists and other new audiences through these channels. It has encouraged collaboration with IPA Focal Points on these efforts. The Office has also relaunched the public WMO website at the new URL public.wmo.int with the goal of advancing the image and messages of the WMO community.

A project to engage weather presenters as climate communicators was launched in 2014. CPA organized workshops featuring IPCC scientists and communications experts in New York in 2014, and it sponsored weather presenters from NMHSs and TV stations in RA IV as participants in climate change COPs and workshops in Paris and elsewhere. CPA has also facilitated the provision of media-friendly graphics and climate stories to international weather presenters.

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