SOFF Steering Committee approves investments in Samoa, Nauru and Malawi
The Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF) Steering Committee has approved over USD 16 million investments in Samoa, Nauru and Malawi, strengthening the global effort to close critical gaps in weather and climate data.
Meeting online for its twelfth session on 29 October, the Steering Committee members reviewed SOFF’s progress and set the priorities for the months ahead.
The Steering Committee, which is the SOFF decision making body, was co-chaired by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and, for the first time, by Belgium as the rotating funder co-chair.
Partnering for impact
The newly approved funding will help Samoa, Nauru and Malawi to expand and update their observation infrastructure, improve data exchange systems and build technical and institutional capacity.
Each country will be supported by a dedicated partnership. Samoa will work with the World Bank as Implementing Entity and the Bureau of Meteorology of Australia as Peer Advisor. Nauru will work with UNEP and benefit from the technical advice of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, while Malawi will work with UNDP and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and the Icelandic Meteorological Office as Peer Advisors.
The catalytic investments will also complement broader national and regional programmes. In Samoa, SOFF funding will align with the World Bank’s Pacific Region Preparedness, Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE) initiative. In Nauru, it will complement Australia’s Climate and Ocean Support Program in the Pacific (COSPPac) and Weather Ready Pacific initiatives. In Malawi, it will support the sustainability of the Green Climate Fund’s MCLIMES project by ensuring continued maintenance and operation of infrastructure established through the project.
SOFF investments will complement existing CREWS investments in these countries, including the Malawi project to strengthen the country national capacity related to weather forecasting, hydrological services, early warning action services and financial preparedness, and as well as the CREWS Pacific SIDS projects.
Innovating finance to scale up action
With these additions, 18 countries are now in SOFF’s Investment Phase, collectively addressing 29% of the GBON surface station gap and 28% of the upper-air data gap across Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States. Reliable weather and climate observations, SOFF emphasizes, are a global public good — the invisible foundation behind every forecast, early warning and climate action.
To date, USD 116 million in country funding has been approved, but demand is high. Over 100 countries have requested support, and nine are awaiting investment approval. To respond urgently to these pressing funding needs, SOFF is developing a pioneering innovative finance instrument – the Systematic Observation Impact Bond. It will be announced as part of the upcoming COP30 Action agenda.
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