Building Regional Adaptive capacity and resilience to climate variability and change in Vulnerable sectors in the Andes (BRAVA)


SDC contributes to the World Meteorological Organisation’s ENANDES project, aiming to increase the resilience of 6 Latin-American countries to climate change. With the support of Swiss researchers and experts from MeteoSwiss, the project will increase the predictive capabilities of the responsible national authorities and support co-design of Weather, Water and Climate Services across the region, to the benefit of the local population, including the most vulnerable.

Country/region Topic Period Budget
Andean Region
Climate change and environment
Meteorological services
Disaster risk reduction DRR
01.06.2021 - 31.12.2026
CHF  6’100’000
Background Knowledge, information and scientific evidence on weather, water and climate are increasingly needed to respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by climate change. This is essential to support targeted decision-making, to design adaptation actions, to reduce vulnerabilities, and to increase the resilience of inhabitants and socio-ecological systems against growing hydro-climatic hazards. The Andes are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events and climate variability and -change. Currently the process of co-producing and disseminating targeted WMO knowledge, information and services is deficient among the responsible regional institutions and along the value chain, for a variety of reasons, such as low institutional capacity and/or lack of adequate resources. Through this project, the SDC aims to leverage on the Swiss expertise gathered in earlier projects in Latin America with the support of reknown Swiss experts from MeteoSwiss and the School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences of the Berne University of Applied Sciences (HAFL). Increased regional cooperation in climate modelling and improved interpretative and predictive capabilities are necessary to assure timely access to critical information and services by relevant decision-makers. 
Objectives The overall goal is to improve the generation and dissemination of information on climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction and related practices, leading to increased resilience in six Andean countries, through enhanced Weather, Water and Climate information and service provision for affected productive sectors and local populations including the most vulnerable. 
Target groups

Direct beneficiaries: National meteorological services, ministries (Environment, Agriculture, Disaster Risk Management), academia, private companies.

Final beneficiaries: decision makers in in the Andean region; local population, including the most vulnerable.

Medium-term outcomes

Outcome 1: The capacities of National Hydro Meteorological Services and Regional Climate Centres to produce and communicate weather, water and climate information and services have been strengthened.

Outcome 2: Institutional coordination has been strengthened and new tools and processes have been incorporated that add value and make it possible to "translate" weather, water and climate information into usable knowledge and services.

Outcome 3: Institutions and stakeholders have co-designed and implemented local activities to demonstrate increased resilience and adaptation to climate variability and -change through weather, water and climate information.

Outcome 4: Improved regional coordination and planning has (i) generated positive synergies, (ii) strengthened human capacities in the region, and (iii) synthesized lessons learned that facilitate scaling-up and replication in other contexts. 

Results

Expected results:  

·       New or improved tools, procedures and processes adopted by national authorities

·       Pilot adaptation actions implemented, monitored and evaluated, deriving lessons for scale-up/replication

·       Rural social actors (NGOs, local agencies) strengthened in the co-design and implementation of appropriate and context-specific climate services

·       Translation of climate information into sectoral impacts and outcomes of adaptation actions

·       Regional Core Expertise network created

·      Tools for access to global or regional gridded climate data sets established


Results from previous phases:  

·     Baseline established: during the opening phase, the main barriers and gaps for improved weather, water and climate services were identified in the participating countries.

·     Intervention strategy defined: options to strengthen services along the value chain identified and assessed along the following criteria: i) existing capacities of national services; ii) infrastructure and data processing capabilities; iii) existence of adequate models and databases; iv) ability to service “the first mile” through sectoral approaches.

·     Stakeholder consultations held: The importance of building and identifying - in collaboration with the partners in each intervention area -  determinants of social and economic vulnerabilities to climate variability and -change was broadly recognized.

·    Gender analysis conducted: key recommendations and activities to promote the gender mainstreaming into the project implementation have been identified and integrated into the project design.


Directorate/federal office responsible SDC
Project partners Contract partner
Private sector
United Nations Organization (UNO)
  • Foreign private sector South/East
  • World Meterological Organization
  • WMO


Coordination with other projects and actors (i) Platforms and organizations: WMO; MeteoSwiss, HAFL (ii) Projects: EWEA, Andes resilientes, Biocultura, WMO HydroHub; EUROCLIMA; (iii) Stakeholders: Environment and Agriculture Ministries, municipalities, universities, technical colleges, NGOs, meteo service providers, private companies
Budget Current phase Swiss budget CHF    6’100’000 Swiss disbursement to date CHF    2’085’949