The Met Office has been commissioned by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) to manage, coordinate, and design the Weather and Climate Information Services (WISER) programme, which has enhanced the quality, accessibility, and use of weather and climate information services (WCIS) in East Africa and the Sahel since 2015.Two programmes have been launched by the Met Office under the WISER programme:

• WISER Africa: A new phase of WISER in Africa (running through 2026) has been launched as a pillar of FCDO's Africa Regional Climate and Nature (ARCAN) programme. WISER Africa will be advancing its existing successes, innovating, and expanding into new geographies and partnerships, which can further strengthen the development, delivery, and use of WCIS across the continent, including in policy and strategic planning. WISER Africa aims to strengthen WCIS by putting greater focus on gender equality and social inclusion, transformational change, and lesson-learning, both within the programme, across other ARCAN pillars, and globally, seeking to maximise systemic effects through greater collaboration and learning.
• WISER MENA (Weather and Climate Information Services Programme - Middle East and North Africa), supported by the FCDO with the Met Office leading its design, management and coordination. As with WISER Africa, WISER MENA aims to deliver transformation in the generation and use of co-produced weather and climate services in the MENA region to support decision-making at the local, national, and regional level, building resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Athena Infonomics has been chosen to support the WISER programme through the Met Office's Consultant Roster Framework. As part of this engagement, Athena will be providing technical support in areas such as: community engagement, co-production, communication, and uptake; gender, equity, and inclusion (GESI); monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL), which can include socio-economic benefits analysis; knowledge management and applied learning (KMAL), which can include peer-to-peer and capacity-building events, development of knowledge materials, network building, partnership development, and the development of learning platforms; value for money (VfM) assessments and the development of related guidelines; weather and climate funding and financing; policy, institutional, and economic analysis; and strategic/organizational planning and change management.

‍Image Source: Roan Fourie