The first meeting of the Executive Council (EC) Capacity Development Panel, held virtually from 26–27 August, agreed on the modality of work and set approaches and timelines for delivering its mandate. Participants included members of the Panel, some observers, and staff of the Secretariat. The meeting was chaired by its newly elected Vice-Chair John Ogren.
The Panel was invited to make written contributions on the agenda ahead of the session. These contributions were put into a synthesis document for review and comments at the virtual meeting. This preparatory work permitted tangible outcomes from the Panel deliberations.
The Panel recommended that EC expand its membership to include a representative from the Hydrological Coordination Panel, from each of the two technical commissions and the Research Board, and from the Joint WMO-IOC Collaborative Board. This would permit the Panel to implement the cross-cutting approach that is necessary for capacity development.
The Panel will also need to be kept up-to-date on constituent body activities through formal reports, especially on decisions and actions that relate to capacity development. The Panel advised Expert Teams to review the suggested lists of experts for each team and to make recommendations to the Chair if changes were required. Expert Teams and the Task Team will set their own timetable to assure timely delivery of outputs for deliberations ahead of the next meeting of the Panel.
