Dr. Arona DIEDHIOU is now the chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of WASCAL following the step down of Prof Jimmy Adegoke to assume the position of the interim Executive Director of WASCAL.
Prior to this appointment, Dr. Arona DIEDHIOU was the Deputy Chairman of the Committee which has been mandated by WASCAL to provide expert scientific advice to the Governing Body of the organisation. The committee is also tasked to provide understanding and counsel on strategic decisions on relevant scientific activities that WASCAL is engaged in.
Dr. DIEDHIOU is Research Director of Institute of Research for Sustainable Development (IRD) based in Institute of Geosciences for Environment (IGE; University of Grenoble-Alpes; France) and hosted as visiting scientist at University Felix Houphouët Boigny (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire). Dr. DIEDHIOU is specialist of the African Climate System and Climate Changes in the tropics.
From 2002 to 2007, Dr. Arona DIEDHIOU contributed to the coordination and to the implementation AMMA International Program (African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses) as member of the International Executive Committee and to the involvement of African scientists, regional centers and national meteorological and hydrological services in this program. From 2007 to 2012, he was the Head of RIPIECSA program (3.500.000 Euros from French Ministry of Foreign Affairs) to support interdisciplinary research projects on climate-environment-society interactions in West and Central Africa. Between 2013-2016, he was co-PI of the project RHYVA on Hydro-meteorological Risks in African Cities and since 2014, member of ACASIS project on Sahelian Heat Waves and their impacts. Since 2015, he is co-PI of AMMA-2050 (a UK/NERC-DFID joint initiative on “Future Climate for Africa”).
WASCAL is delighted to have Dr. DIEDHIOU as its SAC chairman. It hopes that under his leadership, WASCAL will move even higher and become the centre of excellence in climate change research in West Africa. Congratulations, Dr. Arona DIEDHIOU.
WASCAL is a leading academic and trans-disciplinary research organization building graduate-level scientific capacity and serving policy makers in West Africa with science-based advice on adaptation to climate change impacts and land use management. It cooperates with many agencies and universities in the region, providing a knowledge platform of excellence for its partners. WASCAL is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany and its 10 West African member countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d‘Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.