The ambassador indicated that his government, who has already funded 50 Ghanaians to study in Hungary this year, would support the Capacity Building Department of WASCAL to enable it to continue building the next generation of scientists and policy makers, especially in the area of climate change and agriculture.

Mr. András disclosed this in a meeting with the management of WASCAL in Accra. He also commended WASCAL for its dedication and magnitude of achievements within the short time of its operations.

As part of the partnership, WASCAL has been invited by the government of Hungary to the opening ceremony of the Budapest Water Summit 2016, where the Executive Director, Dr. Laurent Sedogo would be part of the High Level Panel Discussion.

The November event will be discussing the topic “How To Get Green”. It would also serve as a great opportunity for WASCAL to strengthen its relationship with the global stakeholders, including the Hungarian government.

The three day international conference, organized by the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Ghana (AHK), took place at the Accra International Conference Centre and attracted professional participants and visitors from various countries within and outside Africa. The event was an opportunity to showcase the leading role played by WASCAL in tackling the challenge of climate change in West Africa under the sponsorship of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF).

WASCAL built strategic relationships, established key partnerships, raised the corporate brand profile and created strong visibility through its interactions with the diverse stakeholders. Visitors to the stands were well fed with information about the research, climate service and capacity building components of WASCAL.

WACEE sought to get exhibitors from different sectors, including oil and gas, hydropower, renewable energies, energy efficiencies, water and waste water management and waste management. The event was an effort to meet the increasing demands for energy and smart technologies. It also provided key solutions to the energy crisis that the world is growing through in the Power, Renewable Energy & Energy Conservation, Environment & Waste Management industries.

The Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Professor William O. Ellis has acknowledged the immense contribution of WASCAL to graduate studies at the university. This, he stated, was evident in the ultra-modern WASCAL edifice which had been put up to help promote graduate studies in climate change in West Africa.

Professor Ellis was speaking at the 50th congregation of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. WASCAL, in partnership with the university runs a doctoral degree programme for West African students in Climate Change and Adapted Land Use.

In totality, 51 graduands, including 10 from WASCAL were awarded with various PhD degrees. This was the highest number of PhD graduands ever in the history of the University, according to records from the School of Graduate Studies.

Prof. Ellis urged the graduands to go out and support the industrial and socio-economic development of Ghana and Africa through the professional knowledge and skills acquired with the world-class education obtained at KNUST.

In his congratulatory message at a special side event organised for WASCAL graduands on the same day, the director in charge of the WASCAL Graduate Research Program (GRP) at KNUST, Professor Samuel Odai, praised the graduands for their hard work, resilience and tenacity to overcome the pressure that came with the pursuit of the course. He also challenged them to go make intensive impact in the sub-Region while marketing the image of WASCAL.

This is the 2nd batch of PhD graduates of KNUST who have benefited from the full scholarship of WASCAL under the sponsorship of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF), since its inception in 2012.

Thirty one (31) students from The Gambia, Ghana and Nigeria arrived in Lomé on March 12, 2016 to take French classes at the Centre International de Recherche et d’Etude de Langues – C.I.R.E.L. – of the University of Lomé and six common core courses during a three-month stay in Togo.

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Kpalime outing and closing dinner for the 31 WASCAL students

The workshop was to explore possible collaboration areas between the two international outfits. NASA is the United States government agency that is responsible for science and technology related to air and space.

Participants from WASCAL included the Executive Director, Dr. Laurent Sedogo and Director of Capacity Building, Prof Janet Adelegan. Also in attendance is the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee, Prof. Jim Adegoke. The officials from NASA comprised Dr. Charles Ichoku and Dr. Richard Damoah.

The Capacity Building Department of WASCAL organized a two day training at its headquarters in Accra for all its accountants in the ten lead Universities within West Africa.

The training was to expose participants to the latest trends in accounting while strengthening the capacity in financial reporting. The training also forms part of WASCAL’s commitment to strengthening financial departments of its Graduate Schools.

With support from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), WASCAL is dedicated to becoming one of Africa’s Climate Change Research think-tanks, while building the Capacity of the next generation of Climate Scientists in West Africa.

WASCAL showcased the strong efforts it continues to put in place towards the adaptation and mitigation of Climate Change in Africa. Adaptation Futures is the biennial conference of the Global Programme of Research on Climate Change Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation (PROVIA). In 2016 the European Commission and the Government of the Netherlands co-host the fourth edition.

It is a conference and market-place for practices and solutions; a place where ties are strengthened between science and practice The expo formed part of WASCAL/SASSCAL’s’s commitment to showcase their success stories in West and Southern Africa and to build strong ties and partnership with global players in the Climate Change sector.

WASCAL’s APTE-21 project aims at exploring and exploiting the potential advantage of rainfall extremes for smallholder farming. In particular, the project strives to improve the production, access and use of local information about high-impact weather and climate events provided for family farms in Bakel (Senegal), Ouahigouya, Dano (Burkina Faso) and Bolgatanga (Ghana).

WASCAL’s APTE-21 project will use pro-active and participatory dissemination protocols such as “climate field schools”, community co-production, advisory and new technologies such as mobile phones, apps, and internet for providing agricultural-climatic information extensions. It will also build small on-farm infrastructure to alleviate negative impacts of rainfall extremes.

Capacity building of actors and exchange of experiences are key goals of the project. Therefore, APTE-21 project capitalizes on the achievements of previous projects and trains high school students, while promoting gender equity.

The APTE-21 project will be coordinated and implemented by WASCAL in collaboration with the Direction Generale de la Meteorologie (Burkina Faso), ANACIM (Senegal), ENDA-Energie (Niger), HydroScience Montpelier, CIRAD, LOCEAN and IRD (France).

For more information, please contact the Principal Investigator Seyni Salack, Senior Climate Scientist at the WASCAL Competence Center, 06 BP 9507 Ouagadougou 06, Burkina Faso, e-mail: salack.s@wascal.org, Tel: +226-25-37-54-29.

WASCAL has been granted the privilege of co-organizing the 3rd edition of PRÉvisions Saisonnières en Afrique de l’Ouest (PRESAO) for the Sudan-Sahel region of West Africa (PRESASS-03).

PRESASS-03 is an annual forum from May-July organized by ACMAD (African Center of Meteorological Applications for Development) and AGRHYMET for all West African meteorological, hydrological and agronomic institutions.

The overall goal is to derive consensus forecasts for the forthcoming rainy season (June-September). All West African countries are involved, including the 15 ECOWAS countries, Mauritania, Tchad, Central African Republic, and Cameroon in addition to other resource persons from the USA, Italy, France, and Germany.

This year, the event takes place at WASCAL’s premises at the Competence Center in Ouagadougou. Co-organizer is “la Direction Generale de la Meteorologie” (DGM) of Burkina Faso. The pre-forum is May 16-19, 2016 for parallel workshop sessions with all scientists and a press conference on May 20 with all officials such as ministries and the state secretary of Burkina Faso, the directors of organizing institutions etc.

The courses will last until June 4. The 69 francophone students are located in Kumasi, Ghana, to improve their English skills, while 31 English speaking students are in Lomé, Togo, for intensive French language courses. In parallel, both are taught the basics in Statistics and Geostatistics, Remote Sensing/GIS, Climate Systems, Climate Change Impacts, and Research Methodology in two-week modules.

Despite the tight schedule (usually from 8am to 6pm in Kumasi, and from 7am to 4.30pm in Lomé), the lecturers emphasized the students’ motivation and eagerness to learn about climate change. Besides the scientific training, the students can benefit from working together, which can have positive effects in terms of network building for their future career, one lecturer said.

The students also expressed their determination to successfully complete the program. They said the program was increasing their awareness of the importance of climate change and their willingness to contribute to their respective country’s future development with regard to climate change.

After their joint courses in Kumasi and Lomé, the Graduate students will be go to the WASCAL Competence Center in Ouagadougou for another week of training with the Competence Center staff and for attending a lecture on WASCAL Data Management. In mid-June all students will then go back to their respective Lead University for an intensive course program focused on the particular research area of their Graduate School. After finishing this course program the students will submit their final research proposal for their master’s and doctoral theses.

The book provides conceptual and empirical discussions of adaptation to climate change/variability in rural West Africa. It brings on-board country experiences in adaptation by different socio-economic groups and efforts at building adaptive capacity.

It presents a holistic understanding of adaptation and shows contextual and generic sources of adaptive capacity. Focusing on adaptation to climate change/variability is critical because the development challenges of rural West Africa have been historically intertwined with its climate.

Moreover, emerging patterns of climate change are inextricably linked to developmental issues today for West Africa’s agrarian communities with high numbers of the population earning a living directly and indirectly from the natural environment.

WASCAL research members and the research network contributed to it. You can find the book at http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-31499-0