NEW ORLEANS − Inter-American Development Bank President Enrique V. Iglesias and Godwin Olu Patrick Obasi, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization, Saturday signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the areas of weather, climate, water resources, atmospheric environment and related natural disaster prevision and prevention. This document was signed during the Seminar on "Confronting Natural Disasters: A matter of Development, " held during the Annual Meeting of the Bank’s Boards of Governors in New Orleans from March 23-29.

The memorandum of understanding includes the secondment of a WMO staff member to IDB with the specific objectives of enhancing collaboration between IDB technical units and relevant WMO’s departments or offices, in particular the Technical Co-operation Department and the Regional and Subregional Offices in Asunción, Paraguay, and San Jose, Costa Rica.

The WMO and the IDB have a productive relationship of institutional cooperation through the preparation of feasibility studies, capacity building and the organization of joint technical workshops. In 1996 WMO and IDB signed an agreement of cooperation in which WMO acted as executing agency for the implementation of the feasibility study of the Ibero-American Climate Project, which covers 13 Latin American countries (LAC) and has been successfully concluded. This collaboration between the two institutions has been enhanced by the successful implementation of joint technical workshops, joint technical cooperation activities now under way and a feasibility study on socio-economic impacts of El Niño.

During the signing ceremony, Secretary General Obasi expressed his appreciation to President Iglesias and to all concerned IDB staff for their enthusiasm and active support in promoting stronger linkages between the two organizations for the benefit of common members.

The agreement is a result of the fruitful co-operation between the Bank and WMO. The secondment of a WMO staff member will add an important dimension to the collaboration, especially at operational level, through the development of new joint projects in support of common members. In particular the agreement will strengthen cooperation in the areas of prevention and mitigation of weather and climate-related natural disasters; assessment of the vulnerability of and adaptation to climate change; provision of weather and climate information for the various economic and social sectors and the assessment and management of water resources.