Le centre ouest africain de recherche et de services pour l’utilisation adaptée des terres (WASCAL) en collaboration avec le ministère fédéral Allemand de l’éducation et de la recherche (BMBF), organise une conférence scientifique régionale. La cérémonie d’ouverture a eu lieu ce jeudi 8 septembre 2016 à Ouagadougou. Objectif : partager les principales réalisations et les défis du plan de recherche de WASCAL.

Les changements climatiques sont de nos jours une évidence. Et selon le dernier rapport du groupe intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat, nous assistons de plus en plus à un réchauffement de la planète. L’augmentation de la température a de nombreuses conséquences dans notre sous-région. C’est dans ce cadre que WASCAL en collaboration avec le ministère fédéral Allemand de l’éducation et de la recherche (BMBF) a initié une conférence scientifique régionale qui se tient les 08 et 09 septembre à Ouagadougou.

Le présent atelier a donc pour objectif d’analyser et de valider le plan de recherche établi suite aux consultations nationales et régionales et de s’accorder sur les procédures de sa mise en œuvre. Il s’agira au cours de cet atelier de communiquer les réalisations saillantes et défis du plan de recherche, d’examiner et de valider les priorités de recherche à caractère régional et cartographier les atouts de recherche existants tels que les infrastructures de recherches au plan national et régional.
De l’avis de Laurent Sedogo, Directeur exécutif de WASCAL, cette structure a vu le jour depuis 2010, et un certain nombre d’activités ont été entamés dans le domaine de la recherche pour trouver les évidences scientifiques de la manière dont le phénomène du changement climatique se pose en Afrique de l’ouest,et comment y apporter les meilleures réponses. « Notre objectif ce n’est pas faire de la recherche pour de la recherche, mais c’est d’amener les technologies nouvelles directement sur la table des décideurs, les politiques, les producteurs…pour changer la manière de concevoir et de mettre en œuvre les actions de développement », a dit M. Sedogo.

Pour le ministre de l’enseignement supérieur, de la recherche scientifique et de l’innovation Filiga Michel Sawadogo, cet atelier est très important d’autant plus qu’il y a la participation de quatorze pays membres de la CEDEAO. Tous les pays connaissent des changements climatiques et la recherche est en mesure soit de limiter ces changements négatifs, soit de réduire les conséquences de ce changement. Pour cela, le gouvernement burkinabè a signé un accord de siège qui accorde toutes les facilites à WASCAL dans ses activités au Burkina Faso. Par ailleurs le gouvernement burkinabè a offert un terrain d’environ 3,5 ha à WASCAL pour la construction du centre de compétence situé a proximité de l’université Pr. Joseph Ki-zerbo. « Nous espérons que cet atelier apportera un soutien aux dialogues régionaux multi-acteurs sur les questions scientifiques importantes au service de la réduction de la pauvreté et de l’adaptation au changement climatique » a soutenu le ministre. Il a réitéré sa gratitude au gouvernement et au peuple allemand pour avoir accompagné ce projet.
L’ambassadeur de la république fédérale d’Allemagne, Dr. Dietrich Fritz ReinholPohl a quant à lui salué l’initiative de WASCAL pour l’organisation de cette conférence régionale, et a réitéré l’engagement du gouvernement allemand a toujours accompagner ce projet.

Ce centre a été créé suite à une synergie d’actions entre les pays de l’Afrique de l’Ouest et de la République fédérale d’Allemagne. Sa mise en œuvre représente une initiative pour la réduction de la pauvreté et la gestion de l’environnement qui passe par la promotion de la gestion intégrée des ressources naturelles et de l’intégration du changement climatique dans les politiques de développement en Afrique de l’Ouest.

Très peu de Burkinabè connaissent WASCAL, le Centre ouest-africain de service scientifique sur le changement climatique et l’utilisation adaptée des terres. Conscient de cela et à la recherche de plus de visibilité, l’institution dirigée par le Dr Laurent Sédogo organise du 3 au 9 septembre 2016 à Ouagadougou, un événement dénommé « WASCAL Week ». Le lancement des activités a débuté ce samedi 3 septembre par une journée porte ouverte.

C’est connu. Les changements climatiques ont des conséquences fâcheuses pour la planète. Augmentation de la fréquence et de l’intensité des catastrophes naturelles, perturbation du cycle de l’eau, vulnérabilité des systèmes agricoles, sont autant de difficultés que rencontrent les pays notamment ceux de l’Afrique sub-saharienne. Pour mieux comprendre les effets de ces dérèglements climatiques et mettre à la disposition des décideurs des données fiables à même de faciliter la prise de décisions appropriées, le ministère allemand de l’éducation et de la recherche (BMBF) et les experts de dix pays africains dont le Burkina Faso ont décidé en 2010, à la suite de l’échec du sommet sur le climat à Copenhague, de mettre en place un centre. Un centre dont l’objectif est « d’aider à générer de nouvelles connaissances et à développer une capacité d’analyse sur les changements climatiques et la gestion des ressources en terre. Ce centre, c’est WASCAL. Cinq ans après la mise en œuvre de ses programmes aussi bien dans la formation et la recherche, WASCAL n’est pas assez connu.
Six programmes de doctorats et quatre de masters
Pour y remédier, les premiers responsables de l’institution semblent avoir trouvé la formule pour attirer du monde dans les locaux de son Centre de compétence actuel situé au quartier Ouaga 2000. Le « WASCAL Week » ou la semaine du WASCAL a permis à de nombreux invités, ce samedi 3 septembre, d’apprendre davantage sur cette institution et ses ambitions. Son directeur exécutif Laurent Sédogo, ancien ministre de l’agriculture et des ressources hydraulique du Burkina, a fait remarquer que le centre dispose de six programmes de doctorats et quatre programmes de Master notamment sur les changements climatiques et les ressources en eau, l’agriculture, la biodiversité, l’utilisation des terres, l’énergie, l’éducation, la sécurité humaine, etc. Au total, indique Dr Sédégo, le centre a déjà mis sur le marché 60 diplômés de masters et sera à près de 90 doctorats d’ici novembre.

L’ambition

WASCAL ambitionne devenir un centre de service d’excellence sur le climat et l’environnement dans les 20 à 50 prochaines années, a indiqué Boubacar Barry, l’un des doyens de l’institution. Mais pour se faire, le centre doit déployer un éventail d’activités de recherche, créer de nouvelles écoles d’études dans des domaines inexplorées et renforcer son partenariat avec les institutions nationales, régionales et internationales. Déjà, le nouveau centre de compétence censé être, selon M. Barry, la cheville ouvrière qui va permettre de collecter et de centraliser les données climatiques, sera visité le lundi 5 septembre. Aussi, le centre compte mettre en œuvre un Master « Base de données, changement climatique et informatiques » à l’Université Pr Joseph Ki-Zerbo.

Cette première journée du WASCAL Week s’est achevée par la visite du centre de données et du laboratoire du système d’information géographique et de Télédétection et la visite de stands.

En rappel, les dix pays partenaires de WASCAL sont le Bénin, le Burkina Faso, la Gambie, le Ghana, la Côte d’Ivoire, le Mali, le Niger, le Nigeria, le Sénégal et le Togo.

Lecture rapide

Sa situation actuelle fait de l’Afrique subsaharienne la région la plus vulnérable
L’Afrique du nord, l’Inde et le Moyen Orient sont les autres zones à risque
La réponse préconisée est une adaptation des techniques culturales

The West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) has engaged its stakeholders drawn from the Anglophone countries within ECOWAS.

The workshop, sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and Education in Germany (BMBF) is the third sub-regional engagement to build a regional research agenda that reflects the needs of West Africans.

The meeting was held in Accra last week, at the Headquarters.

According to the Executive Director of WASCAL Dr. Laurent Sedogo, the first two consultative meetings were held in Dakar and Cotonou specifically to engage all the Francophone countries within the region.
Speaking at the opening of the two-day workshop Dr. Sedogo said WASCAL is committed to being the unique regional research centre that will generate authentic data to feed national and regional policy initiative.

“From our capacity building programme to our research arm and the climate service services unit, we aim at pursuing demand-driven activities that are relevant to needs of the people we are serving,” Dr. Sedogo indicated.

Touting the achievements of WASCAL, Dr Sedogo said “WASCAL has chalked modest successes in the area of research and capacity building efforts. Through our capacity building programme WASCAL has trained over one hundred and fifty postgraduate students (at the Masters and PhD levels) and recently awarded scholarships to a new batch of about one hundred students.”
Dr. Sedogo again noted that in order to make WASCAL’s research relevant to the ECOWAS region, it commissioned these national and regional consultative meetings to garner the invaluable inputs of stakeholders to its research agenda for 2017-2020.

“WASCAL is now poised to take the leadership role in the area of climate change and adapted land use research, and advocate science-based adaptation and mitigation strategies that will enhance the resilience of human and environmental systems to the threat of climate change,” Sedogo observed.

In his keynote address, The Deputy Head of Mission and Head of the Economic Section of the German Embassy, Mr. Bernhard Abels, hinted that the threat of climate change and climate variability to humanity’s collective well-being is more evident now than ever.
According to Mr. Abels, the effects of climate change and climate variability in the last two decades, especially for smallholder farmers are enormous.

He indicated that Germany is of the firm belief that working together West African partners can significantly reduce the effects of the alarming phenomenon.

This means strengthening the cooperation between Germany and West Africa in terms of research and exploring science-based solutions to the common problems that affect us, he noted.
In line with this objective, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) has invested an amount of €30million in the work of WASCAL over a five year period.

The amount, is expected to be used infrastructure, scientific equipment, capacity building and research undertaken by German and African scientists.

The West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) has engaged its stakeholders drawn from the Anglophone countries within ECOWAS.

The workshop, sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and Education in Germany (BMBF) is the third sub-regional engagement to build a regional research agenda that reflects the needs of West Africans.

The meeting was held in Accra last week, at the Headquarters.

According to the Executive Director of WASCAL Dr. Laurent Sedogo, the first two consultative meetings were held in Dakar and Cotonou specifically to engage all the Francophone countries within the region.

Speaking at the opening of the two-day workshop Dr. Sedogo said WASCAL is committed to being the unique regional research centre that will generate authentic data to feed national and regional policy initiative.

“From our capacity building programme to our research arm and the climate service services unit, we aim at pursuing demand-driven activities that are relevant to needs of the people we are serving,” Dr. Sedogo indicated.

Touting the achievements of WASCAL, Dr Sedogo said “WASCAL has chalked modest successes in the area of research and capacity building efforts. Through our capacity building programme WASCAL has trained over one hundred and fifty postgraduate students (at the Masters and PhD levels) and recently awarded scholarships to a new batch of about one hundred students.”
Dr. Sedogo again noted that in order to make WASCAL’s research relevant to the ECOWAS region, it commissioned these national and regional consultative meetings to garner the invaluable inputs of stakeholders to its research agenda for 2017-2020.

“WASCAL is now poised to take the leadership role in the area of climate change and adapted land use research, and advocate science-based adaptation and mitigation strategies that will enhance the resilience of human and environmental systems to the threat of climate change,” Sedogo observed.

In his keynote address, The Deputy Head of Mission and Head of the Economic Section of the German Embassy, Mr. Bernhard Abels, hinted that the threat of climate change and climate variability to humanity’s collective well-being is more evident now than ever.

According to Mr. Abels, the effects of climate change and climate variability in the last two decades, especially for smallholder farmers are enormous.

He indicated that Germany is of the firm belief that working together West African partners can significantly reduce the effects of the alarming phenomenon.

This means strengthening the cooperation between Germany and West Africa in terms of research and exploring science-based solutions to the common problems that affect us, he noted.

In line with this objective, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) has invested an amount of €30million in the work of WASCAL over a five year period.

The amount, is expected to be used infrastructure, scientific equipment, capacity building and research undertaken by German and African scientists.

The programme, supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany, comprised 60 Doctoral Research Programme and 40 Master’s Research Programme is to strengthen West Africa’s human scientific capacities to analyse regional climate change impacts.

The postgraduate programme was a partnership between 10 West African Universities and selected German Institutions.

The students were selected from Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, Mali, Togo, Benin, The Gambia, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire.

Dr Laurent Sedogo, Executive Director of WASCAL announced this when he opened the sub-regional consultative meeting on climate change in Accra.

The meeting brought together researchers, government institutions, policy makers and stakeholders in the climate change sector to draw a strategic plan for West African Climate Research Agenda 2020.

The meeting he said was the last of three consultative meetings to identify common research and capacity building needs of different member countries for consideration in a final regional meeting.

Dr Sedogo said the initiative was part of WASCAL’s commitment to train and build the capacity of the next generation of African scientists to champion the fight against climate change, while influencing governments and policy makers.

Since the inception of the programme in 2012, 255 students have benefited from the scholarship programme.

“WASCAL is committed to being a unique regional research centre that pursues a research for development agenda and provides relevant research findings that feed directly into national and regional policy formula”, he added.

He noted said WASCAL is poised to lead in the area of climate change and advocate science-based adaptation and mitigation strategies to enhance the resilience of human and environmental systems to the threat of climate change.

Dr Sedogo urged participants to discuss the issues passionately and focus on developing a demand-driven research and capacity building needs to benefit member countries.

Mr Bernhard Abels, Deputy Head of Mission at the German Embassy, said the threat of climate change and climate variability has resulted in floods, droughts, high temperatures, declined in water suppliers and reduced agricultural yields.

He said over the past five years, 30 million Euros was invested in infrastructure, scientific equipment, capacity building and research undertaken by German and African scientists.

He said the Republic of Germany believes that working with partners in West Africa could reduce the effects and threats of climate change through effective research and exploring science-based solutions.

Mr Abels noted that through the WASCAL initiative, the research infrastructure and capacity in West Africa related to climate change has been strengthened and preparing to lead in conducting cutting-edge research to produce sustainable solutions to the problems.

Professor Janet Olatundun Adelegan, Director of Capacity Building for WASCAL said her outfit conducts a regional research and capacity-developing programme to improve the use of land resources through better technologies, policies, institutions and management.

Prof Adelegan said WASCAL is organised around three principle components: climate service department, which collects, integrates and analyses data while the research department seeks ways to generate resilience in cultural landscapes and the graduate studies department strengthens human capacity through partnerships with universities in the region.

Accra, April 6, GNA – The West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adopted Land Use (WASCAL) has offered 100 scholarships to 10 West African graduate students to study courses in climate change.

The graduate programme was aimed at designing strategies to adapt to threats, opportunities and uncertainties of climate change within the region.
The programme, supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany, comprised 60 Doctoral Research Programme and 40 Master’s Research Programme is to strengthen West Africa’s human scientific capacities to analyse regional climate change impacts.

The postgraduate programme was a partnership between 10 West African Universities and selected German Institutions.

The students were selected from Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, Mali, Togo, Benin, The Gambia, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire.

Dr Laurent Sedogo, Executive Director of WASCAL announced this when he opened the sub-regional consultative meeting on climate change in Accra.
The meeting brought together researchers, government institutions, policy makers and stakeholders in the climate change sector to draw a strategic plan for West African Climate Research Agenda 2020.

The meeting he said was the last of three consultative meetings to identify common research and capacity building needs of different member countries for consideration in a final regional meeting.

Dr Sedogo said the initiative was part of WASCAL’s commitment to train and build the capacity of the next generation of African scientists to champion the fight against climate change, while influencing governments and policy makers.

Since the inception of the programme in 2012, 255 students have benefited from the scholarship programme.
‘WASCAL is committed to being a unique regional research centre that pursues a research for development agenda and provides relevant research findings that feed directly into national and regional policy formula’, he added.

He noted said WASCAL is poised to lead in the area of climate change and advocate science-based adaptation and mitigation strategies to enhance the resilience of human and environmental systems to the threat of climate change.

Dr Sedogo urged participants to discuss the issues passionately and focus on developing a demand-driven research and capacity building needs to benefit member countries.

Mr Bernhard Abels, Deputy Head of Mission at the German Embassy, said the threat of climate change and climate variability has resulted in floods, droughts, high temperatures, declined in water suppliers and reduced agricultural yields.
He said over the past five years, 30 million Euros was invested in infrastructure, scientific equipment, capacity building and research undertaken by German and African scientists.

He said the Republic of Germany believes that working with partners in West Africa could reduce the effects and threats of climate change through effective research and exploring science-based solutions.

Mr Abels noted that through the WASCAL initiative, the research infrastructure and capacity in West Africa related to climate change has been strengthened and preparing to lead in conducting cutting-edge research to produce sustainable solutions to the problems.

Professor Janet Olatundun Adelegan, Director of Capacity Building for WASCAL said her outfit conducts a regional research and capacity-developing programme to improve the use of land resources through better technologies, policies, institutions and management.

Prof Adelegan said WASCAL is organised around three principle components: climate service department, which collects, integrates and analyses data while the research department seeks ways to generate resilience in cultural landscapes and the graduate studies department strengthens human capacity through partnerships with universities in the region.