Reports

REPORT

2nd Meeting of the ECO Heads of Meteorological/Hydrometeorological Organizations
(Antalya, October 18-19, 2010)

1. The 2nd Meeting of the ECO Heads of Meteorological/Hydrometeorological Organizations was held on October 18-19, 2010 in Antalya, Turkey. The Meeting was hosted by the Meteorological Organization of the Republic of Turkey.

2. Heads/Senior Officials of Meteorological/Hydrometeorological Organizations of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Republic of Azerbaijan, Islamic Republic of Iran, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Republic of Turkey participated in the Meeting. Representatives of the ECO Secretariat and UNDP also attended the Meeting. The list of participants is attached at Annex I.

Agenda Item 1
Inauguration of the Meeting

3. The Meeting was inaugurated by Mr. Mehmet Cağlar, Head of the Turkish State Meteorological Service. He made an inaugural address on weather and climate related disasters. The representative of ECO also made an address. Both statements are attached as Annex-II.

Agenda Item 2
Election of the Chairman

5. Mr. Mehmet ÇAĞLAR, Head of the Turkish State Meteorological Service was elected to chair the meeting.

Agenda Item 3
Adoption of the Agenda

6. The Meeting adopted its agenda without amendment. The agenda is placed at Annex III.

Agenda Item 4
Appointment of the Drafting Committee

7. The Meeting established a drafting committee comprising willing member states as well as ECO Secretariat to prepare the draft Report of the Meeting.

Agenda Item 5
Statements/Presentations by the Heads of Delegations/Representatives of the Member States

8. The heads of delegations from the Member States delivered their statements/presentations. The available statements/presentations are placed at Annex IV.

Agenda Item 6
Report on the Activities by the Head of the ECO Regional Center for Risk Management of Natural Disasters (ECO-RCRM) in Mashad

9. Head of ECO-RCRM delivered his report on the activities of the ECO RCRM. The report is attached as Annex-V.

10. The meeting, while appreciating the activities carried out by ECO RCRM so far, called for continuation of its activities in the framework of a regional strategy to be devised by ECO RCRM in collaboration with the member states and with the technical assistance of UNDP and other related international organizations.

In devising the regional strategy the member states will benefit from the ongoing WMO UNDP projects, namely. MDG F (Enhance the capacity of Turkey to adapt to climate change) Regional Programme on Disaster Risk Reduction in South-East Europe.

11. The Meeting welcomed the following proposal put forward by the representative of the UNDP for inclusion among the activities of ECO RCRM:

• Identify and develop resource mobilization mechanisms to ensure the long term sustainability of the center;
• Establish partnership with ongoing training programs available in the member state and/or international organizations;
• Run periodic benchmarking exercise to assess member countries needs and capacities while harmonizing and updating the training and experts capacities;
• Develop monitoring and evaluation mechanisms (reporting guidelines/indicators and target) to monitor the impact of the center’s activities and work plan;
• Develop communication strategy of the center to ensure fast/efficient communication of the activities of the center (ei; publications/webportal/infosheets etc.);
• Identify potential exchange programs;

Agenda Item 7
Consideration/finalization of the Draft Statute of the ECO-RCRM prepared by the Working Group Meeting

12. The meeting considered the draft statute of the ECO RCRM prepared by the working group in December 2008 and decided to finalize it after receiving views and comments of the member states with regard to financial and institutional provisions of the Statute. The member states are requested to designate their national focal points for this purpose.

13. The Republic of Turkey announced its readiness to sign the MoU on Establishment of ECO RCRM during the 19th ECO Council of Ministers (COM) to be held in December 2010 in İstanbul.

Agenda Item 8
Consideration of the Draft Program/Plan of Action for the Establishment of ECO Regional Center for Risk Management of the Natural Disasters

14. The Meeting decided that ECO RCRM would prepare a draft work program for 2 years period, indicating specific activities, responsible parties, timelines and required resources. ECO RCRM was to prepare, the draft work program by the end of 2010 for circulation to the member states for their consideration. In preparing the work program, the RCRM may receive technical assistance from UNDP and any other international organizations. The Draft Work program would be approved by the 3rd meeting of ECO Heads of the Meteorological/Hydrometeorological Organizations.

Agenda Item 9
Date and Venue of the next meeting

15. The Meeting welcomed the offer of the Republic of Azerbaijan to host the next meeting in Oct 2011.

Agenda Item 10
Any Other Business

16. The meeting established a working group comprised of the national focal points to work on developing projects from the following proposals put forward by the Turkish Delegation. The working group would convene in two months time to start its work.

• Developing Early Warning Systems about Flash flood
• Developing cooperation on Dust-Transportation models
• Utilizing Radar Products in Early Warning Systems
• Organizing joint workshops on Climate Change and Variability
• Organization of training courses by member states

17. The Meeting was informed by the Turkish Delegation that TSMS was an accredited calibration center. The Calibration Center of TSMS worked in accordance with TS EN ISO/IEC standards and had been accredited since April, 2010. It calibrated the following meteorological censors: Temperature, Humidity, Pressure, Wind speed, Solar radiation, Precipitation amount and intensity. In light of this information, the Meeting decided that TSMS’s Calibration Center would act as ECO calibration center. It would provide training facilities for the member states.

18. TSMS would provide technical assistance for the member states in the following areas.

a Accessing to GTS through TSMS’s MSS

TSMS has strong international communication links. TSMS has planned to be a DCPC (Data Communication and Production Center) of WIS (WMO Information System). TSMS will be pleased to help ECO countries to access to GTS through TSMS’s MSS system and Migration from TAC to TDCF

b. Regional Climate Center

TSMS is the WMO RA VI RCC Network is giving climate services on climate monitoring and seasonal forecast and can enlarge his experience for the ECO region.

c. Quality Management in Meteorology

TSMS has been rewarded with TSE-ISO 9001:2008 Quality Certificate and it can share its experience to obtain QM Certificate.

d. Improved EUMETSAT coverage

Turkey has been a EUMETSAT member since 1984. Upon Turkey suggestion Meteosat-7 shifted to 57º E and now is capable to cover Kazakhstan and other ECO member states. Turkey can help ECO countries to set-up satellite receiving system.

19. Turkish State Meteorological Service, upon request from the member states, would provide technical assistance in the utilization of Meteorological Communication and Application Softwares such as METCAP (Meteorological Communication and Application Package) and KARDELEN (Meteorological Communication and Data Collection Software).

20. The Meeting agreed on the proposal by UNDP to develop national and regional strategies on early warning and climate change with the technical assistance of UNDP and other relevant specialized international organizations.

21. The Meeting decided that, for the purpose of coordination and follow-up of the work on the above-mentioned proposals, Turkish State Meteorological Service designs and hosts a web page for the ECO Heads of the Meteorological/Hydrometeorological Organizations, link of which is to be under the web site of ECO.

22. For the follow-up of the decisions/activities of the ECO Heads of the Meteorological Organizations Meetings, the meeting decided that the member state hosting the last ECO Heads of the Meteorological Organizations meeting would act as coordinator and give secretarial services until the next ECO Heads of the Meteorological/Hydrometeorological Organizations Meeting.

Agenda Item 11
Adoption of the Report

22. The Meeting adopted its Report.

Agenda Item 12
Vote of Thanks

23. The meeting thanked the Government of the Republic of Turkey particularly Turkish State Meteorological Service for their warm hospitality extended to the participants and excellent arrangements made for the meeting