WMO RTC Italy Archives - climateservices.it CNR-IBE

From training to transformation: co-producing sustainable early warning competence in West Africa

Vieri Tarchiani — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 09:51:45 +0000

Operational numerical weather prediction in Sub-Saharan Africa remains fragile despite increasing availability of models and data. A key limiting factor is the limited operational and institutional capacity of National Meteorological Services to operate, assess, adapt, and sustain forecasting chains within routine operations for early warning systems. Short-term, tool-oriented training initiatives often fail to address this gap, as learning remains weakly embedded in daily service delivery and rarely translates into sustained operational competence.

This paper presents a qualitative case study examining how co-production principles can be operationalized to support the development of operational competence for flood early warning. The study draws on a long-term capacity-development experience involving the National Meteorological Services of Niger and Burkina Faso and the Tuscany Regional Meteorological Service in Italy. The approach combined long-term embedding of trainees within an operational forecasting team, training-of-trainers, and peer-to-peer institutional collaboration, linking learning to real operational workflows.

Results are analysed across methodological, operational, and institutional dimensions. Methodological findings show how co-production principles can structure competence-oriented training processes by integrating instructional design, operational practice, and iterative evaluation. Operational results highlight the importance of sustained practice and routine verification, while institutional results point to the role of training of trainers and public institutional collaboration supporting sustainability of competence beyond individual skills and knowledge.

By reframing competence as a foundational component of climate services, the study offers transferable insights for capacity development in resource-constrained and transboundary contexts.

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The added value of the process in climate services co-production: Lessons from Niger

Vieri Tarchiani — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 10:08:35 +0000

Climate services are recognized as an essential tool for sustainable development in strategic and climate-sensitive sectors. In developing countries, particularly in Africa, the literature offers successful examples of application, especially in the agricultural sector, which is dramatically sensitive to climate variability and change. While, initially, particular emphasis was placed on the outcomes of these services and the benefits they provide to users, several authors, more recently, have focused their attention on the process. A climate service is understood as a cyclical process in which the different actors interact, exchange knowledge, and establish relationships and mutual trust. This co-production process serves primarily to bridge the gap between science and society and is particularly appropriate for developing countries. Several authors claim the benefit of the co-production process improving the service usability, but rarely the intrinsic value of the process is recognized. This study aims to describe the process and document its added value using the example of Niger as a case study, where two services addressing drought and floods have recently been developed, tested, and operationalized. This experience allows for inferring lessons that can be useful for researchers and practitioners in developed and developing contexts. The value of the collaboration between different disciplines (transdisciplinarity) and roles (complementarity), and the iterative and interactive learning process emerge as key elements allowing a continuous improvement of the services and the strengthened relationship among actors. The results of this process, albeit qualitatively described in the paper, could guide researchers and practitioners in adopting such an approach and could represent a tangible example for funders and policymakers of the process’s added value. Nevertheless, the article recognizes the need to develop a methodological framework for quali/quantitatively assessing the added value of the co-production process and suggests four dimensions to be considered in further research. Finally, the paper recommends the capitalization of pilot experiences through the national and global frameworks for climate services.

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Agricultural Meteorology for a Climate Smart Agriculture. Course Report.

Marina Baldi — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 11:54:36 +0000

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Climatology and Dynamical Evolution of Extreme Rainfall Events in the Sinai Peninsula—Egypt

Marina Baldi — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 11:46:13 +0000

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North-South cooperation to prevent natural disasters – 35 years of collaboration between the WMO Regional Training Centre in Italy and WMO in education and training

Marina Baldi — Sat, 25 Jul 2020 16:38:57 +0000

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Competencies based innovative learning solutions for co-development of climate services in West Africa

Web Editor — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 07:06:37 +0000

In developing countries, and particularly in West Africa, the role of Climate Services (CS) for sustainable development is growing thanks to wide spreading collaboration among European institutions, including National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) research centers, universities, and homologue local institutions. Operationally, the implementation of CSs in developing countries is mainly pivoted on NMHS, which, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), are dramatically affected by unmet learning demand.

The global scale of learning needs for co-development of CSs calls for innovative solutions and a range of flexible modalities to reach learners in a variety of ways, and for sharing resources and successful strategies within the global education and training community. In order to harmonize expected learning outcomes, WMO defined a competency framework (CF) for CSs to be used in the implementation of training initiatives and knowledge sharing tools.

This paper presents the strategic and methodological approach adopted in the implementation of the TOPaCS, a new knowledge-based distance learning initiative, aiming to provide a flexible learning environment within the CSs CF of WMO ensuring coherence with other WMO education initiatives (Global Campus, other RTCs, etc.).

The methodological approach adopted is based on the competency-based approach to training, where competencies are composed by elements of knowledge and skill. TOPaCS integrates the WMO CF for CSs into a taxonomy co-designed with stakeholders at different levels, and allows the definition of learning paths, which are a further interactive opportunity for co-development of CSs within the TOPaCS learning ecosystem. Indeed, the approach aims also to guide further instructional strategies and assessments and becomes a starting point to build a common language enabling a better cooperation and exchange between the different CSs training initiatives.

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