WASCAL BUILDING CAPACITIES FOR WELL-QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS IN GREEN HYDROGEN

Mrs. Oda Keppler, Head of Sub-division Sustainability from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF) has stated that for green hydrogen to be a success, the sector needs well-qualified professionals and that the selection of the WASCAL first batch of green hydrogen scholars in West Africa was a step in the right direction, Continue Reading

GOVERNMENT OF BURKINA FASO READY TO WORK WITH RESOLUTIONS FROM WASCAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM TO MEET NDCs

The Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation of Burkina Faso, Prof. Adjima Thombiano has stated that the government of Burkina Faso looked forward to receiving the resolutions and any other results from the just-ended WASCAL Science Symposium,  worth implementing by the government of Burkina Faso, as part of its efforts to realize the Nationally Continue Reading

WEST AFRICAN SCIENTISTS TO MEET IN OUAGADOUGOU FOR A POST COP27 SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso- WASCAL is organizing the Science Symposium 2022 under the theme ‘’ Research, Innovation, and Capacity Building to combat Climate Change and improve livelihoods in West Africa. The opening ceremony is under the chairmanship of the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation of Burkina Faso, Prof. Adjima Thiombiano and will be declared Continue Reading

GERMANY’S FOREIGN MINISTER ANNALENA BAERBOCK VISITS UNIVERSITY ABDOU MOUMOUNI IN NIGER

During her tour in West Africa, Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock paid a visit to the Abdou Moumouni University (UAM) in Niamey, Niger, today. A 55-member delegation, including Niger’s State Secretary of Education, members of Niger’s and Germany’s parliaments, German and African journalists, as well as experts and industry representatives from Germany accompanied the minister, Continue Reading

EXPERTS MEET TO BRAINSTORM ON E-WASTE MANAGEMENT IN WEST AFRICA

The West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL), with the support from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany, has organized a two-day workshop under the theme: “Co-designing the Research Road Map and Theory of Change”. The regional workshop on plastic and electronic waste management, recycling, and Continue Reading

THREE AFRICAN INSTITUTIONS PARTNER TO USE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE

The West African Science Services Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) in partnership two other institutions, RUFORUM, an organization made up of African universities working to promote agricultural development and the AKADEMIYA2063, established to expand the portfolio of research and capacity-strengthening for agricultural policy making, are partnering WASCAL to implement the Climate Continue Reading

WASCAL JOINS NDCs PARTNERSHIP – A GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE COALITION AS ASSOCIATE MEMBER

WASCAL has officially been endorsed as an associate member to the NDC Partnership, a global coalition of countries and institutions collaborating to drive transformational climate action through sustainable development and committed to ambitious implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. As an associate member, WASCAL will Continue Reading

Weather Forecasting Experts Converge For A Write-shop

Windhoek, Namibia, 24 November, 2018 – More than 20 weather experts from across Africa met in Windhoek, Namibia from the 22-23 November to identify best practices in the African Regional Climate Outlook Forum (RCOFs) processes. The write-shop event was convened under the auspices of the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) and the Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa (WISER) programme.

RCOFs are organized by Regional Climate Centres (RCCs) in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), Global Climate Centres (GCC) and development partners. The aim of RCOFs is to provide consensus regional seasonal climate outlooks for applications in climate sensitive socioeconomic sectors for decision support for resilience building and sustainable development (ICPAC, 2016).

The meeting was a culmination of several RCOFs knowledge exchange partnership workshops convened by ACPC earlier in the year, which led to a rich collection of material consisting of procedures, lessons and practices that RCCs utilise in producing consensus seasonal forecasts, organizing RCOFs, engaging stakeholders and seeking their feedback. The institutions in the partnership are the African Regional Climate Centres (RCCs), Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

Mr. Simon Dirske from Namibia Meteorological Service opened the write-shop and underscored the need to strengthen the stakeholder engagement aspect in the RCOFs, especially the farmers. Mr. James Murombedzi, Officer in Charge of ACPC emphasized the need to include a collection of RCOFs case studies in the continent, to serve as a historical perspective and from which best practices can be derived. Ernest Afiesimama, Programme Manager, Offices for Africa and Least Developed Countries at WMO also noted that “The RCC experts gathered here have brought key lessons and experiences which should all be collected and best practices identified from them”.

While the knowledge shared is already benefiting the RCC focal persons who have participated, the write-shop was convened to produce a consolidated document to serve as a reference by all RCCs.

Procedures and practices applied by the RCOFs to both produce consensus seasonal forecasts and publicise them vary. While most of the RCOFs face similar challenges, especially related to engaging stakeholders, dissemination and uptake of the seasonal forecasts they produce, some RCOFs have been operational for many years and thus have lessons and experiences that can help other RCOFs avoid “reinventing the wheel”.

The key thematic areas deliberated on included training and capacity building, consensus seasonal forecasting, funding mechanism and sustainability, communication and dissemination, engaging stakeholders and partnerships.

“It is always gratifying to note the dedication and expertise from the distinguished experts who gathered here and contributed their experiences and lessons learnt on RCOFs for the socio-economic development of our people on the continent,” said Mr. Mark Majodina of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). “As WMO, we will continue to support the knowledge partnership to enable this forum to deliver on its objectives.”

“As a best practice, for sustainability, it is important that member state governments take full ownership of the RCOFs process in terms of funding because the current donor based support system is not sustainable,” said Phillip Omondi of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Climate Prediction and Application Centre (ICPAC).

Mr. Omondi also believes, as other experts do, that with changing meteorological dynamics, “continuity and consistency in training is needed to keep weather experts well-informed on latest trends and tools in the sector.”

It is generally agreed that there is a suspicious relation between scientists and media professionals. The weather experts therefore agreed on the need for enhanced relations between scientists and media. As a best practice, it was agreed, communication and dissemination should be enhanced through provision of training to media and boundary stakeholders, for the benefit of end users.

“I am particularly impressed with the way they arrive at the consensus, but I believe the way stakeholders are engaged is also key,” said Dr. Mouhamadou Bamba Sylla, Senior Scientist in climate modeling and climate change at the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL). “Having media persons, the journalists as part of the process to serve as drafters of the press releases from the technical statement is prudent, as we scientists are trained in scientific language which is most often not understood by stakeholders. It is something we must improve upon to ensure that the solutions we discover reach the intended end users.”

In line with the overall objective of the write-shop, experts agreed on an extended outline of the RCOFs best practices document, and created an early draft with content to be included in the publication, assigned roles and responsibilities, a drafting timeline and a publication dissemination plan.

Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: ecainfo@uneca.org