Before 2024, the committee was called the Netherlands IHP-HWRP Committee. This was aligned with the abbreviations of the water programmes of UNESCO: IHP – the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme, and WMO: HWRP – the Hydrology and Water Resources Programme. For a few years now, WMO does not have a formal programmatic title for its water-related activities. The name IHP-HWRP Committee was therefore not accurate, and also not easily understood.
The committee decided in 2023 to explicitly mention UNESCO and WMO in their name, instead of referring to (temporary) programme titles. This was formally approved by both UN institutions. In UNESCO settings, the Committee is also referred to as the National IHP Committee.
Going back a bit further in history, to around the year 2000, the committee was called the Netherlands National IHP-OHP Committee. At that time, WMO coordinated the Operational Hydrology Programme (OHP) as part of its overall HWRP umbrella. Also, IHP at the time stood for the International Hydrological Programme, instead of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme.
Before 1995-1996, two separate committees working on water, hydrology and meteorology with an international orientation were in place in the Netherlands. One for UNESCO (with its secretariat housed at the academic department of the rotating committee chair) and one for WMO (coordinated by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute). They merged in the mid-1990s, as to be able to work more efficiently and benefit from sharing of experiences and networks.
The start of the Netherlands National IHP Committee in 1964 aligned with the initiation of the International Hydrological Decade (1964-1974).