On March 27, 2015 the headquarters of WASCAL was officially inaugurated in Accra, Ghana. As part of the ceremony the first graduates of the WASCAL doctoral program West African Climate System, led by the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Nigeria, were presented with their graduation certificates from WASCAL. Representatives of the West African Economic Community (ECOWAS), government representatives of Germany, various Ambassadors in Ghana and the ten participating West African countries, as well as partners from universities and research institutions attended the ceremony.
The move to the new WASCAL building and the
inauguration of the headquarters on March 27, in Accra mark important
steps in establishing WASCAL as a regional and international institution
in the long run. As an additional cause for celebration, the first ten
students of the WASCAL Doctoral Program received their graduation
certificates. Coming from different WASCAL countries, the students
graduated from the Doctoral Program “West African Climate System”
located at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Nigeria,
where they worked on such topics as micrometeorology, climate modeling,
impact studies in hydrology and agriculture, rainfall onset and
secession, extreme events such as droughts as well as rainfall recovery
over West Africa. Dr. Laurent Sédogo, the Executive Director of WASCAL,
acknowledged the ten graduates as the first doctoral students to
graduate from the WASCAL Doctoral Program. Ten more doctoral students
from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in
Kumasi, Ghana will defend their thesis in the coming weeks adding up to a
total of 98 PhD and 40 MSc Students that will be graduating by the end
of the year 2015.
At the inauguration ceremony for the new
headquarters the international organization was honored by high-ranking
guests from all WASCAL countries and Germany. Honourable Elvis
Afriyie-Ankrah, the Minister of State of Ghana, who presented a speech
on behalf of the Vice President, Mr. Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, described
WASCAL as a very important developmental tool through which science and
education could interface to find appropriate responses to the
phenomenon of climate change and its attendant adverse effects on the
livelihood of people. „For the millions of people and the subregion,
WASCAL is a source of hope that our environment
can be managed in a
sustainable manner to ensure the future and the generations yet unborn“,
he further emphasized and stressed that climate change is a threat to
the basic foundation of the lives of the people of West Africa as about
80 per cent depend on agriculture. Similarly, the use of natural
resources for their livelihood and agriculture contribute about 50 per
cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of most countries in the region. He
commended the German government for the support it continues to give
WASCAL and further gave assurances that Ghana would continue to support
WASCAL to ensure that the ECOWAS region collectively
benefited from its work.
The
milestone that was achieved with the commission of the WASCAL
headquarters in enhancing the visibility of science in West Africa was
welcomed by Mr. Wilfried Kraus. The BMBF’s representative further
expressed that WASCAL’s continued efforts will strengthen the
long-lasting cooperation between African and German universities and
research institutions, support working and career options for scientists
in Africa, and strengthen the capabilities of the scientists and
organizations in Africa to manage and to implement knowledge for their
own objective over time.