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Strengthening Meteorological Products, Services and Use in the Agriculture and Water Sectors (SMEPS) Project

Since 2009, Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH has been supporting the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) to build resilience of the water sector to climate change through strengthing its Human, Institutional, Cooperation and Framework Capacities. One of the key beneficiaries of this support was the Department of Meteorology (DoM) which was the predecessor institution to the Uganda National Meteorological Authority (UNMA).

From 2014, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through its implementing agency GIZ and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) decided to continue this support in a project called: Strengthening Meteorological Products, Services and Use in the Agriculture and Water Sectors. Other co-beneficiary institutions being the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) and the Directorate of Water Resources Management (DWRM) of the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE). The project is also in collaboration with other USAID and GIZ projects, National Agriculture Research Organization (NARO), International Agencies, Development Partners, Civil Society, Private Sector and Academia.

The main objective is to improve the provision and utilization of targeted meteorological products by strengthening both product generation (from data collection through data processing and production to dissemination) in terms of quality, quantity, timelines.,s and usefulness of information; and the capacity of end-users in the agriculture and water sectors to effectively use meteorological products. Institutional and organizational development has been considered essential and a prerequisite for other forms of support to take root.