In 2017 several well-attended courses were offered to participants of up to 15 countries from the region. They aimed at enhancing the provision and use of climate information in Ibero-America and supported the Regional Training Center Peru:
- A three-part blended course facilitated participants with a set of theoretical and practical knowledge on seasonal climate forecasts. These courses were arranged by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Centro de Previsão do Tempo e Estudos Climáticos (CPTEC), University of Connecticut, Meteodat, Servicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología del Perú (SENAMHI) and MeteoSwiss and will be continued in 2018 with a focus on the applications of seasonal forecasts to agriculture.
- The blended course on re-analysis held by the University of Berne and SENAMHI explored the possible use of such products for better climate services in the region.
- A course on the metadata tool OSCAR offered by WMO and MeteoSwiss supported data quality efforts within the region.
- A course on methodologies of studies to estimate socio-economic benefits (SEB) of climate services was realized by MeteoSwiss and Swiss TPH in close collaboration with SENAMHI. The objective was to transfer knowledge on the key concepts of economic valuation, the traceability of the case study results conducted in Cusco and Puno and the framing of own study designs.
Specialized SENAMHI staff integrated all these courses in the e-learning platform Moodle. Furthermore, the e-learning material developed within Climandes Phase 1 is applied to teach students at the University La Molina (UNALM) in climatology and related topics. It will be translated from English to Spanish and some parts of it will be tailored to the use by a broader public. The training material will be published at the end of the year on the MetEd webpage (https://www.meted.ucar.edu/).
An exchange among the regional leaders of the RTCs and possibly others worldwide is programmed for 2018 to enhance the coordination of training activities in Ibero-America. Finally, two students from Bolivia and Colombia will start their studies at UNALM on a Climandes sponsored scholarship.