Pitch
Involving private sectors in weather and climate information service delivery task accelerate its dissemination and uptake by users.
Description
Summary
In the face of climate change challenges in Africa, increased dissemination of Climate information services (CIS) which involves acquisition, processing, packaging and delivery of weather and climate data and its subsequent uptake by users is important for developing climate impact mitigation strategies, to assist resilience planning for climate vulnerable users, for early warning of weather related hazards etc. However, for a variety of reasons, it will be difficult for African governments to efficiently deliver CIS to users in the foreseeable future. Thus, outsourcing CIS delivery task to private sectors is one of the best approaches for enhanced dissemination and uptake of CIS. As they are driven by profit and competition, outsourcing CIS delivery task to private sectors will result in fast dissemination and uptake of CIS. This in turn will result in increased application of weather and climate information in all development sectors and by climate vulnerable users, increased adaption and mitigation to climate change, increased resilience of vulnerable societies to climate impacts, increased economic and social developments, increased job creation and entrepreneurship so on.
However, policies, legal frameworks, guidelines and modalities that enables establishment and administration of private CIS delivering firms, responsibilities and accountabilities of private sectors etc. should be drafted and approved by government. Moreover, roles and responsibilities of government and relevant stakeholders with respect to outsourcing CIS delivery tasks to private sectors should also be defined. Details of approaches and mechanisms required for outsourcing CIS delivery to private sectors are described in this project proposal. .
Proposals
What actions do you propose?
Over view of Climate information services (CIS)
It is already know that the climate change will continue in the future and will continue to adversely affecting all aspects of development spheres. Thus, African countries have no way out other than getting ready to respond and tackle the impacts of climate change. These require development and implementation of viable mitigation and adaptation strategies, efficient uses of weather and climate information in different development sectors etc.
Weather and climate information from meteorological agencies which are being generated by national meteorology agency of African countries are available in the continent and in the past such information were mostly packed for the aviation industry and to some extent for weather forecasting purpose. On the contrary, they have little been used in other sectors such as agriculture, urban area etc. However, with time there is a gradual increased uses of weather and climate information in developing and application climate change impact mitigation strategies, to assist resilience planning to climate vulnerable societies (farmers, pastoralists, fisher men so on), to early warring of weather related hazards etc. But given the seriousness of the adverse effects of climate change impacts, there is a need to swiftly increase the uses of weather and climate information by and different sectors and vulnerable communities.
Benefiting from CIS in tackling climate change impacts however require acquisition, synthesizing, packaging for effective, efficient and timely delivery of CIS to the intended uses. This can be done by appropriate ministry or institute or agency in African countries. However, it is unlikely that CIS will be delivered to uses in time, effectively and efficiently due to various factors including possible long bureaucratic chain, lack of senses of belongingness inadequate facilities and skilled manpower etc. Thus, to avoid the anticipated inefficiency of delivering CIS to intended uses, it is important and wise to outsource the tasks of delivering CIS to intended users to private sectors/firms in African countries. It has already been proved anywhere in nearly all development and business activities run by private investment or sectors are more efficient , timely, effective, high quality, cost saving, profitable so on than those run by government. Similarly, if CIS delivery tasks in Africa is done by private sectors/firms, they delivery efficiency, coverage and rate will be more effective than done by government alone. This is because private sectors are driven by profit and incentives. Thus to maximize their profits and incentives, they need to be innovative and competent to be more efficient and effective in delivering and dissemination of CIS to intended users. It has been witnessed that the adverse impacts of climate change impacts in African countries such as in Ethiopia occurs in very remote and naturally harsh environments and in such situation the government employees may not be interested to be assigned and do jobs including delivering CIS. But private sectors with no hesitation will take any assignments and accomplish them in such environments for reasons mentioned above.
Moreover, outsourcing CIS delivery tasks to private sectors stimulate competition among private sectors doing CIS delivery and dissemination tasks among themselves thus they will be encourage to be creative and innovative to develop more effective, efficient and fast methods, techniques and approaches of delivering CIS to intended uses. It also encourages entrepreneurship and creates job opportunities for unemployed uses in African.
However, there should be stringent mechanisms of outsourcing the CIS delivery tasks to private sectors in places. Otherwise, delivering CIS to intended users could be less efficient, costly and even dangerous than that run by government organization. Thus, we propose establishment of CIS institute owned by the government to leading the outsourcing of CIS delivery tasks to private sectors. The detailed actions are described as follows.
Enabling environment for outsourcing CIS deliver tasks to private sector/Firm
Policy issues
Declaration for the establishment of CIS Institute/Agency containing major tasks that CIS should accomplish, regulation for its administration and budgeting should be drafted by committee made of relevant professionals and experts drawn from relevant government organizations, civic societies, NGOs, and international organization profession. After passing serious of comments and improvements by concerned bodies, it will be approved by respective African governments and published in Gazette.
Institutional arrangement
In order to administer and guide outsourcing of CIS packages delivery tasks to private sectors/Firms in Africa, there is a need to establish an independent institute or agency nationally which will be guided by board of directors drawn from various relevant ministries, institutions, universities etc of African country in question. The structure or organo-gram of the proposed CIS institute is shown in Fig. 1. It will have director under which there will be two deputy directors for administration and technical wings. There will also be further sub-divisions/units under the administrative and technical deputy directorate division as show in the Fig. 1.
Figure 1. Proposed Organo-gram of CIS institute or agency to be established in African countries.
The details of professionals, their number etc to be staffed in different wings of the CIS institute will be worked later.
Roles and Responsibilities of Board of Directors of CIS Institute
- Make key decisions on administration, manpower composition, annual budget, salary scale etc. of CIS institute envisaged to be established in African countries.
- Comment and approve draft regulations, guidelines and codes of conducts that will lead for the establishment of private firms that will be engaged in CIS package delivery tasks that will be drafted and submitted to by CIS institute.
- Comment and approve draft regulations, modalities, TORs, guidelines etc. that will enable for outsourcing CIS package delivery by private firms that will be prepared and submitted by CIS institute.
- Decide the on the fate and types of relations, linkages and collaboration of CIS institute with relevant national and International organizations.
- Approve annual budget plan of CIS institute
Roles and responsibilities of CIS institute
- Administer and lead CIS Institute according to authorities given to it by law, policy and regulation by African government in questions and board of directors.
- Responsible for preparation of draft regulation, guidelines, codes of conducts, TORs etc. and that will lead to the establishment private firms and enable outsourcing of CIS delivery tasks to these firms and submit them to board of directors for improvement and approval.
- Prepare annual budget of the institute and submit to the board for approval after which submit to the government of the country in question for final approval.
- Implement day to day activities of CIS based approved modalities, TORS, regulations, guidelines etc.
- Call for the establishment of private firms to involve in CIS deliver task through mass media such as newspapers, TV, Radio and web page etc. along with guideline for the establishment requirements, guidelines, standards and codes of conducts.
- Supervise and evaluate the established firms against established criteria and get them registered and licensed when they are found to fulfill the minimum requirement to involve in CIS delivery task.
- Create demand for CIS packages by vulnerable societies, urban communities to climate change impacts as well as among potential development sectors where CIS package could be applicable.
- Identify, prioritize and map areas or location in the African country in question based on the extent of vulnerability to adverse effects of climate change impacts.
- Acquire weather and climate data and information from national Met. Organization/agency of African country, create D-base of such data and information.
- Synthesize and down scale weather and climate data and information to locations in any African identified and mapped as high risk area to adverse effects of climate change impacts. Down scaling is very important due to the fact that usually, the weather and climate data and information are crude and meant for vast areas in a particular country which many not of be representative or true to all spots for which these data were generated.
- Make ready and avail the synthesized and down scaled CIS package for outsourcing it to private sectors/firms to be delivered in vulnerable areas for which the CIS package were prepared.
- Prepare TOR, contractual and call for tender for private sectors to apply and compete to delivery CIS package to specified location along with minimum and maximum estimated amount of money required to accomplish the task.
- Call interested private sectors to compete for delivering CIS packages by publishing the details of TORS, contractual guidelines etc. on news papers and other media.
- Compare contactors among each other’s against criteria established for selecting submission that will effectively deliver CIS package assigned for specific area.
- Then award the contract to wining contractor private firm following established agreement, accountability and responsibility guidelines which have already been developed and approved by board of directors of CIS institute.
- Conduct monitoring and evaluation of the awarded work to the contractor.
- Make technical backstopping by professionals of CIS institute to the wining contractor as need arises. Continued…..
Roles and responsibilities of private firms
- Looking at the call for CIS delivery tasks, the private Firms will develop their own methods and approaches that will effectively and efficiently deliver CIS packages to intended areas and users.
- Prepare the financial plan and indicate the total amount of money they need to be paid for successfully accomplish the job.
- Submit the complete tender bills to the CIS institute.
- After winning the contract they will develop deliver CIS package to specified area. Continued….
Demand creation
The first step in CIS delivery, dissemination and its subsequent uses by climate change impact vulnerable societies and/or any other development sectors for the purposes of resilience planning, developing climate change mitigation strategies so is creation of demand by these users. This is because the majority of vulnerable societies in Africa to climate change impacts especially farmers, fisher men, pastorals etc. are illiterate and unaware of the importance of weather and climate information in resilience planning and related purposes. They also don’t have sufficient knowledge how to use CIS packages if we assume that they know the importance. Thus these communities including urban communities should first be made aware of the importance and how to uses CIS packages in resilience planning, early warning of weather related hazards, weather forecasts of crop and animal production management so on through offering direct practical training, mass media and other awareness creation methods and approaches.
Capacity building
Capacitate building of CIS institute in terms of up-to-date relevant weather and climate analyzing and modeling software, computers, GIS facilities etc. is important. Relevant staffs of the institute should be trained on modeling and down scaling of weather and climate information and data, software running, GIS etc.
The proposed CIS institute should also stand as a center for offering period training to relevant stake holders and clients on the various aspects of weather and climate information including its application in climate change adaption and mitigation strategies, resilience planning to vulnerable societies so on.
Who will take these actions and which types of actors are involved?
Some of the actors of this project are described below along with their possible contributions.
Government
- Approve declaration and policy for establishment of CIS institute at national level
- Approve annual budget required for the institute
National Meteorology Agency
- It shall play leading role for the coordination of this project
- Avail climate and weather information to CIS institute
- Provide technical support to CIS institute in synthesizing weather and climate data, training etc.
- Provide advisory service to CIS institute
Ministry of agriculture
- Identify, prioritize and map agricultural areas of the country which are highly vulnerable to adverse climate change impacts and avail it to CIS institute
- Use the down scaled and processed weather information by CIS institute for day to day decision making that may be taken in agricultural activities.
- Monitoring of private sectors that will involve in delivery of CIS service delivery tasks in specific areas.
Ministry of urban development
- Identify, prioritize and map cities in the country with respect risk to climate and weather hazards and provide the information to CIS
- Use the down scaled and synthesized CIS information by the institute through private firms
- Monitor and make follow up of the service giving private firms for accurate delivery of the information
Ministry water resources and Irrigation
- Provide technical backstopping to CIS institute
- Deploy the CIS developed by the institute directly or through private firms for decision making in rivers, dams etc management.
Hydroelectric power authority
- Provide details of hydroelectric dams including locations, biophysical information, and dam capacities etc. to CIS institute
- Use the CIS information synthesized for the authority directly from CIS institute or through CIS
delivering firms
ECA-Africa Climate Policy Center
- Provide advisorship services to CIS institute
- Offer training to staffs of CIS institute
NGOs
- Involve in capacity building of CIS institute
- They may make material and financial support
Where will these actions be taken and how could they scale?
This project is envisaged to be carried out at National level in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The coordinating organization in this case Ethiopian Meteorological agency shall bring all actors together so that they will discharge their responsibilities and contribution to establishing and running of CIS institute. In the course of piloting this project, lessons, experiences and challenges will be documented and will be used to design scale out and scale approaches. Moreover, publications, web based media, mass media etc. will be used as tools for promotion of good results that will come out of piloting this project.
In addition, specify the countries where these actions will be taken.
Ethiopia
Country 2
No country selected
Country 3
No country selected
Country 4
No country selected
Country 5
No country selected
Impact/Benefits:
What impact will these actions have on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and/or adapting to climate change?
The following are some of the outstanding benefits of this project:
- Accurate daily weather information services down scaled and tailored to small area (20-30 km) radius will be provided to users. The information then will be used for early warning and prepare for possible weather induces hazards, regulation of dams, to plan agricultural activities etc.
- Contributes to adaption and mitigation to climate change impacts
- Efficient and effective delivery of CIS to users of diverse types
- Enables users in remote areas of Africa to benefit from CIS
- Inspires competition among private sectors engaged in CIS delivery tasks so that they will be innovative, efficient etc..
- Avoid or decrease hazards, disaster, etc induced by weather and climate change
- Save spending that could be incurred for relief and rehabilitation of areas and people induced by weather and climate .
- Creates investment opportunities, jobs, etc.
- Strengthen partnership among national and international actors
What are the most innovative aspects and main strengths of this approach?
So far, with the exception of aviation industry, weather and climate information is little exploited and used to make decisions on agricultural activities, to assist resilience planning of vulnerable societies to climate change impacts, for early warning weather hazards etc. Thus, in this project it is proposed that weather and climate information are acquired, down scaled to small area with 20-30 km radius, synthesized and delivered for decision making purposes by weather and climate vulnerable societies etc and this is one of the innovative aspects of this proposal. We also proposed call centers near to farmers villages to which local farmers will call to the center and get advisory services and information on agricultural technologies, weather and climate information etc. another innovative aspects of this project. At times any farmer call to the call center and in case they didn’t get response to his/her inquiry, the voice will be recorded and he will get answer later.
Costs/Challenges:
What are the proposal’s projected costs?
It is proposed that CIS institute will be established by the government of implementing country in this case, Ethiopia. Thus, it will prepare its own annual budget, submit and get approval by the government as any regular government organization. Thus, whatever budget required for realizing this project from external source is for initial establishment of CIS institute. Thus, some estimates of budget required for initial establishment of CIS institute are briefly indicated below.
- For drafting and approval of declarations, policies, guidelines etc. to establish CIS institute: US$5000.00
- Administration costs: US$3000.00
- Capacity building = $5000.00
- Consultancy service: 15000.00
- Cost of consumable items (stationery, fuel, printing etc.): US$5000.00
Total amount = US$33000.00
About the Authors
The Wassie Haile is currently working as an associate Professor of soils science in college of agriculture, Hawassa University, Ethiopia. He holds PhD degree in soil science from Kastesart University, Thailand. He has over 25 years of extensive teaching and research experiences in soil science, natural resources management etc. The published more than 20 articles in peer reviewed Journals. He also published more than 15 proceeding and working papers.
The authors also involves in supervision of graduate students working for their PhD and MSc degrees in disciplines of soil science, agronomy etc. Up to now, ,More than 25 students received MSc degrees under his supervisor and co-supervision so far in diverse fields of soil science, agronomy and agroforestry. One student received PhD degree in soil science under his co-supervision and currently he is supervising more than four PhD students
In addition his regular job as University professor, he also serving as general manager of academic web site: www.academic-support-africa.com , a page dedicated to advancing science and technology in Africa. You are cordially invited to visit and explore this web site and contribute to the aims and objectives the page, please.
Sidney Norman Clouston, Jr. was awarded an Associates of Arts degree in Santa Monica City College in the Liberal Arts program. An Associates of Arts degree also for transfer was awarded at the Long Beach City College, both in California. The transfer of formal academic study was to the California State University at Long Beach (CSULB). The declared major of Business Administration, Finance. Departing CSULB prior to the beginning of the Senior year due to a move. Self Directed studies that included sitting with the "Master" Mr. Bauer, selecting stocks at Paine Webber in Long Beach. He was active in the selecting of performance stocks with the earnings of annual yield of 53% on the investment. Bethlehem Steel that Economist called a hold not a buy, it was one selected that was one of the five top Blue Chip performance stocks that year. Paine Webber was purchased by the Union Bank of Switzerland in 2000.
Sidney researched an original idea for a two sided solar cell. Some work was done by Westinghouse Advanced Energy Systems in Pennsylvania. Sidney's design change suggestions caused Dr. Robert Campbell the Program Manager to agree that there would be higher efficiency, but the intellectual property and equipment was sold to a Japanese company (Ebara) and not demonstrated. Dr. Igor Tyukov of Moscow Power Engineering Institute suggested that he come to help develop further the Bifacial Photovoltaic (PV)system and Sidney facilitated a Fulbright Grant for his visit. Dr. Dmitry Strebkov is the inventor of the Bifacial and Sidney is Co-authored on a scientific paper with him and Dr. Igor Tyukhov with two others. It was presented at the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) conference in Portland, Oregon. Specialties:
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