High-level delegation from Comoros and Madagascar learn from SMA’s institutional transformation |01 April 2025

A souvenir photograph with Minister Joubert

The Minister for Transport of Comoros, Lieda Andili, and the secretary general of Transport of Madagascar, Andrianary Rado Rajoelison, visited Seychelles from March 24 to 26, 2025, to learn from Seychelles Meteorological Authority’s institutional transformation.

They were accompanied by the permanent representatives of Comoros and Madagascar with the World Meteorological Organisation and directors-general of the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, Ahmed Youssouf and Dr Luc Randriamarolaza, respectively.

In the Southwest Indian Ocean (SWIO) Seychelles is the only country that went through the process of transforming its National Meteorological Service into the Seychelles Meteorological Authority (SMA), adopting Quality Management Systems (QMS) compliant with the requirements of ISO 9001:2015 for the provision of aeronautical meteorological services to the aviation industry, as well as reaching ISO 9001:2015 recertification allowing cost recovery, implementing strategic and operational plans, defining a new organisational structure aligned with the new Strategic Plan with associated staff positions described in terms of required competencies, among many other legal, administrative, institutional and human resources aspects.

The African countries continue to face challenges in advancing progress in this area. Noting that Comoros and Madagascar are still assessing the possibility to move towards the transformation of their National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) into Authorities, with all associated requirements, this visit aimed the governments of the two countries to learn from Seychelles about the overall process, which will help them to make strategic decisions regarding the implementation of a model that allows revenue generation, and a more proactive and decision-making process that contribute to prompt actions to have things done more effectively.

In particular, the objectives of this visit included:

•          Understand the SMA system and its administration in order to draw equivalences with the realities in the NMHSs of Comoros and Madagascar;
•          Understand the SMA cost recovery model and assess how this model (or an expanded model also including non-aviation services) could be applied in the NMHSs of Comoros and Madagascar;
•          Identify the required steps towards the establishment of an Authority;
•          Discuss the involvement of stakeholders and ‘supervisory’ bodies, their roles and responsibilities in the process;
•          Examine the legal, administrative, institutional and human resources requirements;
•          Develop, for Comoros and Madagascar, a roadmap with different steps recommended to migrate from a Directorate into an Authority, following the example of Seychelles.

The delegations from Comoros and Madagascar, accompanied by the representatives of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the chairman and the chief executive of SMA, paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment, Flavien Joubert, on March 25, 2025, thanking him

for the opportunity to learn from Seychelles and congratulating Seychelles for all the achievements in a short timeframe, recognising that it is only through government support that these can be met.

They recognised that these achievements have increased the visibility of Seychelles, which in turn is attracting more development partners to support further developments in meteorology.

Contributed