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Review of the governing body structures in the World Meteorological Organization - JIU/REP/2026/2
The Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) is pleased to announce the release of its report on governing body structures in the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), prepared by Inspector Eileen A. Cronin.
As part of the 2025 programme of work, the JIU initiated a comprehensive review of the governance framework of the WMO, accommodating a formal request submitted by the Secretary‑General of WMO on behalf of the Executive Council.
The JIU has previously examined WMO’s management and administrative practices, issuing reports in 2007 and 2021 that emphasized the need to enhance resource efficiency and reinforce structured governance processes. Despite the reforms undertaken since 2015 through the transition plan and the Constituent Body Reform Task Force, significant structural weaknesses continue to persist within the governance system.
The current review focuses on assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of WMO’s governance arrangements, with particular attention to benchmarking WMO’s governance model against other United Nations specialized agencies, identifying areas where WMO diverges from common practices.
The analysis shows that WMO is an outlier in several key governance areas, largely due to its governance model which reflects its origins as a non‑governmental organization. Structural weaknesses impact the effectiveness and efficiency of its governing bodies, including blurred leadership responsibilities, extensive cross representation of certain functions across governing bodies and gaps in oversight.
The JIU issued 12 formal recommendations: 11 to the supreme governing body or the executive body of WMO, and one to the Secretary-General; these are complemented by 33 informal recommendations. The measures outlined in the report will enable WMO to advance in several key areas, including updating the WMO Convention, addressing the separation of duties and excessive workloads, reforming the constituent bodies, restructuring committees and task forces, strengthening oversight functions within the governance system, and enhancing WMO’s interactions within the United Nations system.
