Building a Value Proposition for Climate and Weather Services

By Pradeep Kurukulasuriya, Alan Miller, and Robert K. Rutaagi

Climate change, including extreme weather events compounded by ineffective risk management systems, threaten to derail efforts to build resilient nations in Africa.

Without improved weather and climate information and effective early warning systems, droughts will put livelihoods at risk, floods will wipe out infrastructure, lightning will take more lives. In Uganda for instance, many lives have been lost and properties destroyed by floods and landslides in Bududa in Eastern Uganda and Kasese in Western Uganda. Recently, one soldier was killed by lightning at The Statehouse in Entebbe, and 10 people were killed in Kabale District. These are but few examples of the many disasters caused by weather and climate phenomena for which the countries in Africa are ill-prepared.

The absence of accurate data will mean that high-priced investments in energy and economic development will be less effective, more risky, and more prone to failure. Opportunities for widening the service offering of public-sector-based Meteorological Services will be foregone, posing the real risk of rendering such fragile institutions to be regarded as even more redundant across a number of countries.

Decision makers, lacking the essential information, enabling policies, latest technology, funding and bandwidth required to anticipate, plan, respond and react to the effects of climate change, will be left standing in the mud.

Across much of sub-Saharan Africa, efforts in the past have failed to create sustainable public sector based climate and weather services. These investments have failed to promote lasting results, potential revenue streams have been left largely untapped, and hard-to-maintain-and-service technologies have been abandoned. Decision-makers have continued the all-too-familiar pattern of looking to the sky to inform their risk-management processes.

On a global level, a lack of climate information in Africa that specifically targets the needs of real-time decision-making – be it in agriculture, water management, urban planning, road and housing construction, defense and security facilities, plans for the tourism sector and the like – has created a continental-sized blind spot. World leaders, private-sector investors, climate negotiators, national decision makers and farmers simply do not know what short- and medium-term weather or long-term changes in climate are coming their way, and have too little information to accurately make decisions. 

Real time data forecasting prduct from Uganda Met Network

There is, however, a silver lining. While challenges remain, a number of African countries are attempting to learn from past mistakes and are proactively taking incremental steps to build more efficient and effective systems. The development and sustainability of these systems requires new ways of thinking. This starts with building and supporting the policies, laws, programmes, strategies, procedures, technologies, finance and capacities required to build a true value proposition for weather and climate services.

Rethinking the problem: New ideas to address old problems.

• Policy. The value proposition starts with creating an enabling environment to support the sustainable adoption of alternative technologies and business models that can more effectively be used to generate and share accurate climate and weather information. 
•  Finance. Entry barriers, including allowing for critical incubation periods necessary for the testing and up-take of new technologies, requires the provision of basic seed financing. International public finance has a key role to play to incentivize both public- and private-sector institutions to invest in improving climate information data generation and disseminations to end users. Counterpart funding by beneficiary governments is a fundamental sine qua non for success.
• Partnerships. The challenge of finance is complex as business opportunities expand for private-sector alternatives that lay beyond the scope of traditional public-sector provision of climate information. It calls for the efficient and effective engagement of public and private weather service providers to collaborate on generating, calibrating, packaging and distributing information so that decisions with clear value propositions can be made. Revenue sharing agreements between the public and private sector need to be formulated, and need to be done within a fit-for-purpose context. Revenue sharing and market dynamics for weather and climate services will play a vital role. For many years, in Uganda, public-private partnerships were non-existent. The Department of Meteorology – later transformed and modernized to become the current Uganda National Meteorological Authority [UNMA] – provided meteorological services to the Civil Aviation Authority without payment. Very few private-sector companies paid for any consumed meteorological services. Effective in mid-2016, the public-private partnership concept and strategy is firmly taking root in Uganda, with technical and financial support from the United Nations Development Programme and Global Environment Facility for a Strengthening Climate Information and Early Warnings Systems Project, as well as a recently approved project funded by the Green Climate Fund to support wetlands restoration and climate information in Uganda. Based on meteorological services commercialization studies done in Uganda and 10 other African countries, Memos of Understanding have been signed between UNMA, the public Civil Aviation Authority and the private enterprise Fit Uganda. The Civil Aviation Authority made its first payment to UNMA in August 2016. These payments will be repeated on a quarterly basis, according to the signed Memo of Understanding. Payment from Fit Uganda is in advanced stages, while more Memos of Understanding have been signed or are being negotiated. While some challenges persist, all these new positive steps indicate that engaging the public and private sector to finance climate change adaptation in Uganda has started in earnest and is expected to improve in the coming months.
• Technology. New technologies are now available that make it easier to deploy cost-effective, accurate and easily maintained weather and climate monitoring systems. Learn more about advances in technologies
• Incremental Approaches. We are now entering the phase where we start to package products to reach end users, further engage with civil society, create effective cost-recovery mechanisms, and monitor, evaluate and re-adjust these approaches. Discover recent steps Uganda is taking toward the finish line.  
  
• The Last Mile. Weather information, climate data and early warning systems should remain largely a public good in Africa. After all, weather data saves lives and exclusivity of the raw data may not be possible. However, by looking at the gaps that have hindered the effectiveness of past efforts to modernize weather and climate services across the continent, there is an opportunity to un-tap revenue generating products, increase new revenue streams, deliver more actionable services by individuals, lower climate-related risks and prepare ourselves for an uncertain climate future. Discover new approaches to reaching the last mile with weather and climate services.

If done right, these services will not only inform risk-management practices – and empower nations that are extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change to take proactive, rather than reactive approaches to climate change – but they will also help reach the “Last Mile.”

Crossing the Last Mile will provide farmers and vulnerable communities with the information they need to climate-proof their futures, make more money on their farms so that they can send their children to school, and break the cycle of resource-poverty, capacity-poverty and information-poverty that keeps much of Africa trapped and struggling to break through. 

Useful Resources

UNDP Climate Change Adaptation

Disaster risk reduction in Africa: Status report (2015)

UNDP Programme on Climate Information for Resilient Development in Africa: A New Vision for Weather and Climate Services in Africa

Climate Early Warning Initiative to Focus on Most Vulnerable

Dr. Pradeep Kurukulasuriza is Head of UNDP's Climate Change Adaptation Portfolio.

Alan Miller is an independent consultant on climate change policy.

Dr. Robert K. Rutaagi is Chairperson of the Board of the Uganda National Meteorological Authority; Senior Associate Consultant and Governance Advisor for Eastern, Central and Southern Africa (ECASA) Group Consultants. Dr. Rutaagi's residence was recently struck by lightning twice, destroying the meter box and nearby electric pole. According to some sources Uganda has as much as 70 lighting strikes per km per year. 

The Last Mile: Uganda Towards the Finish Line

Uganda President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, releases a weather balloon at UNMA Stall in Jinja. Before him in a black jacket is Dr. Robert K. Rutaagi.

UNMA is working hard at bridging the last mile with the help of the private sector and civil society.

By Dr. Robert K. Rutaagi, Chairperson of the UNMA Board

Since the CIRDA Team, led by Project Manager Bonizella Biagini, blew the whistle in Livingstone to launch the workshop The Last Mile, the Uganda National Meteorological Authority (UNMA) has been sprinting towards the finish line. As we traveled to Livingstone, braving both distance and the clock, the  ride became more enjoyable, courtesy not only of the beautiful Zambian geography and climate but also to the rich subject matter being discussed. We were provided more time to deeply reflect upon the workshop agenda that was focused on identifying the means and messages needed to communicate climate information to vulnerable communities.

The trip to and from Livingstone and the debates that arose from the regional workshop allowed for my delegation to quickly formulate a package of nine recommendations to move Uganda towards the finish line in looking to bridge the Last Mile. These included:

• Working for the distribution of hydro meteorological information through efficient and effective channels like schools, churches, Rotary Fraternities, Police and media (among others)
• Simplifying the message by translating technical meteorological terminologies into simpler and better understandable language. 
• Exploring opportunities for partnering with private sector companies such as Fit Uganda and others to disseminate weather and climate information.
• Working towards unpacking weather data and tailoring it for different audiences depending on the needs and the devices used by end users.
• Guide UNMA's Expatriate Technical Advisor to analyze all available raw materials/resources including Consultancy Reports, to develop practical and implementable follow up actions.
• Arrange an urgent meeting between the UNMA and the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) Department of Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Management to harmonize issues of intersecting mandates in the generation and dissemination of climate and weather information.
• Invite CIRDA Experts to visit to both agencies (UNMA and OPM), evaluate the technical environment for early warning systems and review the design for automatic weather stations (AWS) that includes the option to host in school premises as well as to provide support in arranging a national workshop to bring together national stake holders involved in communicating climate and weather information. 
• Bring the Climate Action Hackathon to Uganda through a Ugandan Hackathon Sattelite Group that will include brilliant, dynamic and highly self motivated ICT-survey youths from higher institutions of learning like Makerere University and its Business School, Uganda Technology and Management University, Kyambogo University, among others.
• An increased focus on downscaled weather product dissemination to provide an important building block for the product development needed by the Country.

To begin to enact these strategies, UNMA and the UNDP/GEF/SCIEWS Project organized national stakeholders through a Forum that took place from 20-23 June, 2016 in Entebbe. The Stakeholder Forum had among its objectives to identify the opportunities for partnering with the private sector for the dissemination of weather and climate information as well as to visualize the potential for product development.

Participants to the Uganda Stakeholder Forum

The workshop was well attended by local, regional and international stakeholders from public, private, civil society, international development partners and NGOs. While time and space will not permit me to delve into greater details of all that transpired, I will endeavor to articulate the pertinent outputs and outcomes of the event that both prove testament to the hard work being developed by the UNMA as well as its vision in moving forward and reaching the Last Mile:

• UNMA has become more accurate, with its accuracy levels rising from 50% (2014) to 80% (June 2016). This has been validated by both ACCRA and World Vision which has used the information with Ugandan farmers and has found it to be "commendable" (ACCRA UNMA & MWF: The Climate Forecast Model, 2016).
• Based on the information generated and shared during the Forum, UNMA has or is en route to enter into several Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with significant stakeholders. These include the Uganda National Road Authority and the Uganda National Farmers Association. While entering into formal PPPs will require harmonization, refinement and expedition in terms of commercialization prospects, these issues are well noted and will be addressed. We have appreciated the work realized by the CIRDA Team through its own market study in bringing to light the various challenges that will be faced.
• UNMA now has some local (FIT Uganda Ltd) and international (aWhere, HNI, etc.) partners ready to improve its dissemination of weather and climate information products through radio stations on mutually agreed upon terms, including pro bono (free) ones. All that is required is the training of the radio station staff in presentation techniques, good public relations and marketing. 
• UNMA will urgently plan to conduct an in-depth study on the contribution of meteorological services on Uganda's GDP. Once completed, it will assist UNMA in mobilizing the much needed resources to develop the requisite infrastructure on her other operations as well as her corporate image. 
• An SCIEWS Application Programming Interface (API) has emerged with an imminent capacity to "enable smoother PPPs, rapid end user application development and sustainable weather and climate solutions for Uganda" (ref. PPP Forum main report 20-23 June, 2016).
• UNMA also took note of the urgent need to review its organizational structure, especially the need to create an independent Aeronautical Division/Dept to handle its strategic aeronautical services which have the highest potential to internally generate revenue for the Authority and augment the insufficient Government funding. 
• The need to re-brand UNMA was a recurring topic and a basic output of the Forum. Much will depend on it being seen as an efficient and effective service delivery of meteorological services to end-users. 

All conversations, during the Last Mile from Livingstone to the PPP Forum in Entebbe seem to suggest that Uganda, as she approaches the finish line, is in fact becoming ever more conducive towards creating the PPP partnerships needed to communicate climate and weather information and do so in a manner that can become sustainable in the long term. As if to validate the above conclusion, soon after the PPP Forum UNMA was invited to participate in the annual Uganda National Farmers Agricultural Show in Jinja. UNMA's performance was excellent and its stall became the center of much attraction and had the distinction of being twice visited by Presider Yoweri Museveni. His enthusiasm in the event spurred him to personally launch and release UNMA's weather balloon and provide much attention to the relevant and exciting work being developed by UNMA.