Weather and Climate Information Services (WISER)

Funded with UK aid from the British people, the Met Office has been commissioned by the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to manage the WISER programme. WISER delivers maximum value for money by working in partnership and collaboration, capacity building and leveraging funds to ensure long term sustainable delivery and improvement of weather and climate services.   

Between 2015-2021 WISER focused primarily on East Africa with additional activity in the Sahel. Delivery ranged from focused national projects to large, complex regional projects through a range of partners, such as National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), International NGOs and European and African organisations, each with a range of strengths and areas of expertise. It has enabled enhanced information for over 3.3 million households and delivered in excess of £200 million of socio-economic benefit.

Discover more about the history of the WISER programme through this brochure and explore completed projects to date.

Programme Aims

The WISER programme aims to deliver transformation in the generation and use of co-produced weather and climate services to support decision making at local, national, and regional levels, building resilience to the impacts of climate change. 

Since March 2022, the WISER programme has expanded to include: 

WISER Africa 

WISER Africa which includes East, West and Southern Africa and is part of the FCDO Africa Regional Climate and Nature (ARCAN) programme. 

WISER Africa will:  

• Build on the transformational change delivered through WISER to date and provide the opportunity to innovate and expand into new areas and partnership, while drawing on the lessons and best practice 

• Focus on mainstreaming weather and climate information services into policy, planning and decision making to ensure improvements are made and sustained 

It is estimated that WISER Africa will benefit 6-8 million vulnerable people to become more resilient to weather and climate changes, and will take the form of national, regional and pan-regional engagement with a wide range of stakeholders engaged in weather and climate activities. 

Read further details on WISER Africa here in English and here in French. You can also refer to the Theory of Change, which is the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) tool used in the programme to identify and guide the impact the WISER Africa seeks to achieve.

WISER Africa has awarded the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and University of Leeds to begin the WISER Early Warning for Southern Africa project from March 2023, and from April 2023 Resurgence to begin the DARAJA East Africa Scale Up Programme with more projects to be announced.

WISER Middle East and North Africa (MENA) 

A Met Office report on climate risk for the MENA region considered current climate and model projections to the 2050s, coupled with their interaction with regional socio-economic vulnerabilities. Following the success of WISER in East Africa and in response to climate risks such as these, WISER has expanded the concept to the MENA region as part of FCDO's PHENOMENAL (Pioneering a Holistic approach to Energy and Nature-based Options in MENA for Long-term stability) programme.  

WISER MENA will:

• Build on the transformational change delivered through WISER to date by drawing on best practice, replicating and scaling approaches to other regions
• Support new and innovative ways of improving the uptake of weather and climate information services

Read further details on WISER MENA here in English and here in Arabic. 

Find about more about the regional evidence underpinning the WISER MENA programme in the WISER MENA Scoping Report: Opportunities for improved weather and climate information in the Middle East and North Africa (Also available: WISER MENA Scoping Report Summary and Appendices).  You can also refer to the Theory of Change which is the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) tool used in the programme to identify and guide the impact the WISER MENA seeks to achieve.

WISER Asia Pacific

From April 2023, WISER expanded to include WISER Asia Pacific, funded under the UK government's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's (FCDO) Climate Action for a Resilient Asia (CARA) programme, and will run until February 2029. Geographically, this WISER programme will provide support to South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific islands – and will support transformational change in weather and climate services.  

A scoping assessment was undertaken (2022-2023) with numerous stakeholders across the regions. Gaps, barriers, needs and opportunities for WISER support were emphasised, and key themes identified that the programme intends to focus on. 

The inception and design phase of WISER Asia Pacific is underway, currently taking place until late 2023 and will interface and link to other CARA components, where already several opportunities for alignment and integration with partners have been identified. This phase will also further engage with regional stakeholders to refine and develop specific priorities and interventions for the programme. 

Guidance

Brand

• WISER Visual Brand Guidelines 

Contact us 

If you have an enquiry relating to the fund management or project delivery of the WISER programme, please contact us. To find out more about opportunities to get involved with WISER, visit the open opportunities page.