The West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use, WASCAL in collaboration with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the University of Missouri – Kansas City, have organized a 12day Capacity Building Workshop on Interdisciplinary Remote Sensing, Modeling, and Validation of Environmental Processes.

Dr. Charles Ichoku from NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, expressed his delight about the workshop and assured participants that the outcome of the workshop was going to contribute immensely towards West African development.

Rev. Professor Charles Ansah, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Kwame Nkrumah University Science and Technology (KNUST) in his welcome address expressed the excitement of the University Management about the introduction of the WASCAL PhD programme in Climate Change and Land Use funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany.

He noted that, NASA-COSPAR (Committee on Space and Research) training workshop was very useful to train the next generation of scientists, enhance their knowledge and stimulate research interests in space science. Rev. Prof. Ansah stated.

“As a University, we welcome the initiative by the German Government, NASA, COSPAR and the University of Missouri – Kansas City to support the training of Africans to solve Africa’s challenges especially on issues relating to Climate Science, with particular focus on Remote Sensing Climate Modeling”. He stated.

Professor Janet Adelegan, Director for Capacity Building, WASCAL traced the history of the WASCAL-NASA collaboration and briefly explained that the workshop is aimed at building the capacity of early career scientists on remote sensing and modelling of climate data in West Africa.

This workshop, primarily sponsored by the International Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and WASCAL, with supplementary funding support from African Development Bank (AfDB), aimed at equipping students with knowledge in space-based interdisciplinary remote sensing and modelling, which is in its infancy in West Africa. Over all, nine lecturers from NASA and other Institutions in Europe and West Africa, and thirty early career scientists from WASCAL Doctoral Schools in West Africa, postgraduate students and academic faculty participated in the workshop.

The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Frimpong Boateng has assured the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL), of the Government of Ghana’s support to help combat climate change and improve livelihoods in Ghana specifically, and in West Africa as a whole.

The Minister indicated that the operations of WASCAL is very significant, considering the unique approach it has adopted in the fight against climate change, using research and building capacities of scientists. He said that WASCAL a West African cause and therefore, the various governments must endeavour to own it. He also pledged his support to ensure that Ghana fulfills its obligation to WASCAL by paying the outstanding country contribution.

Professor Frimpong gave this assurance when the Executive Director of WASCAL, Professor Jimmy Adegoke paid a courtesy call on his office to formally congratulate him on his appointment as the new sector Minister. The meeting was also to introduce WASCAL to the Ministry and to deliberate on building a stronger relationship between the government of Ghana and WASCAL.

Professor Adegoke reminded the Minister of the ministry’s responsibility as the permanent vice- chair of the ministerial council of WASCAL. He also entreated him to use his office to bring a sense of renewed energy in the activities and operations of WASCAL.

As part of its commitment to continue strengthening market driven Research and Development for sound Environmental Governance, Science, Technology and Innovation through intensive awareness creation, collaboration and partnerships, the government of Ghana, in February 2017, signed the Host Country Agreement with WASCAL in fulfilment of their recognition as an international organization in Ghana.

WASCAL is dedicated to becoming one of Africa’s leading institutions in the provision of climate services in and for West Africa, with a mission to provide information and knowledge services at the local, national and regional levels to its West African member countries to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change. We do this through Capacity Building support to young West African Scholars in fields of natural and social sciences and by strengthening West African universities and climate service departments in member countries.

WASCAL, in collaboration with the European Space Agency’s (ESA) TIGER initiative, the University of Twente – ITC Faculty, GeoVille and the University of Energy and Natural Resources, is pleased to announce a 3-day training workshop on the use of earth observation data for effective natural resource and agricultural management in Africa.

The workshop will focus on the exploitation of the data from ESA’s satellite sensors which provide global scale optical and radar data at no cost to the user ((https://sentinels.copernicus.eu/web/sentinel/home). The workshop will aim at demonstrating the capabilities and application areas of data from the Sentinel satellites, introduce participants to new and open source tools/applications for processing the data and discuss the sustainable application of earth observation data in natural resource and agricultural management in Ghana and Africa.

Target audience: Geospatial analyst and practitioners in governmental ministries/institutions, the private sector and postgraduate students.

The outcome of this workshop will be an improvement in decision making at all level of national development and an increase in societal benefits from the use of earth observation technology.

For further enquiries, please contact: forkuor.g(at)wascal.org and copy weto.s(at)wascal.org.

Dr. Arona DIEDHIOU is now the chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of WASCAL following the step down of Prof Jimmy Adegoke to assume the position of the interim Executive Director of WASCAL.

Prior to this appointment, Dr. Arona DIEDHIOU was the Deputy Chairman of the Committee which has been mandated by WASCAL to provide expert scientific advice to the Governing Body of the organisation. The committee is also tasked to provide understanding and counsel on strategic decisions on relevant scientific activities that WASCAL is engaged in.

Dr. DIEDHIOU is Research Director of Institute of Research for Sustainable Development (IRD) based in Institute of Geosciences for Environment (IGE; University of Grenoble-Alpes; France) and hosted as visiting scientist at University Felix Houphouët Boigny (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire). Dr. DIEDHIOU is specialist of the African Climate System and Climate Changes in the tropics.

From 2002 to 2007, Dr. Arona DIEDHIOU contributed to the coordination and to the implementation AMMA International Program (African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses) as member of the International Executive Committee and to the involvement of African scientists, regional centers and national meteorological and hydrological services in this program. From 2007 to 2012, he was the Head of RIPIECSA program (3.500.000 Euros from French Ministry of Foreign Affairs) to support interdisciplinary research projects on climate-environment-society interactions in West and Central Africa. Between 2013-2016, he was co-PI of the project RHYVA on Hydro-meteorological Risks in African Cities and since 2014, member of ACASIS project on Sahelian Heat Waves and their impacts. Since 2015, he is co-PI of AMMA-2050 (a UK/NERC-DFID joint initiative on “Future Climate for Africa”).

WASCAL is delighted to have Dr. DIEDHIOU as its SAC chairman. It hopes that under his leadership, WASCAL will move even higher and become the centre of excellence in climate change research in West Africa. Congratulations, Dr. Arona DIEDHIOU.

WASCAL is a leading academic and trans-disciplinary research organization building graduate-level scientific capacity and serving policy makers in West Africa with science-based advice on adaptation to climate change impacts and land use management. It cooperates with many agencies and universities in the region, providing a knowledge platform of excellence for its partners. WASCAL is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany and its 10 West African member countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d‘Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.

WASCAL’s Graduate Research Programme in West African Climate Change Systems (GRP WACS) unit at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Nigeria has won the 2016 Chancellor Excellence and Productivity award.

The prestigious award which was given during the convocation week of the University, recognized WACS as the best unit. The award goes to acknowledge the excellent performance and outstanding contributions of WASCAL towards the development of the University. WACS was presented with a plaque and amount of One Hundred Thousand Naira (N100,000).

WASCAL, in partnership with the Federal University of Technology, Akure in Nigeria started the Doctoral Programme in West African Climate Systems in 2012, with support from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF). Twenty-Nine (29) students from within West Africa have so far enrolled for Doctoral degree under this programme, and 19 of them have graduated.

The award is an indication of WASCAL’s pivotal role in building the capacities of the next generation of scientists and policy makers to help combat the issue of climate change in West Africa.

Nine Doctoral students have graduated in Climate Change and Biodiversity under the WASCAL’s Capacity Building Programme with support from Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) and in affiliation with the University Felix Houpouet Boigny, Cote d’Ivoire.

This is the first batch of students since the inception of the programme in Cote d’Ivoire in 2012.

Director of Capacity Building Department, Professor Janet Adelegan was delighted about the successful graduation of the students after four years of intense academic and research work.

WASCAL is still working hard to ensure that it remains a Centre of excellence in Climate Change Capacity Building in West Africa. Congratulations to all the grandaunts .

The first batch of the Doctoral students who pursued WASCAL’s programme in Climate Change and Agriculture at Institut Polytechnique Rural de Formation et de Recherche Appliiquee de Katibougou (IPR/IFRA), Mali in collaboration with the University of Science and Technology, Mali and University of Cape Coast(UCC), Ghana have graduated.

Nine out of the ten students successfully graduated after four years of a fully sponsored Doctoral programme by WASCAL, with support from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The programme was designed to build the capacity of young scientists to implement strategies towards mitigation and adaptation to the negative effects of climate change in Agriculture.

In a congratulatory speech, Professor Amoro Coulibaly, Director of the Programme admonished the granduants to go out and act as ambassadors of WASCAL as they work hard to help combat the negative effects of climate change in West Africa. Granduants expressed gratitude to WASCAL and BMBF for the opportunity given them.

WASCAL is committed to training experts for West African countries to combat the adverse effects of climate change.