1. The Charge - World Meteorological Organizationmeetings.wmo.int/.../EC-69-INF16-3-EC-WG-SOP-CB-RE…  · Web viewAnnex I - Stakeholder ... food security, water scarcity, ... WMO

World Meteorological OrganizationEXECUTIVE COUNCILSixty-Ninth SessionGeneva, 10 to 17 May 2017

EC-69/INF. 16.3Submitted by:

President26.IV.2017

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL WORKING GROUP ON STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL PLANNING (WG-SOP)

PROPOSAL FOR WMO CONSTITUENT BODY REFORM

CONTENT

1. The Charge....................................................................................................................................22. Purpose of document.....................................................................................................................23. Rationale for Change.....................................................................................................................24. Today’s Realities............................................................................................................................35. Purposes of the Convention and Expectations..............................................................................36. Considerations: Future, Principles, Critical Factors for Success.....................................................47. Rethinking an Operating Model and Governance for WMO...........................................................78. Proposal for restructuring..............................................................................................................7

8.1 Executive Council.....................................................................................................................7

8.2 Regional Associations...............................................................................................................9

8.3 Technical Commissions..........................................................................................................10

8.4 Suggested Meeting practices.................................................................................................12

8.5 WMO Secretariat....................................................................................................................13

8.6 Cost estimates........................................................................................................................13

9. Plan to Develop, Approve and Implement the Change................................................................13Annex I - Stakeholder Survey..........................................................................................................14Annex II - Composition of Executive Council Panel of Experts on Polar and High-mountain Observations, Research and Services (EC-PHORS)..........................................................................14Annex III - Key processes involved in delivering weather, climate and hydrological services linked with WMO mandate.........................................................................................................................15Annex IV (a) - Mandatory Functions of TCs and RAs........................................................................16Annex IV (b) - TCs responsibilities and contributions to WMO Technical Regulations.....................17Annex V - Evolution of Technical Commissions by Congress...........................................................18Annex VI - Evolution of WMO Programmes by Congress.................................................................18Annex VII - Technical Commissions SWOT and Flexibility Analysis provided by presidents of TCs. 18Annex VIII - Structure diagrams: current and proposed structure...................................................18Annex IX - Cost estimates................................................................................................................18

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PROPOSAL FOR WMO CONSTITUENT BODY REFORM

1. The ChargeIn the face of growing expectations, mounting challenges, increasing budget pressures and emerging trends, Members at the Seventeenth World Meteorological Congress requested the Executive Council to:

(a) Provide recommendations to the Eighteenth Congress on constituent body constructs, as appropriate, including possible new structures for technical commissions, regional associations and the Executive Council;

(b) To provide recommendations on rules, procedures, processes, working mechanisms, and duties of constituent bodies, WMO Officers (President and Vice-Presidents) and the relationship between them and the WMO Secretariat;

(c) To enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the Organization and of good governance.

2. Purpose of documentUnder direction from the Executive Council, its Working Group on Strategic Operational Planning reflected on various considerations and options for better governance. This document summarizes the key elements of the group’s thinking, its recommendations, areas for further study and a path forward.

3. Rationale for ChangeWMO Programmes have been expanding and increasing in complexity due to growing societal pressures, and needs to address poverty eradication, sustainable development, coping with the risks of natural disasters and resilience to climate change, in addition to a range of institutional and technological issues. Today, such issues include:

(a) Increasing role of the private sector in the meteorological and hydrological enterprise; (b) Rapid growth in data and information, crowd-sourcing and new providers;(c) Changing technology, increased user capabilities and social media improving global

access and exploitation of data;(d) Adaptation to increasing frequency and intensity of weather extremes and to climate

change and variability;(e) Increasing budgetary pressures impacting NMHSs;(f) Potential challenges to the authoritative voice in an increasingly competitive weather,

climate and water enterprise.

Alongside these growing and changing needs, financial constraints are driving WMO and all its Members to be more innovative, effective and efficient. Apart from Secretariat resources there are substantive investments made by Members; many collectively offer additional resources, travel support and access to significant expertise to advance the work of the Organization. At last count, there were some 5,000 Members’ experts supporting various constituent body working groups.

In light of these challenges it is important that the work of technical commissions, regional associations and the Executive Council are both effective and well-coordinated. Member States and Territories are expecting WMO to ensure their contributions support fit-for-purpose approaches and strategies, and improve its efficiency and performance in realizing concrete outcomes and benefits.

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4. Today’s RealitiesThe current structure and operation of WMO:

(a) Congress, with 191 Members, meeting once every four years;(b) Executive Council, meeting annually, with nine subsidiary bodies, most having 1-2

meetings during the financial period;(c) Six RAs, with 85 subgroups and around 1000 contributing experts; (d) Eight TCs, with more than 200 subgroups and around 3100 contributing experts; (e) GFCS, GCOS, WCRP and IPCC all have their own separate governing structures;(f) WMO Secretariat.

The work of WMO is organized under 31 Programmes, which further break down into over 200 sub-programme elements. The number of existing structures and working groups have been a reflection of demand by Members to develop standards, produce or revise technical regulations or guidelines, implement processes and systems and establish global and regional centres, in addition to other substantive matters.

While the growing number of programmes, technical commission and regional association structures reflects the changing needs of Members, it does implicate the efficiency and effectiveness of WMO, yielding increased transaction costs, overlapping activities in some cases, and establishment of inter-Commission mechanisms, which have also implicated regional associations. This large variety of parallel structures complicates the coordination work of the Secretariat, leading to inefficiency.

The current Commissions have been longstanding with little variation since the 1980s, primarily structured around Programme building blocks, important service sectors or science disciplines. Regional association structures have also been deeply rooted in history when geographic proximity was a necessity and the needs of the participating Members were more homogeneous. Annex IV (a) and (b) provides a comparative analysis of the contribution of these structures against the mandated purposes of the Organization, contribution to technical regulations, and specific normative responsibilities. This analysis confirms that constituent bodies support these functions rather independently. In today’s context of fostering efficiency and more interdisciplinary engagement, it is important that the current organizational structures are reviewed to ensure they remain fit-for-purpose.

In 2016, the WMO Secretariat conducted a stakeholder survey to assess Member satisfaction and expectations on the operations of the Organization. One hundred and sixteen Members from all six Regions responded. While key conclusions are captured in Annex I, the overall conclusion is that Members are seeking more simplicity, better flexibility and alignment, and an increased “value for money” proposition. However, this is contrasted to a smaller survey of PRs and TC experts in January 2015, where there was recognition of the improvements to WMO’s internal governing processes, the positive feedback on the performance of the TCs and the Secretariat, and there were many examples of effective joint working. This survey further identified that well-functioning RAs are important, as they can articulate regional needs and organize their Members to represent and serve their Region effectively.

5. Purposes of the Convention and ExpectationsThe Convention succinctly spells out the role, responsibilities and governance of the Organization. Recognizing the collective role of its Members’ NMHSs, working together to observe and understand weather, climate, hydrology and related geophysical aspects of the environment, WMO performs a clear regulatory role to ensure standardization, uniformity and interoperability in the exchange of data and information, and to foster and promulgate the research and capacity development amongst its Members.

The WMO Convention describes the functions of the World Meteorological Congress, the Executive Council, and the regional associations. The process diagram below demonstrates the WMO process, based on the function of each of these bodies:

Policies and actions decidedCongress:

“consider the reports and activities of the Executive Council…” Article 8e

“Determine general policies” Article 8a; “...take appropriate action” Article 8e;

“Consider and … take action … on resolutions and recommendations of RAs and TCs in

accordance with the procedures…” Article 14c

TCs, RAs and other bodies established

Congress: “establish regional associations” Article 8f;

“establish technical commissions …; define their terms of reference” Article 8g

“establish any additional bodies it may deem necessary” Article 8h

Progressed assessed and new requirements gathered

RAs: “make recommendations to Congress and EC” Article 18div

EC: “report on its activities to each session of Congress” Article 14g;

“study and make recommendations” Article 14e; “examine the programme and budget estimates …

and … present its observations and its recommendations …to Congress” Article 14b;

Guidance provided to appropriate body

Congress: “Refer to any body …any matter …upon which such a body is

empoweredto act.” Article 8c

EC: “give guidance to the RAs and TCs in the preparation of their work programme”

Article 14f

Recommendation and regulations approved

EC: “provide technical information, counsel and assistance” Article 14d

Congress: “Make recommendations to Members” Article 8b;

“Determine regulations prescribing the procedures” Article 8d

ImplementationEC: “...implement the decisions taken… in

Congress” Article 14a; RAs: “promote the execution of the resolutions of Congress and the EC in their respective Regions”

Article 18di; “consider matters brought to their attention by EC”

Article 18dii; “coordinate meteorological and related activities”

Article 18diii;

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The Convention permits sufficient latitude to create and modify its constituent bodies structures, governance and functions. As shown, at each Congress, Members have the authority to establish or redefine regional associations and technical commissions. In fact, the first ten Congresses (1951-83) utilized this authority and modified the composition of the TCs at almost each Congress (Annex V).

WMO should deliver the purposes of the Organization as stated in Article 2 of the Convention whilst also:

(a) Making best use of all available financial and human resources in delivering to the purpose and priorities of the Organization;

(b) Increasing our responsiveness to new challenges in a world which is changing rapidly in how technology and services are delivered across the weather enterprise;

(c) Ensuring the role and authority of WMO and the NMHS community are understood and recognized among Governments and with key stakeholders.

6. Considerations: Future, Principles, Critical Factors for SuccessFuture considerations and directions

At each World Meteorological Congress, Members collectively deliberate and decide on the future strategic directions, priorities, strategies and implementation mechanisms that contribute to building solutions to the grand challenges of society such as climate adaptation, food security, water scarcity, disaster prevention, clean energy, health, and human migration. Seventeenth Congress has already emphasized the importance of Disaster Risk Reduction, the

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Global Framework for Climate Services, Aviation Weather Services, WIGOS Implementation, Capacity Development, and Good Governance.

Building on the EC-WG-SOP discussions, “form should follow function” where the vision, mission, priorities and strategies of the Organization should guide key actions and initiatives, which in turn should shape the creation of the appropriate working structures and mechanisms.

Guided by the discussion, a vision for WMO could encapsulate…

… We see a world in 2030 where all WMO's Members are more resilient to the societal consequences of extreme weather, water availability and climate change, and support their sustainable development through better weather, climate and hydrological services for all, especially the most vulnerable, whether over land or sea …

while a “mission statement” for WMO could be expressed as… WMO being recognized as the world’s authoritative body for international cooperation in the field of meteorology, climatology, hydrology and related sciences, contributing with efficiency to the safety, welfare, development and economy of all countries and regions of the planet…

and where WMO actions would contribute to:

(a) Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals that are strongly linked to Disaster Risk Reduction and Adaptation to Climate Change;

(b) Closing the capability gap between Developed and Developing States in providing services which respond to their user’s requirements;

(c) Better monitoring, prediction and early warning of high-impact weather, water, climate and related environmental (air quality) events that threaten life and property and economic prosperity especially in the clean energy and transportation sectors.

Constituent body considerations

EC-68 recommended that following elements should be considered in any future structure:

(a) Global climate;(b) Weather, disasters and safety;(c) Oceans and water resources;(d) Data and technology.

Presidents of regional associations and technical commissions, at their joint meeting, underscored the importance of stronger collaboration in the planning and implementation phases among constituent bodies, particularly between RAs and TCs. The presidents emphasized the following key points:

(a) Members, through regional associations and Congress, should set the Organization’s priorities, action plans with annual milestones and targets, and clear implementation responsibilities of Members, RAs, TCs and the Secretariat;

(b) A formal process should be established for developing plans and priorities based on needs of Members and developments in science and technology;

(c) The scheduling of RA sessions should align with the development cycle for priorities, plans, budget and programme implementation for maximum efficiency and effectiveness, and a simple set of performance indicators should be established to monitor progress;

(d) Constituent body structures should align to the implementation of WMO’s Strategic Plan, respecting the WMO Convention, leveraging contributions from partners and stakeholders, preserving key strengths and values, while remaining flexible to allow effective response to emerging challenges;

(e) Emphasis should be given to more cost-effective meetings that are focused and deliver concrete and tangible results.

Presidents of technical commissions undertook a self-diagnostic assessment (Annex VII). This was discussed at the Joint Meeting of Presidents of Regional Associations and Technical

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Commissions in January 2017 where TC presidents presented their individual SWOT analyses, highlighting significant benefits of the current structure. The presidents underscored the “regulatory” nature of their work, the efficient, “fit for purpose” structure in terms of management and execution, the access to competent and committed scientific and technical expertise and “volunteer workforce”, the engagement of relevant partnerships, and the importance of the intergovernmental nature of the Commissions to garner consensus to their technical regulations, practices and guidelines.

However, the current structure also has significant weaknesses in terms of their relationships, visibility and engagement. There were at least six general issues raised for further consideration:

(a) Relationships with regional associations are weak, lacking structures for taking global level guidance to regional and national levels;

(b) Relationships with other technical commissions lack effective horizontal linkages leading to some duplications;

(c) Necessity to strengthen and engage key stakeholders in the work of the TCs;(d) Difficulty to engage national volunteers to contribute to the work of TCs where the

visibility of WMO is low with constituencies that are not associated with NMHSs; (e) Relationships in the subgroup structures of the EC and the TCs are unclear; (f) Time frame between Commission sessions are seen as being too long.

Principles and factors of success

Principles and critical success factors (CSF) are important to guide Congress in its decisions relating to the merits of the various working mechanism considerations based on effectiveness (outcomes), relevance (stakeholders’ engagement and contribution) and efficiency (value for money). In this regard, the WMO governance/constituent body structures should:

(a) Respect mutual dependence of all Members for contributing to and benefiting from global public good;

(b) Serve the Members' needs in the most effective and efficient fashion; spending Members' resources in an effective responsible way and making sure that they will engage in the global endeavour with a clear two-way benefit;

(c) Holistically structure its constituent parts, with alignment and cohesion among the various structures, functions and activities of WMO, and using intergovernmental mechanisms only where essential, taking into consideration that a key role of WMO is to consistently organize a global system, building on a foundation of Earth science;

(d) Establish constituent bodies that will have strategic leadership with the skills, commitment, effort and time required;

(e) Have better linkages and benefits flowing at global, regional and national levels so the NMHS community is collectively stronger;

(f) Attract the best possible experts from its Members, including from funding organizations, development partners, academia, private industry and NMHSs, to volunteer and contribute their expertise to the Organization’s work;

(g) Shift towards a paradigm of end-user/customer driven R&D, which fosters innovation and reinforces WMO as a UN user-driven R&D organization improving downstream capacity of resource mobilization. The goal is to minimize the gap between R&D and operations, utilizing the potential for societal services and innovation based on Earth system knowledge and data streams;

(h) Have its role and authority recognized and utilized by global partners;(i) Establish a sustained and dynamic design of administrative and technical structures,

with the flexibility to respond to emerging issues;(j) Be resilient, responsive and flexible to bring new technology and data sources, open to

all innovation, and engage partners outside NMHSs;(k) Help to solve global problems for all Members, e.g., global infrastructure;(l) Position WMO as authoritative voice for weather, climate and water (currently no

recognition for water);(m) Strengthen collaboration, limit duplication and enable flexibility among WMO’s various

constituent bodies.

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7. Rethinking an Operating Model and Governance for WMOAn operating model should best support and align to WMO’s mandated functions, strategic principles and priorities. The operating model provides the high-level representation of how WMO components are configured and how they function together to execute on WMO strategy. Given the mandate of WMO, its operating model should consider internal dimensions (governance, efficiency, organizational transformation), external partnership or user sector aspects as well as changing geographic interests, capacities and alignments.

For WMO, the World Meteorological Congress sets out the strategies, directions and priorities, defines the programme of work and budget, and assigns authorities to its constituent bodies or its working processes. In a global context, the Executive Council serves as its policy, programme and oversight body during the intersessional period, while the Commissions it establishes, execute assigned responsibilities primarily scientific and technical in nature. Regional associations, bringing together Members, self-organize to act upon resolutions or decisions of Congress and the Executive Council as regionally appropriate. In the various Articles of the Convention, the role of Congress and the Executive Council are rather specific. However, the Articles of the Convention are not directive about the composition and functions of regional associations, and even less so for the creation and functioning of Commissions.

The following factors are desirable in a new structure and have been used as the basis for an assessment of the different options structure options which were considered by the WG SOP (Annex VIII):

(a) Doing no harm –WMO’s core business is, at a minimum, maintained during and after transition to the new structure;

(b) Building all WMO Members' resilience to the consequences of weather, hydrological and climate hazards;

(c) Yielding improved relevance, effectiveness and efficiency through a flexible structure, improving WMO’s ability to deliver its core functions and respond to change;

(d) Evolution toward a seamless Earth system approach whilst minimizing the gap between research and operations;

(e) Aligning structure with the value chain in provision of hydrometeorological services;(f) Improving strategic and structural alignment of the constituent bodies, improving the

inter-relationships and adaptiveness among the TCs and other constituent bodies, specialized regional centres and RTCs;

(g) Strengthening of user and client focus through a holistic fit and synergy with other key international, national, and regional organizations;

(h) Optimizing WMO's resources through the ability to attract and use all the best experts, including from outside the NMHS community.

8. Proposal for restructuringWhile the following sections provide some rationale, advantages and issues associated with the EC WG SOP recommendations, the review of the various constituent structures of WMO should be considered together.

8.1 Executive Council

The Executive Council would continue to serve its fiduciary responsibilities as outlined under the appropriate Articles of the Convention. Its membership composition would remain the same, however mechanisms for encouraging rotation among Member States should be explored, while considering the value of having in EC Directors of NMHSs making major contributions to the activities of the Organization and the need for institutional memory in the EC. Under the General Regulations, the number of EC seats is defined for each regional association. However, to encourage diversity and participation, there could also be considerations given to fixed numbers for Small Island Developing States, Least and Developing States as well as Developed States. Furthermore, term limits could also be considered like an approach adopted like the UN Security Council. These considerations should be further elaborated.

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Consideration should also be given to strengthening the scientific and technical advice to EC. While technical commissions are established by Congress and working structures by EC to reflect on any matter of interest or significance to WMO, there is no formal process for engaging the presidents of technical commissions at EC sessions. However, as a matter of course, the president of WMO has invited them.

No recommended changes are being considered for the frequency of meetings of the Executive Council. However, consideration was given to the value and utility of establishing its working groups. Currently there is a mix of structures, some are strategic, policy oriented and others are more scientific and technical such as the intergovernmental commissions or EC-PHORS. However, in the case of EC-PHORS it has a different composition than those of the Commissions, engaging stakeholders and members from other external governance mechanisms, which offers more potential for enhanced leverage and interdisciplinary engagement.

Specific recommendations for Executive Council:

The establishment of a standing advisory substructure is recommended to help streamline the work of the Executive Council. This would eliminate the requirement for most of the current EC working groups. Three new ones are being proposed to complement FINAC and the Audit Committee as shown in Annex VIII:

(a) Technical Advisory Committee (TAC): Composed of the presidents of TCs, their chairpersons of priority area working structures, the Research Implementation Group supporting the research to operation focus (equivalent of the management group under CAS), and relevant technical working groups under the RAs that are not reflected in the TCs. This Committee would substitute for the present annual joint PRA-PTC and PTC meeting;

(b) Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC): Composed of outstanding scientists, would give guidance to EC;

(c) Policy Advisory Committee (PAC): Responsible for policy, regulations, strategy and planning. Would substitute the EC WG SOP and annual joint PRA meetings. Should be composed of the presidents of RAs and additional EC members.

Advantages:

These Committees would:

(a) Serve as preparatory bodies of the EC sessions and allow EC to more effectively carry out its oversight and decision-making roles, including giving clear directives to TCs and RAs as laid down in the Convention, and concentrate on strategic decisions rather than general discussions;

(b) Bridge the current disconnect between EC and the TCs, providing tailored, strategic direction to, and coordination between, the TCs, as well as providing collated, prioritized, cross-TC input to EC;

(c) Have clear terms of reference (to be developed) and be given clear delegation of authority from EC. This could include responsibility for coordinating and setting up work programmes, e.g. a future WIGOS programme;

(d) Have a membership which includes representatives from the TCs, experts from across the weather enterprise, and representatives from other external bodies, allowing greater potential for enhanced leverage and interdisciplinary engagement.

Issues for further consideration:

(a) The requirement for a standing advisory committee on capacity development with a composition and active engagement of development partners, like the World Bank, European Commission, UNDP, regional and national development organizations. The aim would be to enhance financial support for enhancing the service capabilities of WMO Member countries and to use the expertise of WMO in ensuring the fit for purpose of investments made;

(b) Further study on the issue of composition, membership, role of presidents of technical commissions, alternates and observers, and rotation for EC members is recommended

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to foster more balanced representation of the development profile of WMO Members, gender balance and more active Member engagement;

(c) The risks associated with creating an additional layer of governance into the EC structure;

(d) The scope and sub-structures of the Scientific Advisory Committee, with an aim to ensure there is an effective solution which considers the scientific aspects of the current TCs.

8.2 Regional Associations

The current RA structure was established during an era when geographic proximity was important and the needs of RA Members were more homogeneous. Therefore, it is worthwhile to consider whether the current structure and/or meeting practices are still optimal. In the broader international and UN context, there are already other existing groupings with regular meetings that can bring together Members. They include:

(a) African Union and Regional Economic Communities (RECs), AMCOMET;(b) League of Arab States and Ministerial Committee on Meteorology;(c) Ibero-American countries;(d) Pacific Island countries and ministerial meetings on meteorology;(e) Russian-speaking countries and Inter-State Committee on Meteorology;(f) West-European countries, Nordic & Baltic countries, Central European countries and

South-East European countries;(g) Hurricane Committee (Caribbean countries);(h) Typhoon Committee (Western Pacific countries).

Regional Associations II, IV, V and VI are quite heterogeneous, which makes it often difficult to find items of common interest. Given that the meeting costs of regional association sessions are significant, using these other forums may permit redirection of funding for targeted activities that lead to betterment of Members’ services more directly.

Another consideration would be to amalgamate regional associations. RA I and RA VI are the largest with over 50 Members, while the other four regional associations are smaller. Consideration should be given to bringing RA III and RA IV together and RA I and RA V together. This would create a better regional balance and Member population among the four remaining regional associations.

Other formats for RA sessions could also be considered that would be more strategic and less focused on materials already addressed by Congress and EC. The goal would be to better define regional priorities and to develop concrete action plans, which would be further elaborated by Congress and executed by the other constituent bodies.

Specific issues for further consideration

(a) Restructuring, alignment or amalgamation of regional associations;(b) Revisiting the terms of reference of RAs to better align with their main roles as spelt

out in the Convention (establishing requirements and implementing the decisions of Congress and EC in the Region);

(c) Reviewing whether the RAs represent the best structure for facilitating collaboration among Members, sustaining regional systems and collaborating with regional institutions;

(d) Reviewing how the RAs can most effectively leverage expertise from the TCs to support implementation by Members;

(e) Aligning with non-WMO intergovernmental meeting structures and mechanisms to conduct the affairs of regional associations, such as AMCOMET;

(f) Investigating the merits of merging RA II and RA V, and RA III and RA IV, which would result in four RAs of nearly equal size.

8.3 Technical Commissions

Three options were considered: (a) structures focused on major horizontal themes around climate, water, weather and systems; (b) structures built around functional processes such as

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observations, data-processing and forecasting and application services; and (c) consolidation of existing TCs.

Specific recommendations for TCs:

(a) Replace CAS, as recommended by the CAS MG, with a Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) and a Research Implementation Group (RIG) - a new non-intergovernmental mechanism for the R&D, where SAC would provide strategic science advice to EC, Congress and the Secretary-General, and RIG would guide all WMO research programmes and initiatives that would be coordinated with the other technical commissions;

(b) Replace the existing TCs with a TC for “Basic Systems” which would encompass all components of observations, information management, technology, data-processing and forecasting from existing Commissions, and another TC for “Applications and Services” for weather, climate, marine-ocean, water and other environmentally-related services such as air quality.

Advantages:

(a) Operational coherence; (b) Consistency with the structure of the Technical Regulations;(c) Seamless Earth system approach;(d) Follows the value chain (Annex III);(e) Provides an opportunity to align the TC and RA subsidiary body structure;(f) Easier interaction between the two TCs;(g) User focus;(h) Efficiency, with the intergovernmental part of the "Applications and Services"

commission reduced to the common underpinning components, such as services delivery strategy, with the more specialized 'user-focused' components, which could draw in experts from a wider community, including the private sector, being non-intergovernmental.

Issues for further consideration:

(a) The risks associated with significant structural change, and the impact on the work of WMO during and after the transition;

(b) Assess the added value of establishing additional TCs for climate and water areas, placing emphasis on the applications and services dimension of these priority issues. The observations, information management, technology, data-processing and forecasting system elements should continue to be under the "Basic Systems" commission;

(c) Implications for the loss of WMO’s visibility under only two commissions. Food security, energy, water security and climate change are very important global policy priorities and these issues are attracting significant world-wide attention;

(d) Partnering arrangements, responsibilities, subject area and working structures, under the current commissions, are all different to varying degrees. For example, CHy and JCOMM link to two very different communities of interest;

(e) Perspectives of partnering organizations like IOC and FAO among others, in proposing new WMO commissions;

(f) The vital role WMO serves in liaising, providing a global forum, and supporting National Hydrological Services, which are often separate organizations to NMS in many countries;

(g) The impact on the quality of decision-making, requirements gathering, and engagement of Members through reducing interpretation costs by moving TCs to non-intergovernmental bodies;

(h) The potential for still creating inter-sub-committees (SCs) to address cross cutting activities;

(i) The potential for an increase in expert resources required if the SCs are to carry out much of the expert work of the current TCs, with the additional expert resources required to support the new TCs and the Advisory Committees;

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(j) Elaborate a vision and strategy for weather, climate, water and related environmental services to guide TCs’ priorities, including its substructures and relationships with the roles and activities of other constituent bodies;

(k) The role of the TCs and SCs in promoting and supporting the RAs in developing regional plans to support Members better plan for and implement regulations and recommendations;

(l) The design of TCs’ scope and structures to ensure they remain focussed, having clear separation of the “formal” intergovernmental and “expert” levels, and better alignments and engagement of other constituent body structures and the Secretariat;

(m) Improvements which can be made to the working processes of the TCs and SC, including the effective use of aligned, coordinated and prioritized workplans which link to the WMO Strategic Plan. Further consideration to the support requested from the Secretariat in playing a key role in coordinating and collating information.

The high priority functions of current TCs are embedded into new TCs.

(a) The present TCs are fulfilling important roles, and their key functions should be continued as a part of the new constituent body structure. Annex IV (a) and (b) shows the roles of the current TCs against their mandatory functions;

(b) It should be further considered whether to maintain future TCs as intergovernmental bodies. Although current TCs have direct involvement of Members in supporting expert groups, building Member-wide consensus through the work of the Commissions may not really have been realized. One possibility would be to bring regulatory recommendations from the TCs to Congress, through the Executive Council, for adoption at the intergovernmental level. However, the specific requirements of some TCs need to be considered, for example recognizing that the intergovernmental nature of CHy currently allows NHSs to take the decisions which they themselves will largely implement;

(c) Alignment of the RA technical working groups with the new TCs, and consideration of them being managed by TCs with experts selected jointly by PRAs and PTCs or jointly managed under TC and RA management groups, would improve the connection with Members and implementation of regulatory and other technical outcomes.

8.3.1 Composition of the new TCs

Presidents of TCs should have demonstrated leadership skills as well as being experts. Rather than a single vice-president, it may be possible to appoint co-chairpersons and vice-chairpersons. There would be benefits in the participation of PR-level persons in the work of the TC, but consideration needs to be given to their time commitment. The chairperson or co-chairperson should manage the meetings in a progressive manner to ensure that the agreed duties are fulfilled. The preparatory work would be carried out by the responsible WMO Department allocating several person-years per year to the work:

(a) High-level experts as members of the TCs. Possibility to appoint a chief scientist/ advisor, who assists the chairperson and the Secretariat in the execution of the work of the TC;

(b) A potential chief/advisor together with other scientific and technical experts would take care of the practical work together with the Secretariat staff;

(c) Key (international organization) partners would be invited to participate as members of the TCs to enhance the impact of the work and to support resourcing of concrete programmes;

(d) Inclusion of key international partners would enhance the global influence of WMO activities and would lead to resource gains. Examples of partners: FAO (food security, employment and economy), WHO (health-climate-air quality), World Bank (development), ICAO (aviation standards), IMO (marine services, Arctic), ISDR (disaster risk reduction), UNESCO (oceans-climate-water resources), European Commission (development & research).

Invited experts would be decided on a case-by-case basis and for individual meetings.

8.3.2 Restructuring the Commission for Atmospheric Science

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There is a significant requirement to close the gap between research (R&D) and operations to enable Members and their NMHSs to maximize their full potential in delivering public services and serving weather, climate and water dependent sectors of society. To this end, operational programmes and services must be driven by R&D as well as user needs. The Management Group of CAS believes that the nexus among scientific and technical advancements, user needs and NMHSs must be strengthened.

To this end, the Management Group of CAS is proposing for consideration the dissolution of the current structure in lieu of the creation of a Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) to be composed of eminent academics from universities, independent research institutes, governmental research institutes including NMHSs, and industry, appointed by the SG and advising the Congress, Executive Council, and the Secretary-General. The SAC would inject quality and foresight into the governance structure of WMO. The SAC would also give recommendations concerning WWRP, WCRP, GCOS, GAW and GFCS.

The functioning of above proposed WMO body has already been piloted in the Executive Council Panel of Experts on Polar and High-mountain Observations, Research and Services (EC-PHORS). The results have been very convincing. The composition of the EC-PHORS is described in Annex II.

8.4 Suggested Meeting practices

Regular Congress would continue to meet every four years; it would be supplemented with an Extraordinary Congress two years later. The length of Congress would depend upon the agenda, but generally the first 5 days would address common issues. TC and RA sessions could meet the week earlier where Members who would meet as regional associations, could determine priority directions for RAs and TCs. All officers could be elected during these sessions:

(a) Many PRs have difficulties in allocating up to three weeks of their time to attend Congress. Congress would focus on the most strategic decisions and action plans rather than reporting on past activities;

(b) More frequent Congress sessions would allow for increased engagement of all Members in WMO activities;

(c) The RA meetings and/or other interest grouping meetings could be organized first to propose priorities and action plans for coming years, followed by respective decisions by Congress and finally practical implementation by the TCs. All those meetings would be fit into a period of two weeks;

(d) This approach would economise the time spent and travel costs of Member delegations and allow their participation in Congress, RA and TC meetings at the same time. It would also minimize the need for RA and TC parallel working groups, as well as the establishment of inter-commission groupings;

(e) RA and TC sessions held concurrent to Congress and each other would enhance coordination of their work and the interrelationships among constituent bodies.

Annual EC meetings would continue. However, more frequent TC meetings could be accommodated as well as with thematic conferences.

8.5 WMO Secretariat

The current structure of TCs and WMO Programmes are not well aligned. This has resulted in inefficiencies and duplication of effort. Whichever option is chosen for the WMO constituent bodies, the TC structure would have a parallel interface in the Secretariat organization that would more efficiently facilitate the work of the TCs. This work would include the organizing of meetings, mobilizing resources and the building of necessary partnerships.

In an optimal case the Secretariat scientific, technical and regional departments would be organized to be affiliated with the future Commission structure to ensure maximum support for the functioning of the TCs and RAs. That would allow the use of whole departments to be working aligned with the work programme of the future TCs and RAs. As compared to the status quo, that would lead to very efficient use of Secretariat resources and would considerably enhance the possibilities for executing the TC work programmes successfully. The

EC-69/INF. 16.3, p. 13

Secretariat is already developing numerical success indicators for its work, like number of WIGOS compliant countries or number of countries with adequate climate services.

8.6 Cost estimates

Figures are provided in a separate Annex IX.

9. Plan to Develop, Approve and Implement the ChangeThe recommended roadmap to Cg-19 should cover:

(a) A package containing changes to EC, RAs and TCs for Cg-19 consideration: TORs of EC Committees; Revised TORs of RAs; TORs of the new TCs, considering changes in EC and RAs; Changes to General Regulations;

(b) Communication strategy (buy in from Members and PRs);(c) Transition process and a dedicated body to manage change.

__________

Annexes: 9

EC-69/INF. 16.3, p. 14

ANNEXES

Annex I - Stakeholder SurveyIn 2016, WMO conducted a stakeholder survey to analyse Member satisfaction and expectations. One hundred and sixteen WMO Permanent Representatives (PRs) from all WMO Regions responded. The following conclusions were drawn:

(a) The organizational structures are complex and unwieldy;

(b) Financial and human resources are very stretched in view of the large amount of activities;

(c) The Organization is too bureaucratic, resulting in inefficiency;

(d) The recognition accorded to WMO in major global initiatives is low, as is the awareness of the Organization at national level outside of the NMHSs;

(e) The implementation of key activities is slow (e.g. GFCS, WIGOS);

(f) The Organization’s ability to adapt to new challenges is inadequate;

(g) The TC structure should be reviewed at every Congress;

(h) The TCs should contain top-down priority setting elements, which could be addressed by considering NMHS director-level chairing;

(i) It would be advantageous to engage key partners and stakeholders in the work of constituent bodies;

(j) There is an overall desire for WMO meetings that are focused, strategic, action oriented and shorter;

(k) The quality of WMO meeting documents should be further improved (shorter, more concise and reader-friendly).

Annex II - Composition of Executive Council Panel of Experts on Polar and High-mountain Observations, Research and Services (EC-PHORS)1. Co-chairpersons 2 PR level EC Members (Grimes & Vertessy);2. 3 other PRs;3. 2 TC presidents;4. 18 Expert level members;5. 5 key stakeholders: SCAR, IASC, ESA, AMAP and ICOPP6. Invited observers;7. Expert groups and task teams:

- Annual meetings, contribution to conferences;- Engagement of key stakeholders;- Major contribution to concrete action of benefit for Members.

EC-69/INF. 16.3, p. 15

Annex III - Key processes involved in delivering weather, climate and hydrological services linked with WMO mandate

(From WMO SP 2016-2019)

EC-69/INF. 16.3, p. 16

Annex IV (a) - Mandatory Functions of TCs and RAs

Purpose of WMO (Convention) CB

S

CIM

O

CHy

CAS

JCOM

M

CCl

CAeM

CAgM

TC 1

TC 2

SAC

RAs

(a) To facilitate worldwide cooperation in the establishment of networks of stations for the making of meteorological observations as well as hydrological and other geophysical observations related to meteorology, and to promote the establishment and maintenance of centres charged with the provision of meteorological and related services;

All

X

Inst

rum

ents

, obs

. met

hods

X

Hydr

o X

Atm

osph

eric

com

posit

ion

X

Ocea

n X

Clim

ate

X

AMDA

R X X X

RBSN

RBC

N Re

gion

al N

etwo

rks X

(b) To promote the establishment and maintenance of systems for the rapid exchange of meteorological and related information;

X X X X X X X

(c) To promote standardization of meteorological and related observations and to ensure the uniform publication of observations and statistics;

X X

TR V

ol. I

II X X X

TR V

ol. I

I X X

Com

plia

nce

(d) To further the application of meteorology to aviation, shipping, water problems, agriculture and other human activities;

PWS

X X XGH

Gs X X X X X X

RCC,

RSM

C

(e) To promote activities in operational hydrology and to further close cooperation between Meteorological and Hydrological Services; and

X X X X

(f) To encourage research and training in meteorology and, as appropriate, in related fields and to assist in coordinating the international aspects of such research and training.

X X X X

RTC

EC-69/INF. 16.3, p. 17

Annex IV (b) - TCs responsibilities and contributions to WMO Technical Regulations

EC-69/INF. 16.3, p. 18

Annexes available as separate documents(in English only)

Annex V - Evolution of Technical Commissions by Congress

Annex VI - Evolution of WMO Programmes by Congress

Annex VII - Technical Commissions SWOT and Flexibility Analysis provided by presidents of TCs

Annex VIII - Structure diagrams: current and proposed structure

Annex IX - Cost estimates_________