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.

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.

West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) has appointed Professor Jimmy Omoniyi Adegoke as its interim Executive Director. He takes over from Dr. Laurent Sedogo who for the past three years, was the Executive Director of WASCAL.

Prof. Adegoke’s appointment is a six-month executive management consultancy effective April 1, 2017. He will be the administrative head of the overall WASCAL organization and report to the Governing Board. Until this appointment, Prof. Adegoke was the Chair of the WASCAL Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC)

Prof. Jimmy Adegoke is a climate scientist and tenured Professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) where he served as Chair of the Department of Geosciences from 2008 to 2010 and currently Director of the Center for Applied Environmental Research (CAER). He brings on board rich science management experience and world class expertise in the fields of international climate science and environmental systems spanning over 30 years.

He was previously Executive Director of the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) Natural Resources & Environment (NRE) Division, Pretoria, South Africa from 2010 to 2012, where he also served as the Director of the Applied Centre for Climate & Earth Systems Science (ACCESS), a Centre of Excellence (CoE) of the South Africa Department of Science & Technology (DST) Global Change Grande Challenge (GCGC) programme.
Prof Adegoke earned a Ph.D. in Geography with specialization in Climate Science from The Pennsylvania State University, USA. He also holds degrees from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (BSc) and the University of Ibadan (MSc), both in Nigeria.

Professor Adegoke maintains permanent residence in Kansas City where he was, until recently, an appointee of the Mayor of Kansas City Missouri (KCMO) on the city’s Environmental Management Commission (EMC). He holds dual citizenship in Nigeria and the United States of America.

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.

West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) has appointed Professor Jimmy Omoniyi Adegoke as its interim Executive Director. He takes over from Dr. Laurent Sedogo who for the past three years, was the Executive Director of WASCAL.

Prof. Adegoke’s appointment is a six-month executive management consultancy effective April 1, 2017. He will be the administrative head of the overall WASCAL organization and report to the Governing Board. Until this appointment, Prof. Adegoke was the Chair of the WASCAL Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC)

Prof. Jimmy Adegoke is a climate scientist and tenured Professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) where he served as Chair of the Department of Geosciences from 2008 to 2010 and currently Director of the Center for Applied Environmental Research (CAER). He brings on board rich science management experience and world class expertise in the fields of international climate science and environmental systems spanning over 30 years.

He was previously Executive Director of the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) Natural Resources & Environment (NRE) Division, Pretoria, South Africa from 2010 to 2012, where he also served as the Director of the Applied Centre for Climate & Earth Systems Science (ACCESS), a Centre of Excellence (CoE) of the South Africa Department of Science & Technology (DST) Global Change Grande Challenge (GCGC) programme.
Prof Adegoke earned a Ph.D. in Geography with specialization in Climate Science from The Pennsylvania State University, USA. He also holds degrees from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (BSc) and the University of Ibadan (MSc), both in Nigeria.

Professor Adegoke maintains permanent residence in Kansas City where he was, until recently, an appointee of the Mayor of Kansas City Missouri (KCMO) on the city’s Environmental Management Commission (EMC). He holds dual citizenship in Nigeria and the United States of America.

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.

Why were you interested in farmer innovations, and what exactly have you been looking at?

My PhD research was on the identification, determinants and welfare impacts of farmer innovation in rural Ghana. Research institutions have developed numerous technologies that are being disseminated to farmers for adoption. However, many smallholders do not adopt these technologies due to, inter alia, lack of accessibility, high costs, and inappropriateness of the technologies for their local conditions. Some farmers are very creative and have developed their own locally-adapted innovations to address the challenges they face. However, if you look at the agricultural innovation literature, most of the studies focus on the externally-driven innovations developed by researchers, while those developed by farmers are often neglected or under-valued. So my research, in contrast to existing studies, looks at famer innovations. I examined if farmer innovations can also play a role in the livelihoods of rural farm households, and how to build the capacity of farmers to generate more innovations.

Where in Ghana did you do your research and how long did you stay there?

I conducted my field research in the Upper East region of Ghana from August 2012 to May 2013.

The field research was carried out in the Upper East region – partly because it is one of the selected areas for the implementation of the Core Research Program of WASCAL. Moreover, Upper East is a rural region with high population density, low food security, limited infrastructural services and increasing challenges such as climate change and soil infertility, and such a challenging environment is where one expects to find many local innovations.

The first part of my research involves identification of promising innovations developed by farmers. To identify the innovations, I assisted my tutor, Dr. Tobias Wünscher who was implementing an innovation contest throughout the region between August and November 2012. In the contest, farmers competed for prizes by presenting their independently developed innovations. The top three innovators were awarded prizes during the National Farmers Day celebration. I also collected survey data from 409 farm households in three districts (Kassena Nankana East, Kassena Nankana West and Bongo) in the region. This data was used in analysing the drivers and impacts of farmer innovations.
How are farmer innovations related to climate change?

Most of the identified farmer innovations are yield-related, but these innovations are locally adapted and help to cushion the effects of climate change. Some farmer innovations also emerge in response to environmental shocks. One of the main findings of my study is that farmers who develop innovations are more resilient to climate shocks than non-innovators.

What makes farmers innovate and how do farmer innovations contribute (or not) to household welfare?

Farmers innovate out of curiosity or coincidence or the need to increase production and solve problems. I also found that a Farmer Field Fora (FFF) program, which is being implemented by the Ghana’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture, helps to build the capacity of farmers to innovate. The FFF is a platform for innovation and mutual learning among agricultural stakeholders, particularly farmers, extension agents and researchers. I analyzed the effect of farmer innovations on a number of household welfare indicators, and I found that farmer innovations play an essential role in the livelihoods of farm households. For instance, I found that farmer innovations significantly improve the income and consumption expenditure of the innovators. The innovations also contribute significantly to the reduction of food insecurity among the innovative households by increasing food consumption expenditure, and by reducing the length of the hungry season.

What were your most exciting findings?

Among the most interesting findings of my research is that farmers do not only adopt but also generate innovations. Farmer innovations may emerge by coincidence, but it can also be stimulated through capacity building programs such as the FFF. Also, farmer innovations can complement the innovations developed by public and private research institutions in addressing the challenges farmers face and in reducing rural poverty. Finally, the opportunity to win prizes through a contest can serve as an incentive for farmers to reveal their innovations instead of keeping them in secrecy.
How and when did you start your doctoral studies at the Center of Development Research (ZEF) in the WASCAL Research Program?

I started searching for PhD opportunities soon after completing my Master studies at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. I applied to a vacancy announcement by Dr. Tobias Wünscher, who was searching for a PhD student to work on local innovations within the WASCAL program at ZEF. I was in Bonn to participate in the “Tropentag” 2011 conference, and I visited ZEF after the conference, where I met Dr. Wünscher and was invited for an impromptu interview. I later had a phone interview with Prof. Joachim von Braun and was then offered the position, which I gladly accepted.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for funding my PhD studies at ZEF through the WASCAL program. I am also grateful to my supervisor, Prof. Joachim von Braun for guiding me in my research and to my tutor, Dr. Tobias Wünscher for his help in bringing my thesis to fruition.
Background

Justice conducted his research in the WASCAL work package 3.3 on Farmer’s Perceptions, led by Dr. Tobias Wünscher. He successfully defended his thesis on May 5, 2015. He has since been working as a senior researcher at ZEF within WASCAL. He succeeded Dr. Marc Müller, who started working with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome.
Related publications:

Tambo, Justice A. and Tobias Wünscher 2014. Identification and prioritization of farmers’ innovations in northern Ghana. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, available on CJO2014. doi:10.1017/S1742170514000374

Related topics

Contact: Justice Tambo, tambojustice(at)yahoo.com

Having joined WASCAL from the beginning of January 2014, Dr. Sédogo will officially take over the mandate of the executive director from his predecessor and founding Director of WASCAL Professor Paul Vlek on February 14, 2014. “Climate Change is one of the biggest challenges in Africa’s development agenda. I share the vision of WASCAL to take science and technique and put it into practice and on the development agenda in a way that will touch local people. At the same time, WASCAL strives to foster development on the level of policy-making. It will be a big challenge for WASCAL to bring together the local and national levels of decision and policy making regarding sustainable land management under climate threats. That is why I was very happy to be selected as executive director,” says Sédogo.

Vitae
Dr. Laurent Sédogo graduated with a PhD in sustainable management of natural resources from ITC in Enschede and Wageningen University, The Netherlands in 2002. Before this he had obtained a Master of Science in GIS at Wageningen Agricultural University.

Dr. Sédogo worked with institutions dealing with land degradation and desertification control at the national level and the regional level (Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS). He held a variety of political offices, starting with the post of Minister of Farmers’ Cooperatives from 1988 to 1990. After completing his PhD he returned to the political office as Minister of the Environment and Quality of Life until 2008, followed by the post of Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fishery. He was a Member of Parliament until joining WASCAL in January 2013.

Laurent Sédogo was Vice President of the Governing Council of UNEP and Member of the Governing Council of the OSS (Sahara and Sahel Observatory) and is a member of the Centre for Sustainable Development Initiative.

Link to full vitae

Watch a video interview with Laurent Sédogo on the Center of Development Research’s youtube channel