Member states of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) have expressed firm support for a regional candidate for the presidency of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
Coordinating Director of the Caribbean Meteorological Organisation, Tyrone Sutherland, will be seeking election as president of the world body, at its sixteenth World Congress, in Geneva, Switzerland in May this year.
WMO is the UN specialised agency that coordinates global activity in weather, water, climate, and related aspects of the environment.
Tyrone Sutherland
According to the Caricom Secretariat, the congress will decide on the scientific and technical programmes of the organisation to be implemented across the world over the next four years. The congress will also appoint the secretary general to lead the organisation, and elect a non-resident president, three vice presidents and an executive council that will oversee the affairs of the WMO.
The member states of the Caribbean Meteorological Organisation (CMO), which has its headquarters in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, are firmly behind Sutherland’s bid for the presidency of the WMO. The CMO is the specialised Caricom agency that coordinates the joint scientific and technical activities in weather, water, climate, and related sciences in 16 English-speaking Caribbean countries.
As the head of the CMO, Sutherland has been at the forefront of the governance structure of the WMO for many years, and is now one of its longest serving executives. He was elected to the WMO Executive Council in 1999, and is now completing his second four-year term as the WMO’s second vice-president, having been elected in 2003 and re-elected in 2007.
According to Fred Sambula, Director General of the National Weather Service of the Cayman Islands, “Tyrone Sutherland has brought a unique background to the WMO community over the years. He was the head of the Saint Lucia Meteorological Service until the early 1980s, then spent ten years as a senior meteorologist and severe storms specialist in Canada, before joining the WMO in Geneva in 1992 as a scientific officer in its Tropical Cyclone programme. He was subsequently appointed executive assistant to the secretary general.
“Sutherland’s return to the Caribbean in 1999 to head the CMO was the trigger for an even wider and higher-level global involvement in WMO matters. It has allowed him to continue his work, through the WMO, with developing countries and Small Island Developing States in the Caribbean and elsewhere, particularly in the transfer of appropriate technology from the more advanced countries.
“His strong understanding of the scientific and technological developments led by the major developed countries, and the needs of developing countries, is a unique combination that is quite rare. His very balanced, fair and unbiased leadership qualities have made a significant contribution to the strong WMO management structure, (and) have gained him tremendous respect from his peers around the world.
“This, along with his personal knowledge of the operations of the WMO Secretariat, makes him the most appropriate person for the position of President of WMO: to provide the necessary guidance to the WMO to ensure that it continues to maintain its global leadership role in the science and related services in weather, water and climate”.
