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The First International Conference on Climate Services was held in New York in 2011. The Climate Services Partnership that organize the conference works to improve climate-smart decision-making in a range of contexts and supports engagement and communication among climate information providers, decision-makers, and policy communities, thereby furthering the extent to which climate information can contribute to improved development outcomes.

In 2020, Mr Viengxay Manvong, National Project Director of the FAO project “Strengthening Agro-climatic Monitoring and Information Systems (SAMIS) to improve adaptation to climate change and food security in Lao PDR” financed by GEF, travelled to the Sixth International Conference for Climate Services that took place in Puno, India, from the 11th to the 13th of February.

Mr Manivong is Director of General Services at the the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environement and has been leading the SAMIS project since his inception phases. He is very knowlegeable of the system. In the first day, Mr Manivong first presented the Laos Climate Services for Agriculture (LaCSA) system, including detailing the seasonal forecast for the next six month, and showing an example of weekly bulletin for farmers. In the second day, Mr Manivong presented the system used by the project to distribute data to farmers in pilot areas in Luang Namtha, Savannakhet, Saravan, Champasak and Vientiane Province. FAO uses various methods. Farmers group are used in six pilot villages. School posters are developed in collaboration with WFP in 5 pilot schools. The most outstanding result so far has been the used of the loudspeacker system in 20 pilot villages, with a number of beneficiaries  estimated to be 25,295 with some 67.3 percent of target farmers finding favor with the initiative. Meanwhile, popular social media network Facebook was also being used to reach out to audiences to great effect with a total reach surpassing 100,000 total reach via a campaign and resulting in some 2,714 page followers.