The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen their collaboration to improve the provision and use of climate services in agriculture, increase resilience and climate adaptation.
- The MoU aims to extend and strengthen an existing partnership for another 10 years.
Signatories:
The MoU was signed by Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of WMO and Qu Dongyu, Director-General of FAO.
About the MoU:
i.Under this MoU, WMO and FAO will collaborate on areas of mutual interest in relation to weather, ocean, climate, hydrological, and related environmental services and their application for resilience and adaptation of the global agrifood system
ii.The MoU focuses on 5 Key areas,
- Agro-Meteorological Services: enhance climate-resilient development including early warning systems in the framework of Early Warnings for All.
- Policy Dialogue: Promote climate information and services across systems as part of integrated climate actions.
- Disaster Risk Reduction: Participate in inter-agency initiatives for managing climate risks and disasters.
- Data and Methodologies: Support the development of weather, climate, hydrological, marine, and environmental services.
- Resource Mobilization and Knowledge Transfer: develop proposals for funding mechanisms like the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Collaborations between WMO & FAO:
i.FAO plays a major role in the Early Warnings for All initiative led by WMO and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction(UNDRR). It provides early warnings and seasonal climate forecasts to improve agricultural resilience.
ii.FAO is a partner on Integrated Drought Management Programme (IDMP) and has partnered with WMO on several countries. IDMP, led by WMO and Global Water Partnership, support stakeholders at all level to implement IDM by providing scientific, policy and technical guidance.
iii.WMO and FAO collaborates on joint reports, including the WMO State of Climate Services for Agriculture report of 2019. FAO has an important contribution to WMO’s State of the Global Climate reports.
iv. WMO’s first Adaptation Fund project, the USD 6.8 million Agricultural Climate Resilience Enhancement Initiative (ACREI) in East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda) to increase climate resilience in agriculture was jointly developed with FAO.
v.FAO and WMO participate in the WMO-FAO-United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) Task Team on Indigenous and Local Knowledge (TT-ILK) that aims to provide solutions and support resource mobilization to improve the use of regional agroclimatic
About World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
WMO is specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) for meteorology (weather and climate), operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences.
It was established in 1950 and became a specialized agency of the UN in 1951.
Secretary General– Celeste Saulo
Members- 193 Members, (187 Member States and 6 Territories)
Headquarters– Geneva, Switzerland
About Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
FAO, established in 1945, is a specialized agency of the UN to make international efforts to combat hunger and to achieve food security for all.
Director–General– Qu Dongyu
Headquarters– Rome, Italy
