Project title: Novel WEFE Nexus-based approaches towards agroforestry management in the Greater North African Region
Project duration: January 2025 – December 2027
Project status: Ongoing
Website: https://trans-sahara.eu/
Funding: Excellent Science (Horizon Europe / EU funding / Project)-Grant
Project Code/ID: 101182176 — TRANS-SAHARA — HORIZON-CL6-2024-FARM2FORK-01
TRANS-SAHARA aims to establish a groundbreaking approach for leveraging agroforestry systems to support African communities in their fight against climate change. This innovative approach is based on the well-established Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus approach, which emphasizes the primacy of ensuring water security when designing, installing and managing agroforestry systems. The translation of this conceptual agroforestry management approach into real-world applications is supported by an array of technical and non-technical innovations.
These include cutting-edge measurement methods and tools to accurately assess environmental and socio-economic impacts, scalable nature-based intervention strategies to facilitate sustainable exploitation of natural resources, and novel business models designed to secure long-term livelihoods of local communities engaged in agroforestry practices. The efficacy of the novel approach and supporting innovations will be rigorously tested and validated through a series of large-scale pilot demonstrations set to take place in key locations across Africa, including Ethiopia, Ghana, Tunisia, Chad, Djibouti and Senegal. Novel community-led engagement methods are used to support the co-design of the demonstrators and ensure deep acceptance of the innovation within local communities.
Expected outcomes will contribute to bridging the agroforestry data gaps in Africa, increased crop yield, doubling of farmers’ annual incomes, and creation of new carbon sinks across previously degraded territories. An ambitious post-project exploitation plan executed in partnership with EU and African policymakers and civil society groups foresees the immediate and widespread uptake of resulting innovations across African Union (AU) member countries and beyond by 2030. Innovation adopters will significantly enhance their communities’ resilience to threats posed by the climate emergency and stimulate highly sustainable socio-economic development across their region.
Objectives of TRANS-SAHARA
TRANS-SAHARA aims to address the challenges outlined above by using water security as an entry point to focus on agro-silvo-pastoral systems in the Greater Northern African Region (GNAR) with the overarching aim to:
- increase the water content in regional water cycles to facilitate regeneration of degraded ecosystems;
- develop bespoke, data-driven, scalable and economically viable agroforestry interventions in three main living labs (Tunisia, Ghana, Ethiopia) to showcase agroforestry innovations and
- facilitate an innovation ecosystem at regional, national and global scales by embedding its approach from the outset in a participatory multistakeholder socio-economic process to support a systemic socio-technical transition.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
SO1: Capture, monitor and model qualitative and quantitative hydrological, geoscience, agricultural, biodiversity and socio-economic data through a novel inter- and trans-disciplinary approach to better understand the links between agroforestry management and climate change resilience, biodiversity preservation and sustainable agriculture
SO2: Develop a WEFE-Nexus based Agroforestry Intervention Design Tool for implementing scalable agroforestry management systems, taking into account local specificities within the three Living Labs across the GNAR (Tunisia, Ghana, Ethiopia), aimed at increasing water availability and ensuring a balance between agricultural productivity, socio-economic viability and sustainability
SO3 : Develop capacities for better understanding and evaluating the socio-economic and environmental performance of agroforestry by equipping local stakeholders/authorities with capabilities to collect and report agroforestry data and equipping them with entrepreneurial capabilities
Work Packages
TRANS-SAHARA is designed around nine (09) complementary work packages as shown below :
Key contribution of WASCAL to TRANS-SAHARA implementation
WASCAL is the lead of WP3 and is an invaluable partner to all other WPs for TRANS-SAHARA implementation. WASCAL leads activities on data identification, collection, sensing and database development. Specifically on Sensing, WASCAL is developing, in collaboration with EURAC, the Made-in-Africa sensors, adapted to low-technology conditions in Africa. Additionally, WASCAL contributes to the implementation of Living Labs and the delivery of capacity-building activities, technology transfer, and the establishment of the TRANS-SAHARA Entrepreneurship Hub to promote innovation, commercialization, and sustainable impact of Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) solutions. WASCAL is also tasked with the Validation, assessment and quality control of the heterogeneous data sets used in agroforestry systems analysis, including the validation of the Made-in-Africa sensors against the market-ready sensors.
Some Expected Results
- Groundwater level monitoring sensors
- Soil nutrient sensors with pH, N, P, K, EC, moisture and temperature parameters;
- Offline-logging LoRaWAN gateway upgrades
- Training materials on the operation & maintenance of the agroforestry measures
- Training modules on development of the Made-in-Africa sensors
- Made-in-Africa sensors business models for the Entrepreneurship Hub
- Webinars for promoting the Made-in-Africa sensors
Team members
| Name | Photo | Role |
| Dr Belko Abdoul Aziz DIALLO |  | Project Manager |
| Dr Valentin OUEDRAOGO |  | Vice-Manager |
| Dr Seyni SALACK |  | Team Member |
| Dr Safietou SANFO |  | Team Member |
| Dr Samuel GUUG |  | Team Member |
| Mme Azeta OUEDRAOGO |  | Team Member |
| Dr Afi Amen Christele ATTIOGBE |  | Team Member |
| Mr Fariis KOUDOUGOU |  | Team Member |
Contact person at WASCAL: Dr Belko Abdoul Aziz DIALLO (diallo.b@wascal.org), Head of Data Management and Digital Solutions (DMDS) programme, WASCAL Competence Centre, OUAGADOUGOU.