In September 2018 TAHMO was invited by Winrock International to participate in a workshop in Dakar, Senegal on: ‘‘Sustainable Climate Information Services (CIS): Expanding CIS delivery through innovative financial and business arrangements’’.
After the welcome speeches done by Julia Bradley-Cook (USAID); Filipe Lucio (GFCS Director, WMO); and Robert O’Sullivan (Winrock International) who also gave a brief introduction of the Sustainable CIS project and a review of the agenda.
The workshop was divided into two sessions: A review of metrics to assess the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) capacity and a review of the NMHS financial planning tool. In summary, the workshop allowed the organizers to present both Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) metrics:

1. Observations and Monitoring; 2. Research, Modeling, and Prediction; 3. Climate Service Information System; 4. User Interface Platform; and, 5. Capacity Development.) and the WMO NMHS Categories (1. Basic Climate Services; 2. Essential Climate Services; 3. Full Climate Services; and 4. Advanced Climate) Services. These two schemas were combined by WMO to create a new framework to guide the NMHS enterprise in identifying their needs and finding resources through either donor, private or PPP.

Dr Theophile MANDE, the representative of TAHMO in the workshop contributed to the discussion by sharing TAHMO’s experience in working with NMHSs reporting on both positive elements and challenges.
In terms of challenges four groups could be identified:
Administrative challenges
Having MoU signed with NMHSs (which is sometimes really difficult and it can take several years);
Having NMHSs staff involved in the station installation, monitoring

and

maintenance;
Have experienced localhost (Not enough skills or

overexploited

competences);
Need a lot of

localhost

(at least one per village where we have stations installed).
Economic challenges
Acquire the stations
The cost of the installation and maintenance
Paid field staff (Engineer; Directors; local Host)
Equipment challenges
Local conditions (access to sites; safety etc.)
Sensors breaking; dust and batteries
Software update
Station cleaning (rain gauge)
Data sharing challenges
On this particular challenge, several questions arise: How to share data? With who? Under which conditions (free, sell)?
For TAHMO these data have to be free at least for scientific needs but deep exchanges with NMHSs are necessarily knowing that data production is their first activity and source of income.
Success
TAHMO achieved building strong relationships with several NMHSs with around 25 MoU signed and a network of more than 500 stations installed from which more than 90% are running. The data collected is frequently checked by TAHMO QA/QC team which ensures good quality data. These data are also easily available through the network.
TAHMO’s participation and contribution at the workshop were very much appreciated by the organizer and an appointment was made for the next workshop.
On behalf of TAHMO, Dr. MANDE thanked WINROCK and its partners for inviting TAHMO to this workshop which appears to be very rich and relevant for both NMHS and Private structures such as TAHMO. A details study of these approaches will be done by TAHMO aiming to adapt them to their needs; the representative of TAHMO believes that this tool (if accepted and used by NMHS after validation) will help improve both (administrative and financial) relationships between NMHSs and Private Sectors which will be clear and win-win.

On March 15, Kenya was put on partial lockdown after 2 COVID cases were reported in the country.  Alongside the government-imposed dusk-to-dawn curfew, schools were closed and movement restricted. Within a week, the lockdown wave had spread to most East African countries. It created a sense of panic, fear and uncertainty. This hit our team hard because our work involves traveling, meetings and working with schools. I wondered how we would carry on with field activities.

At TAHMO East Africa, we have an elaborate guideline for field work that ensures we provide high-quality data. If a weather station is faulty for instance, our first point of contact is the host who checks if the issue is minor and where possible resolves the issue. But if the issue is more complicated, one of our technicians/meteorologists/engineers visits the site. Additionally, we have put up structures for preventing station failures. One way is by yearly preventive maintenance where we visit all the stations to identify any potential future problems and resolve them beforehand.

When lockdown came along, we were at the peak of our yearly stations maintenance. I also had scheduled travels, clients to meet, projects to initiate and projects to push forward. All this put me in a limbo. Top on my list of attention was how our team would carry along repairs. There are no two ways with weather stations. If it is not working, data not captured will never be recovered. But how then would we carry on with the activities with COVID challenges?

In Kenya, most stations are hosted in schools. When schools shut a big number of teachers relocated. We did not have effective communication with the hosts anymore. Traveling to the sites was a challenge too. You would be comforted with several fears – caught out of time due to delays in screenings mounted in roadblocks, or at worst, being put on government quarantine.

By mid-April, we had put up a structure where more people would help with field activities. In Kenya for instance Victor (TAHMO Engineer) involved former interns and volunteers living in areas where we could not travel to assist with some of the work. In Rwanda, Honore (TAHMO Engineer), trained new technicians via zoom that would take work in areas in regions he was unable to travel.

At the time of this writing (mid-July 2020) countries are easing restrictions. There is less fear – we have probably learned to carry on with our work amidst the challenges. TAHMO East Africa Network improved tremendously in the last two months. Not everything is working right, and we do not expect everything to be smooth soon. There is still a sense of uncertainty about how the future will look after COVID.  But we will keep the hope and develop more ways of keeping our work going.