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Working Groups

The CSP has sponsored a number of Working Groups to generate knowledge on areas of common interest to the climate services community. Information on these groups is found below; for more information about these groups, or to suggest a new one, please contact Cathy Vaughan at cvaughan@iri.columbia.edu.

Developing Countries Task Team


ICCS Development Days have been held in recognition of the special conditions affecting the implementation of climate services in developing countries. Discussion has been focused around best practice for knowledge capture and management, priorities for investment, and the potential ways for the CSP to use guidance, capacity building, and assessment to meet some of the climate service needs of the developing world. Results from Development Day 2011 and 2012 are available in the ICCS conference reports.

Economic Valuation Working Group


The Economic Valuation of Climate Services Working Group, which consists of a team of economists and weather, climate, and hydrological (WCH) practitioners, is co-chaired by John Zillman and Glen Anderson. The group came out of the first International Conference on Climate Services and has collaborated on several activities to assess valuation methodologies, demonstrate the benefits of climate services, and help providers prioritize opportunities for expanding the use of climate services. More on the economic valuation group is found here.

Ethics Working Group


The CSP’s Ethics Working Group is a collaborative activity that draws on the discussions at the first side event on climate services ethics, held in conjunction with the Third International Conference on Climate Services (ICCS 3) in December 2013. More on the Ethics Working Group is found here.

Evaluation Working Group


CSP evaluation activities began with large-scale activities in India and Mali. Aware that many organizations would not be able to invest in long-term projects, the CSP also set out to develop guideline for “mid-level” evaluations that could be conducted at relatively modest levels of time and financial investment. A workshop was held to draft these guidelines; afterward, four evaluations were conducted. A synthesis paper is in preparation.

Research Priorities Working Group


To improve livelihoods, climate services must combine local expectations and knowledge with external expertise. That is, decision makers must be able to access, utilize, and optimize climate adaptation solutions that emerge from research and, at the same time, research institutes must be equipped to create the knowledge and meet decision-making and policy formation.

The Research Priorities Working Group of the CSP is led by Lisa Goddard (IRI) and Lawrence Buja (NCAR) and aims to identify pressing existing and emerging research needs in the field of climate services. The group has reviewed a range of documents as a first step toward compiling existing research on this topic; they have issued a survey to gauge community perspective regarding climate service research priorities; a synthesis paper is in preparation.