WASCAL – Page 37

WASCAL APPOINTS DR. MOUMINI SAVADOGO AS SUBSTANTIVE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

WASCAL, a climate change service, research and capacity building organization operating within the West African sub-region, has appointed Dr. Moumini Savadogo as the new substantive Executive Director effective 1st January 2018. He takes over from Prof. Jimmy Adegoke who was the Interim Executive Director for nine months.

Dr. Savadogo joins WASCAL with very rich experience of more than 25 years as a Scientist and Project & Programme Manager in Environment and Sustainable Development in Africa, including 15 years at senior management level. He will lead the overall administrative and strategic directions of the organization. He is also responsible for overseeing the efficient and effective day-to-day operations of WASCAL.

Dr. Savadogo has a PhD in Animal Sciences/Sustainable Land Use in crop/livestock systems, Wageningen University, The Netherlands. He also has expertise in Programme development and management (Fundraising, Implementation, Procurement, Monitoring and Evaluation, Budget Management, Human Resources Management and Reporting) and negotiations.

Until his appointment as WASCAL Executive Director, Dr. Savadogo worked as Head of Burkina Faso office of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and natural resources (IUCN) West and Central Africa Program (PACO). He also worked as Scientist for the national Institute of Environment and Agricultural Research (INERA), the Joint Sahelian Progamme of Wageningen University and the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, the Regional coordinator of the W-Arly-Pendjari Programme development (Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger), as well as consultant for several international and national organizations.

He has an excellent knowledge of national and regional policies and strategies on energy, agriculture, ecosystem management, poverty reduction and sustainable development, climate change as well as international agreements on environment. The new Executive Director possesses rich working experience in several West African countries and very familiar with multicultural and multidisciplinary team work.

WASCAL welcomes him to the big family and wishes him all the best in his undertakings as the head of the organization.

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DIRECTOR OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS CENTER FOR AFRICA VISITS WASCAL

The Director General of the Sustainable Development Goals Center for Africa (SDGCA), Dr. Belay Begashaw has paid a one day working visit to WASCAL in Accra, to familiarize himself with the operations of the organization.

Interacting with the Interim Executive Director of WASCAL, Prof Jimmy Adegoke and Capacity Building Director, Prof Janet Adelegan, the two entities exchanged ideas on possible future bilateral relationship regard to climate change. He commended the role WASCAL is playing in the building of capacities of young West African Scientists to tackle the issues of climate change within the sub-region. He, however, proposed that in future, WASCAL looks at the bigger picture of extending its arms to cover the entire continent.

Talking about SDGCA, Dr. Begashaw explained that it is an international organization that supports governments, civil society, businesses, and academic institutions in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa, and that they build upon Africa’s existing successes by bringing together people, ideas, and innovation to collectively reach a more sustainable future.

The purpose of the Center is to provide technical support, neutral advice and expertise as input to national governments, private sector, civil society, academic institutions to accelerate the implementation of the SDG agenda across Africa.

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BMBF READY TO FUND 4TH BATCH OF GRADUATE STUDIES PROGRAMME OF WASCAL

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has pledged its continuous support to fund the fourth batch of students of the Graduate Studies Programme of WASCAL.

This was made known by Prof. René Haak of BMBF at a -2 day workshop held in Accra to review the sustainability of the WASCAL Graduate School Programme.

The successful workshop brought together Directors of the various Graduate School Programme as well as their Vice Chancellors. Representatives from the various German Partner Institutions and WASCAL’s sister organization, SASSCAL also attended the workshop.

Participants expressed their gratitude to the German Government for their continuous support for the West African region, with particular mentions of Mr. Wilfried Kraus and Prof René Haak and of BMBF.

Representatives from proposed Graduate Schools in Cape Verde and Burkina Faso were also in attendance. Resolutions for the reforms were made and a committee, tasked to finalize document for onward adoption and implementation.

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“CLIMATE RESEARCH RESULTS MUST BE PRACTICAL”- PROF. RENE HAAK OF BMBF

Prof. René Haak, Head of Division “Global Change” at the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has emphasized that results provided by climate research must not remain abstract but must be processed comprehensibly and transformed into practical applications.

This was contained in his speech at a side event dubbed “World Café- Climate Research made in West and Southern Africa”, co-organized by the West Africa Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) and the Southern Africa Regional Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Use (SASSCAL) with support from their German partners, The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Center for Development Research, University of Bonn, (ZEF) at the just ended UNFCCC 23rd Conference of Parties (COP23) in Bonn, Germany.

Prof. Haak, therefore, entreated SASSCAL and WASCAL to ensure a plan in place to build relevant capacities in this context.

He further recounted the efforts of the German Government in ensuring the smooth and sustainable operations of both centres, but challenged them to own the centres as a way of reciprocating the efforts.

“My Ministry, The German Research and Education Ministry is committed to providing SASSCAL and WASCAL with the necessary funds for consolidation. But the African partners must own their respective centres since they were African centres and not German centres.

He, however, requested the African partner countries to reciprocate the efforts by the German Government by fulfilling their financial commitment contributions to allow for sustainability.

“In return that our African partner countries pay their financial contributions to giving the centres a long-term perspective: by involving them in regional cooperation structures such as ECOWAS, by linking them up with national research institutions and programmes and, of course, by providing own funding for their operation.”

Chronicling the inception of the two organizations, Prof. Haak recalled a fruitful collaboration that had been nurtured over the years between Germany and the two centres.

“We began establishing these two centres in 2010 together with our African partners. Basically, both centres aim to strengthen research and promote the establishment of research capacities and infrastructures in the partner countries as well as enable them to draw up their own strategies and priorities for dealing with climate change and its impact.” He said.

“BMBF has given support financially but has also mobilized German researchers to enter into a partnership with their African colleagues to design those strategies and priorities. We are proud of the work done so far and encourage WASCAL and SASSCAL to double their efforts to find creative ways to sustain the funding mechanisms by being excellent, relevant and innovative in their orientation. “ Prof. Haak stated.

The Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) of Ghana, Honourable Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng also stated on behalf of the African partner countries that climate change was real in West Africa, especially in Ghana where nine of the ten rivers had been polluted as a result of illegal mining, also known as “Galamsey”. He, however, indicated that the establishment of WASCAL and the services it offers West Africa were very relevant.

World Café’ also witnessed a discussion session where the hundreds of participants moved to four tables to discuss issues pertaining to Climate Change in Africa.

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WASCAL CO-ORGANIZE WORLD CAFÉ AT COP 23 IN GERMANY

WASCAL, in partnership with its Southern African counterparts, SASSCAL and German partners Center for Development Research(ZEF), held a side event dubbed “World Café, Climate research made in West and Southern Africa” inside the Climate Planet at the just ended COP 23 held in Bonn, Germany under the auspices of the Government of Fiji.

The event was attended by dignitaries from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF), funders of both WASCAL and SASSCAL, the Honourable Minister of Environment, Science and Technology of Ghana as well as the executive management of the three outfits.

WASCAL was amongst the hundreds of organizations across the world that participated in this year’s COP 23. The World Café was to create a platform to tell the success stories of WASCAL and SASSCAL, engage global stakeholders attending the Conference of Parties (COP 23) organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Some of the topics discussed included: How to build human and academic capacities in Africa; How to share and disseminate knowledge in Africa Research in Africa and Climate services in Africa: How to produce and deliver them.

The annual conference is the largest gathering of climate change stakeholders across the world. The United Nations Climate Change Conferences are yearly conferences held in the framework of the UNFCCC. They serve as the formal meeting of the UNFCCC Parties (Conference of the Parties, COP) to assess progress in dealing with climate change, and beginning in the mid-1990s, to negotiate the Kyoto Protocol to establish legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

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TRIBUTE TO PROFESSOR ABDOURAHAMANE KONARÉ

With deep sorrow, we announce the demise of our Board Member and 1st Vice Chair, Professor Abdourahamane Konaré, who passed away in the early hours of Thursday, 26th October 2017 after a long and gallant battle against the illness that eventually took him away from us. A good heart has stopped beating; a gentle soul is gone.

Until his untimely death, Professor Konaré served our noble organization with uncommon diligence and complete dedication. He was a founding member of the Task Force that was commissioned to bring about WASCAL and was a member of the inaugural Governing Board representing the Government of Côte d’Ivoire. His tenure was renewed after 3 years of great service to WASCAL and he was elected 1st Vice Chairman of the current Board in 2015.

We have lost one of the few true giants in the African community of climate scientists. We are, however, thankful that Professor Konaré leaves a legacy of scholarly contributions that will outlive him and continue to enrich the careers of the next generation of climate scientists in our region through his relentless and ultimately successful effort to bring High Performance Computing (HPC) capability to West Africa. Sadly, he will not be here with us to witness the official opening of the new HPC Center in Abidjan by His Excellency, Alassane Ouattara, President of Côte d’Ivoire scheduled for 4th December 2017. The official opening of this facility is intended to kick off the 2017 WASCAL Week, which, again thanks to Professor Konaré, we are co-organizing with the Government of Côte d’Ivoire.

On behalf of the Governing Board, our sponsor BMBF, and the Executive Management, we extend our deepest condolences to the family that he left behind, all his friends and colleagues from Côte d’Ivoire and entire WASCAL family. Prof Konaré’s untimely departure leaves us in grief and heartbroken. He will forever remain in our hearts.

Rest in Peace, Prof Abdourahamane Konaré, our Board 1st Vice Chair, our colleague, our friend, our mentor and our hero.

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HOMMAGE AU PROFESSEUR ABDOURAHAMANE KONARÉ

C’est avec une profonde tristesse que nous annonçons le décès du premier vice-président de notre membre du Conseil d’administration, le professeur Abdourahamane Konaré, décédé, le jeudi 26 octobre 2017, suite d’une longue et vaillante lutte contre la maladie qui finalement l’a emporté loin de nous. Un bon cœur a cessé de battre ; une âme douce a disparu.

Le professeur Konaré a servi notre noble organisation avec une diligence inhabituel et un dévouement total, jusqu’à sa mort subite. Il a été l’un des membres fondateurs du groupe de travail qui était chargé de créer WASCAL et aussi un membre du premier conseil d’administration représentant le gouvernement de la Côte d’Ivoire. Son mandat a été renouvelé après 3 années de bonnes prestations à WASCAL et il a été élu présentement, en 2015 comme 1er vice-président du Conseil.

Nous avons perdu l’un des rares véritables géants de la communauté africaine des climatologues. Nous sommes toutefois reconnaissants que le professeur Konaré à laisser un héritage de contributions scientifiques qui lui survivront et enrichiront les parcours professionnels de la prochaine génération de climatologues dans notre région grâce à ses efforts incessants et fructueux pour apporter la capacité Informatique de Haute Performance (HPC) à l’Afrique de l’Ouest. Malheureusement, il ne sera pas parmi nous à l’ouverture officielle du nouveau Centre HPC d’Abidjan par Son Excellence Alassane Ouattara, Président de la Côte d’Ivoire, prévue pour le 4 décembre 2017. L’ouverture officielle du Centre est prévue pour marquer le coup d’envoi) de la semaine de WASCAL 2017, qui, encore une fois grâce à Konaré, que nous collaborons avec le gouvernement de la Côte d’Ivoire.

Au nom du Conseil d’Administration, de nos partenaire de BMBF et de la Direction Exécutive de WASCAL, nous offrons nos plus sincères condoléances à la famille qu’il a quitté subitement , à tous ses amis et collègues de Côte d’Ivoire et à toute la famille entière de WASCAL. Le départ prématuré du professeur Konaré nous laisse dans le chagrin et le cœur brisé. Il restera pour toujours dans nos cœurs.

Repose en paix, Prof Abdourahamane Konaré, notre 1er vice-président, notre collègue, notre ami, notre mentor et notre héros.

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Ghana to Benefit from New Regional Weather Stations

The stations would be an improvement of the sub-region’s 150 operational Synoptic Weather Stations since according to the World Meteorological Organisation, West Africa needs 2000 of the stations to help close meteorological data gaps in West Africa.WASCAL has signed a Memoranda of Understanding agreement with the Ghana Meteorological Services Department and this Ghana one of the first beneficiaries of the new weather stations.

Professor Jimmy Adegoke, the Executive Director of WASCAL, said this on Thursday at the opening session of its 11th board meeting in Accra.He said WASCAL was determined to establish a fully operational climate services programme by 2021 to provide relevant climate services for West African governments, regional economic bodies, basin authorities and other stakeholders for decision making.

Prof Adegoke said WASCAL received one million euro from the African Development Bank to build a world-class Climate Change Competence Centre in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.The Centre would serve as West Africa’s foremost Climate Research Center and regional hub for climate services, multi-purpose conferences, capacity building in climate change and other related activities.

Prof Adegoke said since WASCAL establishment in 2013, it has graduated 152 students whilst 106 students were currently in the WASCAL Graduate Studies Programmes located in the 10 member countries.He said plans were far advanced to commence a new Masters Programme in Informatics for Climate Change in Burkina Faso in 2018.

“The vision of WASCAL is to become one of Africa’s leading institutions in the provision of climate services to protect and improve livelihoods across West Africa through capacity building, research and climate services”, he said.Prof Kwabena Frempong-Boateng, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, said the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that global temperatures could rise another 1-2 °C by 2050 and 2-5 °C by 2100 depending on the additional quantity of greenhouse gases humans emit into the atmosphere over the coming decades.

He said the fight against climate change was mainly attributed to man-made activities, resulting in the adverse impact on livelihoods and commended WASCAL for its role to address the situation.Prof Frimpong-Boateng said the country would collaborate with WASCAL and ensure that any support needed are provided and urged member countries to deliberate on the sustainability of WASCAL.

Mr Christoph Retzlaff, the German Ambassador to Ghana, said the approach to climate change involves a concerted effort and that German research policy is oriented towards international cooperation.He said research on climate change and adaptive land use are key priorities for guaranteeing the livelihood of mankind, hence the need for more support to address the concern.

WASCAL was established in 2013 after an agreement was signed between Germany and ten West African countries to address the growing challenge of climate change.The countries are Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote de Ivoire, the Gambia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.

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Ghana to Benefit from New Regional Weather Stations

By Kodjo Adams, GNA
Accra, Oct. 19, GNA – The West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adopted Land Use (WASCAL) is developing 50 new Automatic Weather Stations and 20 Hydrological Measuring Stations across the sub-region.

The stations would be an improvement of the sub-region’s 150 operational Synoptic Weather Stations since according to the World Meteorological Organisation, West Africa needs 2000 of the stations to help close meteorological data gaps in West Africa.

WASCAL has signed a Memoranda of Understanding agreement with the Ghana Meteorological Services Department and this Ghana one of the first beneficiaries of the new weather stations.

Professor Jimmy Adegoke, the Executive Director of WASCAL, said this on Thursday at the opening session of its 11th board meeting in Accra.

He said WASCAL was determined to establish a fully operational climate services programme by 2021 to provide relevant climate services for West African governments, regional economic bodies, basin authorities and other stakeholders for decision making.

Prof Adegoke said WASCAL received one million euro from the African Development Bank to build a world-class Climate Change Competence Centre in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.

The Centre would serve as West Africa’s foremost Climate Research Center and regional hub for climate services, multi-purpose conferences, capacity building in climate change and other related activities.

Prof Adegoke said since WASCAL establishment in 2013, it has graduated 152 students whilst 106 students were currently in the WASCAL Graduate Studies Programmes located in the 10 member countries.

He said plans were far advanced to commence a new Masters Programme in Informatics for Climate Change in Burkina Faso in 2018.

“The vision of WASCAL is to become one of Africa’s leading institutions in the provision of climate services to protect and improve livelihoods across West Africa through capacity building, research and climate services”, he said.

Prof Kwabena Frempong-Boateng, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, said the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that global temperatures could rise another 1-2 °C by 2050 and 2-5 °C by 2100 depending on the additional quantity of greenhouse gases humans emit into the atmosphere over the coming decades.

He said the fight against climate change was mainly attributed to man-made activities, resulting in the adverse impact on livelihoods and commended WASCAL for its role to address the situation.

Prof Frimpong-Boateng said the country would collaborate with WASCAL and ensure that any support needed are provided and urged member countries to deliberate on the sustainability of WASCAL.

Mr Christoph Retzlaff, the German Ambassador to Ghana, said the approach to climate change involves a concerted effort and that German research policy is oriented towards international cooperation.

He said research on climate change and adaptive land use are key priorities for guaranteeing the livelihood of mankind, hence the need for more support to address the concern.

WASCAL was established in 2013 after an agreement was signed between Germany and ten West African countries to address the growing challenge of climate change.

The countries are Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote de Ivoire, the Gambia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS – INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING (HPC)

General context

WASCAL (West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use) is a research and education-focused institute designed to help tackle the climate change challenge and thereby enhance the resilience of human environmental systems. It does so by strengthening the research capacity and infrastructure in West Africa related to climate change by pooling the expertise of ten West African countries and Germany. The West African countries include: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo. For 2018-2021, WASCAL will implement its research and action plan (WRAP2.0) to carry out the “Demand-driven Research for Effective Actions to Adapt and Mitigate Climate Change and Variability in West Africa (DREAM)”. To achieve this objective, four Flagship Programs (FP) are framed:

– Flagship Program 1: Climate and Environmental Services

– Flagship Program 2: Resilient Socio-ecological Landscapes

– Flagship Program 3: Sustainable Intensification and Food Security

– Flagship Program 4: Climate Modeling and Seasonal Forecasting

While FP4 feeds into FP2 and FP3, all the three of them support a steady provision of climate and environmental services (i.e. FP1) for the ECOWAS countries. This puts the climate modeling and seasonal forecasting activity at the center of the WRAP2.0 implementation process.

High Performance Computing (HPC) within West Africa

The WASCAL community, including the Competence Center (CoC), the German partners (i.e. KIT) and the graduate schools, carry out climate modeling and seasonal forecasting. Models need to be further developed to fit the West African climate and will be run at high resolution, i.e. at scales required for impacts and adaptation studies. These simulations are computationally expensive and necessitate a HPC environment. The absence of HPC has long undermined the contribution of West African scientists to the development and implementation of international programs such as the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) and the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX). To tackle this issue, affirm our presence and enable us to contribute to the global effort to combat climate change, WASCAL CoC and some of its member countries (e.g. Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire) are in the process of acquiring state-of-the-art HPC systems. While the CoC system and that of Senegal should be fully operational in 2018, Côte d’Ivoire with the assistance of ATOS BULL company will officially open its facility in December this year during the 2017 WASCAL Week (i.e. December 5th to 8th, 2017) at an official ceremony to be attended by his Excellency the Prime Minister of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire on 4th December 2017. This HPC system consists of 576 processors for a total of 8064 cores along with a storage capacity of 1.3 Petabytes (1 Petabyte = 1000 Terrabytes).

The Workshop

Along with the opening of this HPC facility, WASCAL is jointly organizing (with the Government of Côte d’Ivoire) an International Workshop on HPC applications for West African climate and environmental systems to be held from the 7th to the 8th of December, 2017 at the Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Pole Scientifique de Berginville, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

The main objective of the workshop is to provide a forum for HPC users to share their experience and explore opportunities for fully unlocking the potential of the system to drive innovations while addressing big challenges.

The workshop will consist of a series of keynote addresses to put the issue of HPC at the center of interest, invited talks to showcase existing HPC projects and climate/environmental applications (e.g. DKRZ, ICTP, CHPC, etc. ) and participants presentations. A list of invited speakers is below (see last page).

Participation

The workshop is intended for scientists and graduate students working in the areas of Atmospheric Physics and Dynamics, Climatology, Oceanography, Physics, Mathematics and Modeling. A limited number (up to 50) of participants is envisioned, with proven experience in HPC applications and a strong interest in using the system for regional climate/environmental studies. The workshop will be conducted in both English and French (translators will be available). Limited funding (including travel grants: flight ticket, accommodation and subsistence) is available for participants from Africa.

How to apply?

Interested candidates can apply by sending an abstract of their presentation and a short CV (not more than 2 pages) to

Sylla.b(at)wascal.org and cc to ndatchoheve(at)yahoo.fr.

Graduate students and early career scientists applying for sponsorship should also include in their application a motivation letter and a recommendation letter.

Deadline: 20th of October 2017

Contact info

· Dr. Mouhamadou Bamba Sylla (WASCAL CoC, Ouaga, Burkina): +226 76 89 66 70

· Dr. Evelyne Toure’ (UFHB, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire): +225 07 07 89 69

Dates of workshop: 7th-8th of December, 2017

Venue : Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Pole Scientifique de Berginville, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

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WASCAL PARTICIPATES IN GERMANY – GHANA 60TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT

WASCAL participated in the Germany Goes Ghana- Open Doors, Open Minds event in Accra to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Germany and Ghana under the auspices of the German Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Mr. Christoph Retzlaff.

Dr. Divine Odame Appiah, an alumnus of WASCAL, from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Climate Change and Land Use, participated in the discussion forum that sought to deliberate on opportunity creation in Ghana. In his submission, he emphasized on the need to develop a problem-solving attitude among the youth in the country. He explained that YOUTH is an acronym which denotes “Young (Y), Outstanding (O), Unique (U), Talented (T), and Happy (H). Young (Y) defines the age category of before adulthood. This he said, is the stage where youth is at its best and both positive and negative energies could be released, depending on the mindset and perspectives about life and what they want to become. Outstanding; Youth are expected to exhibit excellence in whatever they do. Whatever they do, must be done with utmost precision so as to stand out. Unique; youth are what they present themselves to be. Dr. Appiah underscored the fact that, as a young adult/youth, no one can be you and that everything that belongs to you is exclusively your attributes and character. Hence you are the product of your character and there is no room to blame someone for your failures. This also means, you are the architect of your successes as well. Talented; every human being is endowed with some skills, talents and abilities that distinguishes him/her from others. It is up to the individual to discover that special gift that sets him/her apart from other. It is also essential to channel these gifts into profitable ventures. Happy; happiness is relative; however, a general connotation will be when the individual is satisfied and fulfilled in whatever he/she does. When a task is accomplished, it brings a sense of happiness to the individual.

Dr. Appiah linked his submission to the scholarship being offered by WASCAL through its Graduate Studies Programme which is aimed at building the next generation of West African Scientists to help solve the challenges of climate change in the sub-region, under the sponsorship of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Germany goes Ghana – Open doors, Open Minds attracted students, graduates, young professionals as well as the general public from Ghana. The objective of the event was to create awareness among the Ghanaian youth about the opportunities available to them as a result of the German-Ghanaian bilateral cooperation and to exhibit some of the major achievements after 60 years of a vibrant, dynamic and divers bilateral relationship.

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WASCAL HIRES NEW DIRECTOR OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

Mrs. Agnes Oti-Mensah has been appointed as the new Director of Finance and Administration of WASCAL effective August 1, 2017. The position became vacant after the resignation of Mr. Rainer Pruess who served in the same capacity for two- and half years.

Mrs. Oti-Mensah will report directly to the Executive Director. As the Director of Finance and Administration, she will develop and lead an internal team to support the areas of Finance, Business Planning and Budgeting, Human Resources, Administration, and Information Technology for the organization. She will also play a critical role in collaborating with the senior management team in strategic decision making and operations.

Mrs. Oti-Mensah is a finance professional with over 20 years’ experience in managing finance operations in the development sector. Prior to joining WASCAL, she was the Finance and Support Services Director with World Vision International, a leading multinational charity organisation with responsibility for spearheading and driving significant improvements across business functions including Finance, IT, Supply Chain and Administration in Central Africa Republic, Chad and Senegal. Mr Oti-Mensah also served as Finance Director for World Vision offices in Sierra Leone and Ghana where she developed viable finance strategies based on regional and global benchmarks in diverse economic environments. She led the planning, allocation and monitoring of multi-million dollar budgets for WASH, nutrition, health and education programming, ensuring fulfilment of stringent requirements and meeting key objectives of the programmes.

Prior to World Vision, Mrs Oti-Mensah worked in the private sector as a Finance Officer with Hi-Fabriks Construction Company in Tema, Ghana.

Mrs. Oti-Mensah holds an MBA from University of Ghana Business School. She is also a Chartered Accountant and a member of Institute of Chartered Accountants (Ghana), as well as a Certified Fraud Examiner.

WASCAL is confident that her wealth of experience will be used to further advance the vision of the organization which is to become one of Africa’s leading institutions in the provision of climate services to protect and enhance livelihoods across West Africa.