High-Level Simposium Strengthening collaboration between Ministries of Environment, Meteorological and Water Services and Disaster Risk Management Offices

A briefing on the High-Level Symposium held on October 24, 2023, in Panama City, which focused on strengthening collaboration between National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), Ministries of Environment, and Disaster Risk Management Offices to improve climate information and early warning systems in Latin America and the Caribbean.

• National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) support Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by providing information for sectors including health, energy, infrastructure, water resources, and agriculture, and by issuing early warnings to reduce poverty and mitigate extreme event impacts. However, these services face increasing disinvestment from governments, which threatens the operation and maintenance of hydrometeorological observation networks.
• Effective governance and sustainability for climate services require innovative financial mechanisms, the inclusion of the private sector, and robust legal frameworks. In the Caribbean, a lack of legal frameworks for NMHS operations has been identified as a barrier to governance and sustainability.
• Regional examples demonstrate the value of integrated and collaborative approaches to hazard management: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines managed simultaneous volcanic and hurricane hazards through NMHS information flow; El Salvador's Environmental Observatory used volunteer observers for impact-based forecasting; Brazil's Centro de Manejo de Desastres (CEMADEN) combined hydrometeorological data with vulnerability and exposure information to reduce loss of life; and the Centro Internacional para la Investigación del Fenómeno El Niño (CIIFEN) used co-design and local visual language to communicate technical data.

APA

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (2023). High-Level Simposium Strengthening collaboration between Ministries of Environment, Meteorological and Water Services and Disaster Risk Management Offices. http://iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/Symposium_LACCW_Panama-KeyNotes%2025Oct2023-En_0.pdf

Chicago

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. High-Level Simposium Strengthening collaboration between Ministries of Environment, Meteorological and Water Services and Disaster Risk Management Offices. 2023. http://iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/Symposium_LACCW_Panama-KeyNotes%2025Oct2023-En_0.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research |title=High-Level Simposium Strengthening collaboration between Ministries of Environment, Meteorological and Water Services and Disaster Risk Management Offices |date=24 October 2023 |url=http://iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/Symposium_LACCW_Panama-KeyNotes%2025Oct2023-En_0.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{interamericaninstituteforglobalchangeresearch2023highlevel, author = {{Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}}, title = {{High-Level Simposium Strengthening collaboration between Ministries of Environment, Meteorological and Water Services and Disaster Risk Management Offices}}, institution = {Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}, year = {2023}, month = oct, url = {http://iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/Symposium_LACCW_Panama-KeyNotes%2025Oct2023-En_0.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }