1st National Stakeholder Consultation and National Climate Outlook Forum for Bhutan

NCOF will serve as a regular and sustained platform to address the following objectives:

• to provide climate information at relevant timescales through a regular and sustained multi-stakeholder dialogue process;
• to ensure that climate information and products, including their uncertainties and limitations, are understood by and communicated to users;
• to review the current status of the climate in Bhutan, and to share with participants the climate outlook information pertinent to climate risk management, resilience and adaptation needs;
• to discuss users’ views on how to make the climate information accessible, user-friendly andrelevant; in order to maximize the benefit derived by end-users from climate prediction and information services;
• to develop a culture of collaboration through joint climate-information interpretation sessions to better manage risks in climate-sensitive sectors; and
• to improve the development and delivery of climate information, and to develop new climate information products and services that will contribute to the protection of natural resources, lives, livelihoods and property.

At the NSC, discussions will focus on climate services and their benefits at the national level for the priority sectors identified by Bhutan, namely: agriculture, disaster risk reduction, and hydropower. A Framework for Climate Services at the National Level (NFCS) provides the institutional mechanism that will facilitate the prioritization and coordination of activities. The NSC will thus also consider the possibility of establishing and operationalizing an NFCS through, inter alia, the following actions:

• involving top level leadership, management and key players in climate sensitive sectors to provide strong institutional support;
• strengthening the national capacity in Bhutan to develop and deliver climate information and services, and identifying existing gaps in the provision of climate services to the priority areas;
• strengthening the capacity of the DHMS to develop and provide climate information and services that are timely, reliable, user friendly and useful;
• developing climate knowledge capacities in key climate sensitive government agencies and other institutions in Bhutan;
• raising public awareness of climate variability and change; the risks posed by not using climate information in decision making; and the opportunities for improving climate risk management in the priority sectors in Bhutan; and
• operationalizing a sustainable National Climate Outlook Forum process.