Visit of High-Level Delegation from Comoros and Madagascar to Seychelles to Learn from SMA’s Institutional Transformation

The Minister of Transport of Comoros, Mr Lieda Andili, and the Secretary General of Transport of Madagascar, Mr Andrianary Rado Rajoelison, visited Seychelles from 24 to 26 March 2025, accompanied by the Permanent Representatives of Comoros and Madagascar with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and Directors-General of the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), Mr Ahmed Youssouf and Dr Luc Randriamarolaza, respectively.

In the Southwest Indian Ocean (SWIO), Seychelles is the only country that went through the process of transforming its National Meteorological Service into the Seychelles Meteorological Authority (SMA), adopting Quality Management Systems (QMS) compliant with the requirements of ISO 9001:2015 for the provision of aeronautical meteorological services to the aviation industry, reaching ISO 9001:2015 recertification allowing cost recovery, implementing strategic and operational plans, defining a new organizational structure aligned with the new Strategic Plan with associated staff positions described in terms of required competencies, among many other legal, administrative, institutional and human resources aspects.

The African continues to face challenges  in advancing progress in this area. In particular, noting that Comoros and Madagascar are still assessing the possibility to move towards the transformation of their NMHSs into Authorities, with all associated requirements, this visit aimed the Governments of Comoros and Madagascar to learn from Seychelles about the overall process which will help them making strategic decisions regarding the implementation of a model that allows revenue generation, and a more proactive and decision-making process that contribute to prompt actions to have things done more effectively. In particular, the objectives of this visit included:

• Understand the SMA system and its administration in order to draw equivalences with the realities in the NMHSs of Comoros and Madagascar;
• Understand the SMA cost recovery model and assess how this model (or an expanded model also including non-aviation services) could be applied in the NMHSs of Comoros and Madagascar;
• Identify the required steps towards the establishment of an Authority;
• Discuss the involvement of stakeholders and “supervisory” bodies, their roles and responsibilities in the process;
• Examine the legal, administrative, institutional and human resources requirements;
• Develop, for Comoros and Madagascar, a roadmap with different steps recommended to migrate from a Directorate into an Authority, following the example of Seychelles.

The delegations from Comoros and Madagascar, accompanied by the representatives of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Chairman and the CEO of SMA, had a courtesy visit to the Minister of Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment, Mr Flavien Joubert, on 25 March 2025 to thank for the opportunity to learn from what has been done in Seychelles that they can replicate in their own countries, and to congratulate Seychelles for all the achievements in a short timeframe, recognizing that it is only through government support that these can be met. They recognized that these achievements have increased the visibility of Seychelles, which in turn is attracting more development partners to support further developments in meteorology.