Finland, France jointly win Twinning project in Algeria

A joint tender by Finland and France has been awarded a contract for a Twinning project in Algeria, said a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday.

The two-year project will strengthen the data production of the Algerian national meteorological office (Office National de la Météorologie) and help to diversify the range of services. Finland's representative in the project is the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

The Twinning project will start in January 2020. It is closely linked with the Algerian Government's Action Plan for 2015–2019 and the strategic objectives of the Algerian meteorological office.

The project is a continuation of the European Union's earlier support for the development of the Algerian national meteorological office. The Finnish Meteorological Institute was involved in this work, too. In Algeria, the meteorological office is one of the key national actors in the fight against climate change.

Previously, Finland and France have worked together in Algeria in a Twinning project to boost industrial innovation.

The project will support, for example the capacity of the Algerian meteorological office to produce and manage weather and climate-related data and information, to develop new products and services in order to increase the office’s revenue, and to create a competence-based human resources management system. In addition, the project will strengthen national coordination of actions related to the prevention of natural disasters and help address them. Improved coordination can involve, for example, identification of the development needs of regulation concerning the responsibilities, organisational structure and meteorological alert system of the meteorological office.

“We are an active Twinning player, and this project offers a great opportunity to play a part in developing the operating conditions of our sister organisation. The themes of the project belong to our core competences and we hope that the cooperation with Algeria will continue also after the project has been completed,” said Harri Pietarila, Junior Project Manager of the Twinning project, from the Meteorological Institute.

The project will be implemented by the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the French National Meteorological and Climate Sciences Service, Météo France. The French party will be responsible for the progress of the whole project.

Twinning is based on close cooperation between the EU Member States and the partner country in order to achieve the set objectives. Individual Twinning projects last approximately two years and the project budget ranges between EUR 1 to 2 million. In Finland, Twinning activities are coordinated by the Twinning team at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.