WRITING THE SUCCESS STORY OF INFORMATICS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE: 2ND BATCH OF WASCAL SCHOLARS GRADUATE

Eleven West African students have successfully graduated from the WASCAL Graduate Studies scholarship programme in Informatics for Climate Change at the University Joseph Ki Zerbo of Ouagadougou.

The master’s programme, which was instituted to fill the gap in capacity building for a critical mass of experts with adequate scientific computation and climate data management skills in West Africa, had its first batch of students graduate in 2020.

The president of the university, Prof. Jean François Kobiané, challenged them to be the solution to West Africa’s data collection deficit on Climate Change to better understand the challenges and solve them head-on. “You will contribute further to the pooling of forces in the collection and analysis of climate data in the West African region’’. He said

The Executive Director of WASCAL, Dr. Moumini Savadogo, was emphatic on the tremendous support and excellent cooperation from the government of Burkina Faso, through the ministry of higher education and research together in developing this master’s programme on Informatics for Climate Change.

“Our partnership with the government of Burkina Faso, and with the university in developing this programme has been a very strong one. Today, here we are writing the success story together. As we mark our 10th anniversary as a West African International Climate Change organisation, we are even more excited about the plans to have this master’s programme extended to become a doctoral programme soon” He said.

Students representing the graduating scholars assured their availability to serve their countries, institutions and communities, in the fight against the adverse effects of Climate Change in West Africa.   

The two-year master’s Research Programme on Informatics for Climate change builds climate change expertise of students in a multi-disciplinary and intercultural learning environment.

So far, the Master Research Programme in Informatics for Climate Change (MRP-INFORMCC) has churned out 22 scholars from 11 countries.