Regional Workshop on Impact-Based Forecasting: Heat Season Review & Cold Season Planning

The project's approach rests on four mutually reinforcing pillars: (a) developing a Regional IBF Framework and Toolkit for temperature hazards; (b) testing the tools through national heat- and cold-wave demonstrations; (c) building capacity through Training of Trainers (ToT); and (d) establishing mechanisms for wider rollout, institutionalization and sustainability beyond the current project phase.

Two regional workshops have brought countries together so far:

• Regional Workshop on Framework and Toolkit Development (Bangkok, Nov 2025): brought countries together to assess data landscapes, map institutional roles, share early practices, and produce each country's preliminary demonstration plan, laying the groundwork for a common regional reference framework.
• Regional Workshop on Training of Trainers and National Demonstration Planning (Feb 2026): built forecaster and focal-point capacity end-to-end (forecast-to-impact pathway, thresholds, communication, operations) and finalized national demonstration plans for the 2026 heat and cold seasons

Since then, participating countries have implemented their first round of national heat-season demonstrations (broadly March to August 2026), testing impact-based thresholds, advisories, and communication pathways for heat-related risks in the health, agriculture and livestock sectors, to name a few. Countries have also begun using the INSTANT South Asia forecasting portal to access and visualize temperature guidance.

With this first heat-season cycle now complete, and the cold season (broadly November 2026 - February 2027) approaching, this is a timely moment to capture lessons while they are fresh, help countries translate that learning into cold-season demonstration plans or, where cold hazards are not significant, into El Niño preparedness planning, and consolidate MEL findings and sustainability discussions ahead of a potential next phase.

Objectives

This workshop brings together NMHS representatives, sector partners and project focal points to:

• Review the implementation of the national demonstrations.
• Capture lessons learned, challenges, successes, and good practices across countries.
• Assess how current project has addressed or is addressing the gaps and challenges across IBF value chain previously reported by SAHF member countries.
• Identify opportunities for scaling up, sustaining, or expanding the demonstrations in a potential next phase.
• Prepare participating countries for the upcoming cold season (where applicable), and for anticipated El Niño impacts
• Continue strengthening regional collaboration and peer learning.

Expected Outcomes

• A validated, cross-country synthesis of lessons learned, challenges, successes and good practices from the first heat-season demonstration round.
• Agreed project-wide MEL findings and recommendations.
• A prioritized feature list to guide development of the INSTANT Portal's cold-hazard module.
• First-draft, peer-reviewed national action plans for the next season — cold-season demonstration plans or El Niño preparedness plans, as applicable to each country.
• Articulated country- and regional-level commitments on sustainability, institutionalization and a potential next project phase.

Target Participants

The workshop will bring together representatives from:

• National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs)
• Relevant user agencies (e.g., health, agriculture, livestock, disaster management, water, urban services) that have partnered up with NMHSs in the design and implementation of national IBF demonstrations.
• Development partners and technical organizations engaged in IBF work in the region, supporting coordination, technical alignment, and knowledge exchange.