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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.