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National Center for Hydrology and Meteorology

Project Title: Developing Capacities for effective Climate Services in Bhutan

Duration : August, 2020 - December, 2022

Total Fund : 127,389.00 CHF

Project Background

In November 2017, WMO in collaboration with National Center for Hydrology and Meteorology (NCHM) organized a stakeholder workshop to assess the capacities and needs of providers and users of climate services in support of decision-making by the agriculture sector in Bhutan. The workshop brought together participants from key agencies like the Department of Agriculture, Department of Disaster Management, academic institutions, media, development partners (World Bank, JICA, UNDP) and technical partners such as the RIMES and IMD. The focus of the workshop was on available climate information and services for agriculture at global, regional and national scales. For delivering climate information effectively, it is imperative that appropriate operational institutional mechanisms are in place to generate, exchange, and disseminate information globally, regionally and nationally. One of the main recommendations from this workshop was to customize the Climate Services Toolkit (CST) that will enable NCHM to generate climate products and services with assistance from WMO and regional partners.

In 2019, RIMES and NCHM submitted a project proposal to WMO to customize the CST for Bhutan and to enhance the provision and use of climate services in support of decision-making by the climate-sensitive sectors in the country. The project was approved by WMO and came into effect from August 2020.

Project Partners 

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES), Thailand and National Center for Hydrology and Meteorology (NCHM), Bhutan are the main project partners. WMO will provide overall guidance to the project and support with funds made available by Korean Meteorological Agency (KMA) to RIMES for the implementation of the project.

RIMES will be the implementing partner and will be responsible to collaborate with partners to deliver the following project outputs.

  • Report highlighting the current capacities of climate services and gaps in Bhutan along with recommendations

  • Report on the outcome of the training carried out for NCHM staff members on CST

  • Report from the NCOF conducted in two pilot Dzongkhags (districts) of Bhutan

NCHM will be the collaborating national partner in Bhutan. NHCM is the national focal agency in Bhutan, which caters hydrological and meteorological products and services to support policy, planning and decision making. Provision of climate information to the climate-sensitive sectors is one of the key mandates of NCHM.  This project is aimed at enhancing the capacity of NCHM to provide climate services that are tuned to user requirements and are able to support their decision-making process at climate-sensitive points.

 Scope and Objective

The scope and purpose of this stocktaking report are to understand the climate services capacities, gaps and requirements of NCHM and its stakeholders in Bhutan. This stocktaking is mainly based on the desk review and supplemented by online consultations, telephone interview and face to face interview with the stakeholders. The findings and recommendations from this stocktaking report will assist in developing clear plans and targets for identifying CST components and their customization to enable NCHM to deliver effective climate services for stakeholders in Bhutan.

Contact Point

Ms. Monju Subba, Engineer/Project Focal, Weather and Climate Services Division

National Center for Hydrology and Meteorology

Email: msubba@nchm.gov.bt    phone: 00975 2 335578