This talk summarizes the experience gained through the collaborative work of many involved people at MeteoSwiss and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretariat, together with humanitarian actors.

Extreme hydrological, meteorological and climatological events affect livelihoods and lives all over the globe. Enabling access to authoritative information about these events is vital in supporting humanitarian activities, especially for Anticipatory Action and Crisis Support.

Through the Weather4UN pilot project, Switzerland supported the establishment of the WMO Coordination Mechanism (WCM). The purpose of this mechanism is to curate authoritative weather, water and climate information from the WMO Community, delivering timely, accurate and actionable advice to the UN and other humanitarian agencies. Combined with humanitarian data, authoritative information, and expert advice from the WMO community, it provides situational awareness to the humanitarian community, enhancing preparedness and early response efforts.

The Weather4UN pilot project successfully supported the implementation of the WCM through various activities, especially with the development and prototyping of WCM products following a co-design approach with the humanitarian community and setting up automatic systems, training experts, and documentation. After the project's pilot phase, Switzerland will continue to support WCM by preparing WCM products, WCM processes and coordination in close collaboration with the WMO Secretariat and other WMO Members and Centres.

In addition, in collaboration with IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) and ETH Zurich, the Weather4UN pilot project developed a scalable and adaptable system to provide impact estimates of forecasted natural hazards. The system considers the hazard component, exposure, and vulnerability. Thus, it provides impact estimates as a metric to trigger anticipatory action and funding, enabling humanitarian actors to plan and estimate the best responses to protect the most vulnerable populations.

Near the end of the Weather4UN pilot project, several learnings can be drawn from those activities, for example, (1) the importance of collaboration, dialogue and co-design between provider and user to increase the usefulness of the product, (2) simplicity is needed to communicate efficiently, and (3) the need for open sharing of information to allow consistent messaging.