Fiji strengthens role as Pacific meteorological hub

Fiji is strengthening its position as a regional meteorological hub with a new training and calibration centre under construction in Nadi.

Fiji Meteorological Service director Misaeli Funaki said the facility was expected to be completed by the middle of next year and would help build the capabilities of meteorological services across the Pacific.

The new facility, known as the Regional Training Collaboration and Awareness Centre, is a project supported by the Government of Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Located at the Fiji Meteorological Service headquarters in Nadi, the centre is designed to serve a dual purpose:

• Regional Instrument Centre: A specialised facility for the calibration and maintenance of meteorological equipment, ensuring that data collected across the South Pacific meets World Meteorological Organization (WMO) standards.
• Regional Training Centre: A hub for developing the next generation of Pacific meteorologists, focussing on ‘impact-based’ forecasting – a method that predicts not just the weather, but how that weather will specifically affect infrastructure and communities.

“There is a new regional training and calibration centre that we are building in Nadi right now. Hope to be completing it by mid-next year," Mr Funaki said.

“This is where a lot of the training that will happen in the Met Offices in the region will get the people to be empowered, build capacity amongst us as a region.”

Mr Funaki was speaking on the sidelines of the 8th Pacific Meteorological Council meeting in Tongatapu, Tonga.

He said Fiji was one of the leading meteorological services in the Pacific and had played a longstanding role supporting neighbouring countries.

“It should be known that Fiji Meteorological Service, as I mentioned earlier, we are one of the leading meteorological services in the Pacific. When that declaration was signed in 2015, Fiji was doing a lot of the meteorological work for the countries in the Pacific. Whilst we still do that for most, some of the other countries have progressed on their own.”

Mr Funaki said Fiji had participated in Pacific Meteorological Council meetings from the beginning and had hosted several of the gatherings.

The council provides an opportunity for meteorological services to assess their work, learn from each other and plan for emerging challenges.

“I think this meeting is important because it is at one time where we get together as a region to take stock of how we've done, noting the challenges that we face and the uniqueness of the geographical area we live in.

“Time for us to reflect, learn and more importantly, chart our way forward as we look at how the space is changing. Relating to the hope that is coming up, relating to our ever-changing climate.”

Mr Funaki said Fiji was able to share its experience with smaller Pacific meteorological services while also learning from them.

“Yes, I think it is important for us to be here.

“Firstly, with respect to Fiji, we are one of the sort of like a bigger mid-surface. And while we can say that they learn a lot from us, we are also learning from them.”

He said the council also connected national meteorological services with United Nations agencies and regional organisations that support their work.

“Also importantly, in the Pacific Met Council is when we have agencies that do help us in this kind of work. You have UN agencies; you have regional organisations that tend to help us as we help fellow Fijians.”