Publication: The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services
Loading...
Published
2020-09-29
ISSN
Date
2020-10-14
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The needs of societies for more accurate and reliable weather, climate, and hydrological ‘hydromet’ information are at the highest levels today. Weather events–including hurricanes, heat waves, floods, and droughts, jointly cause more economic damage and loss of life than any other disaster. Around the world, better warning systems, better meteorological and hydrological services, and customized service delivery can help prepare for and reduce the cost of weather events, minimize loss and damage, and build socio-economic resilience. Reliable hydromet services are in high demand in weather-dependent sectors like aviation, agriculture, shipping, transport, energy, and tourism. As the effects of climate change modify the patterns and intensity of natural hazards and as rapid urbanization and population growth increase vulnerability, adequate hydromet services are increasingly a very high value proposition. For over a decade, the World Bank has invested in the modernization of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs). Some countries have been more successful than others with sustaining and multiplying the outcomes of these investments. We have also witnessed that many countries are struggling to keep up with the ever-increasing demand for more sophisticated services to protect lives and assets as well as to support economies. Over the same decade, advances in technology and innovation have widened the scope of products and services that can be used to improve weather data, warning systems, and hydromet information. Private-sector actors are playing an important role and along with the academic community are helping to push the frontiers of knowledge, investing in innovative solutions that deliver more reliable forecasting and more efficient and diverse services. The dynamics between the public, private, and academic sectors have been evolving, creating more opportunities than ever to join forces to deliver the socio-economic benefits of a more informed and resilient world. This report looks at the current landscape of partnerships and analyzes the experience from eight countries that have explored different approaches to partnership as they seek to strengthen the provision of hydromet services. Not surprisingly, these experiences show that collaboration across public, private, and academic actors in this field is changing rapidly, can be complex and challenging but is worth the effort. The report offers ideas about lessons learned so far as countries attempt to structure a balanced model that builds on an awareness of comparative advantages, a shared commitment to improving global public goods in the service of strengthening global resilience.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2020. The Power of Partnership: Public and Private Engagement in Hydromet Services. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34615 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Catastrophe Risk Financing in Developing Countries : Principles for Public Intervention(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009)Public intervention in catastrophe insurance markets, supported by the donor community and the World Bank, should be country specific. Low-income countries, where the domestic non-life insurance market is undeveloped, should focus in the short term on the development of sovereign catastrophe insurance solutions and the promotion of public goods related to risk market infrastructure. These countries are usually not mature enough for the promotion of catastrophe insurance pools for private homeowners. Middle-income countries, where the domestic non-life insurance market is more developed, should help the private insurance industry offer market-based catastrophe insurance solutions to homeowners and to small and medium enterprises, including the agricultural sector. This book offers a framework, with lessons drawn from recent experience, guiding principles for public intervention and potential roles for donors and International Financial Institutions (IFIs). These lessons are expected to be used in developing affordable, effective and sustainable country-specific catastrophe insurance programs.Publication China : Innovations in Agricultural Insurance, Technical Annexes(Washington, DC, 2007-06)This report explains why agricultural insurance is expensive to deliver to small farm households, details risk assessment in four provinces, and recommends China put more resources in developing products that are more suited to an agricultural economy that is dominated by small farm households. The report discusses the important role of government in supporting the legal and regulatory environment, access to data for new product development, risk sharing, and broader education of all stakeholders about the benefits of agricultural insurance. It also explains why this form of subsidy could provide improved incentives versus a direct subsidy for farmer premium. The report concludes with principle recommendations involving scalable product solutions, risk financing strategy, intuitional capacity building and technical assistance, legal and regulatory framework, and government support and public subsidies.Publication Weather and Climate Services in Europe and Central Asia : A Regional Review(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008)This paper reviews the status of weather and climate services in Europe and Central Asia (ECA).Worldwide, the accuracy and value of weather and climate services are rising, bringing great economic benefits. However, many National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in Europe and Central Asia are in decline. As a result, these potential gains are often missed. Much more could be done to mitigate weather disasters, support the productivity of smallholding and commercial agriculture, conserve energy, and promote safe aviation and transport by road and rail. Although NMHS capacity deficiencies are serious, they could be significantly remedied by relatively modest but sustained investments. Economic assessments indicate substantial benefit-to-cost ratios for such initiatives. A strategy for NMHS service improvement requires assessment of national climate, user needs, NMHS status and provision of services, and the economic benefits of an upgrade to weather and climate services. recommendations for agency modernization should include (a) a prioritized plan for improving data delivery to national users, (b) identification of the highest-priority infrastructure investments, and (c) a reasonable phasing plan for overall modernization.Publication India Power Sector Diagnostic Review : More Power to India - The Challenge of Distribution(Washington, DC, 2014-06-12)This report reviews the evolution of the Indian power sector since the landmark Electricity Act of 2003 (EA 2003, or EA), with a focus on distribution as key to performance and viability of the sector. While all three segments of the power sector generation, transmission, and distribution are important, revenues originate with the customer at distribution, so subpar performance there hurts the entire value chain. Persistent operational and financial shortcomings in distribution have repeatedly led to central bailouts for the whole sector, even though power is a concurrent 1 subject under the Indian constitution and distribution is almost entirely under state control. Ominously, the recent sharp increase in private investment and market borrowing means power sector difficulties are more likely to spill over to lenders and affect the broader financial sector. Government-initiated reform efforts first focused on the generation and transmission segments, reflecting the urgent need for adding capacity and the complexity of issues to be addressed at the consumer interface. Consequently, distribution improvements have lagged, but it is now clear that they need to be a priority. This report thus analyzes the multiple sources of weakness in distribution and identifies the key challenges to improving performance in the short and medium term.Publication Improving Weather, Climate, and Hydrological Services Delivery in Central Asia(World Bank, Moscow, 2016-01)The purpose of this report is to present the results of an assessment of national weather, climate, and hydrological services in Central Asia and to present a program to improve these services. The report is based on the findings of three country assessments - the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan - and supporting regional documentation. These and other countries that form the Central Asian region share common concerns, regarding economic development and the vulnerability of their economies and people to weather, climate, and hydrological extremes. National assessments are based on evaluations of weather, climate, and hydrological hazards; key users’ needs; national hydro meteorological services’ (NMS) capacities; and potential economic benefits from improvement of hydro meteorological service delivery. The results of this global facility for disaster reduction and recovery (GFDRR) work and summary report will contribute directly to the development of the regional initiative to improve weather, climate, and hydrological service delivery in the Central Asia.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Direct and Indirect Impacts of Transport Mobility on Access to Jobs: Evidence from South Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-12)Access to jobs is essential for economic growth. In Africa, unemployment rates are notably high. This paper reexamines the relationship between transport mobility and labor market outcomes, with a particular focus on the direct and indirect effects of transport connectivity. As predicted by theory, wages are influenced by the level of commuting deterrence. Generally, higher earnings are associated with longer commute times and/or higher commuting costs. Local accessibility is also important, especially for individuals with time constraints. Both direct and indirect impacts are found to be significant in South Africa, where job accessibility has been challenging since the end of apartheid. For the direct impact, the wage elasticity associated with commuting costs is significant. Returns on commute are particularly high for women. Local accessibility to socioeconomic facilities, such as shops and health services, is also found to have a significant impact, consistent with the concept of mobility of care. To enhance employment, therefore, it is crucial to connect people not only to job locations but also to various socioeconomic points of interest, such as markets and hospitals, in an integrated manner. This integration will enable individuals to spend more time working and commuting longer distances.Publication Kyrgyz Republic Country Climate and Development Report(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-03)This Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) on the Kyrgyz Republic aims to support the country’s development goals amid a changing climate. The CCDR considers two policy scenarios up to 2050: the business-as-usual (BAU) and high-growth scenarios. As it quantifies the likely impacts of climate change on the Kyrgyz economy between now and 2050, the report highlights key government actions to best prepare for and adapt to climate impacts (referred to as “with adaptation” measures), with a particular focus on the time horizon up to 2030. The CCDR also outlines a path to net zero emissions by 2050 (referred to as “with mitigation” measures, “decarbonization,” or, simply, “net zero 2050”), highlighting associated development co-benefits.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Charting a Course for Sustainable Hydrological and Meteorological Observation Networks in Developing Countries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022)Over the past 20 years, developing countries have invested in upgrading hydrological and meteorological networks, often with the assistance of development partners. In most of these projects, the share of the investment in the modernization of networks has been between 40 and 50 percent of the total project costs. The objectives of these initiatives have been to create reliable analyses, numerical predictions, and forecasts to inform early action, response, and planning across the whole of society. In some countries, monitoring networks have been sustained and improved over the decades. But in others, maintaining them operationally has remained elusive, resulting not only in inoperable or poorly maintained observational infrastructure and systems but also in a failure to realize the intended benefits. Why did some succeed where others did not That is a question that this report tries to answer by exploring the underpinnings of the successes and the possibilities of replicating these successes elsewhere, and thereby contribute to the body of knowledge on observation networks. This report aims to facilitate the development of more strategic and viable roadmaps for investments in weather and climate observation networks where those investments are likely to be substantial in the coming decades, as countries improve resilience to natural hazards and economies transform in response to climate change challenge.Publication Taxes, Spending, and Equity: International Patterns and Lessons for Developing Countries(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-17)Taxes and public spending underpin the basic administration of government and finance the human capital and infrastructure investments needed for economic growth. They can also have a significant and immediate impact on poverty and inequality. The question of how public finance can support longer-term growth objectives while promoting equity has become even more important in recent years, given the high fiscal deficits and debt levels most countries emerged with in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. These included the increasing cost of debt and the need to restart environmentally sustainable growth while helping households address the learning losses and other social scars caused by the pandemic. This paper examines the global evidence on which households pay which taxes and who benefits from what spending, and critically, the net effect on different households across the income distribution. The aim is to identify the patterns and lessons that emerge for designing progressive fiscal policies. A global dataset of 96 countries is assembled, spanning all regions of the world and all national income levels, grounded in the Commitment to Equity (CEQ) approach to fiscal incidence.