MARCEL BELMONT IS NO ORDINARY WEATHERMAN. As Assistant Meteorological Officer with the Government of Seychelles, Belmont is passionate about using climate data to help spur human development in his country.
At the core of Belmont’s work is a simple yet often overlooked reality in development: most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are directly affected by climate. Poverty, hunger, child health, maternal health and disease are all influenced by weather. Not only that, but the interventions required to tackle these challenges are also subject to the same climatic whims.
Armed with this logic, Belmont and his colleagues have successfully lobbied the Government of Seychelles to include climate data in its national MDG database, which is being developed using DevInfo. Says Belmont, “The Meteorological Service can provide data like rainfall and temperatures, which could greatly benefit planners and decision makers. For users, DevInfo would be a convenient one-stop destination to get human development information as well as climate information.”
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As an example where this data could make a difference, aid donors could use DevInfo to plan the most suitable time of the year to move aid to a particular region, by looking at patterns of rainfall to minimize challenges due to waterlogged roads. Program officers could analyze the data to explore possible trends in infant or maternal mortality rates based on temperature patterns, with a view to providing climate-sensitive interventions.
Adds Belmont, “We feel that including historical climatic data alongside the MDG data would be of great benefit to the general public, to local decision makers, as well as to our foreign development partners.”
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| Data making a difference. |
For more information, please contact Marcel Belmont, Assistant Meteorological Officer, Government of Seychelles, at m.belmont@meteo.gov.sc.
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