Climate and Environmental Service

WASCAL’s Competence Centre is the scientific hub of WASCAL, situated in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The Centre seeks to provide climate service and research results. The research facility in. It coordinates WASCAL‘s research activities and climate service provision.The Competence Center enhances local climate analytical capacity, and provides a climate service for the partner countries, building on the national research communities of the West African countries participating in WASCAL.

The Competence Centre connects regional partners in data-collection networks and offers the infrastructure and expertise necessary for analyzing the impacts of climate change and for developing strategies and policies to cope with them.

The Climate Service unit at the Competence Center is charged with organizing an observation network in member countries that will lead to consistent and quality information on weather and the hydrological cycle, as well as changes in land use, human coping strategies and biodiversity shifts or loss. This panel data will provide the backbone for climate models that will allow projections of climate impact under various scenarios. A planning and policy network ensures that the science-based adaptation options generated in the Research Program are discussed and evaluated with the relevant stakeholders before they are formulated as policy and management actions.

The function of the Climate Service Unit:

  • To provide an outstanding, collaborative work environment for the resident scientific staff, and their support personnel, and offer opportunities to visiting regional scientists to cooperate and establish strong links with this climate think tank.
  • To accommodate the infrastructure for data reception, data maintenance and access, data interpretation and scenario analyses.
  • To conduct training and outreach activities to involve the targeted stakeholders in the region.
  • To periodically provide regional climate change updates and offer general adaptation strategies to changing climate. Communication and Networking

Communication and Networking

Climate Service plays an important role in outreach, communication and networking. Close collaboration is fostered with regional organizations, river basin authorities, and the national

decision-making institutions to formulate sound policies that take into account climate change. International networking, both within Africa and beyond, ensures that synergies are used, and that the Competence Centre becomes a leading institution in the region.