In every aspect of IRI's work, effective partnerships are vital. Partnerships span the arenas of research, practical engagement in problems, awareness raising, capacity building, and resource mobilization.
One set of partnerships involves formal relations with institutions that play important roles in relevant global research and operational activities, in agenda-setting, and in resource mobilization. For example, the World Meteorological Organization recognizes in IRI a valuable niche of expertise and activity that can benefit a global community of meteorological centers, expert task groups, and advisory bodies. The World Health Organization, which recently designated IRI as a Collaborating Center, similarly recognizes a niche of expertise (the climate-health interface) that is effective for project development, resource mobilization, and dissemination of results and outputs.
Operational partnerships are also critical, and have been established, for example, with climate prediction centers - enabling the delivery of ensemble-based forecast products. This partner network continues to grow, and we envision additional networks dealing with operational surveillance and early warning in, for example, the area of health and food security.
A third set of partnerships involves national or multi-national institutions playing important roles in the area of sustainable development. IRI sees an important opportunity to articulate the role of climate and climate variability in sustainable development goals, assessments, and programs, thereby encouraging and enabling partnerships among organizations having development-focused objectives.
