ZEF-WASCAL-PAUWES COOPERATION

The Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) of the Federal Republic of Germany supports a consortium established by two important international initiatives in Africa, the West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL), the Pan African University – Institute of Water and Energy Sciences including Climate Change (PAUWES), and a German institution, the Center for International Research of the University of Bonn (ZEF). These institutions, involved in capacity building and research in the area of water, energy and climate change in Africa, have important similarities on the one hand and complementary activities and structures on the other. The overall goal of the project aims at strengthening both African institutions and increasing the effectiveness of support from the German counterpart. 

The working objectives include : (i) establishment of options for cooperation; (ii) exchange of teaching modules and experiences with the aim of diversifying and specializing teaching offers (depending on the availability and demand of the cooperating partners); (iii) linking of the partially complementary networks of WASCAL and PAUWES; (iv) Increasing the internationalization of institutions (especially for the benefit of students); (v) Strengthening links between teaching, research and implementation by sharing the options of the partners involved. 

A first phase of the project was conducted with success from March to December 2017. Based on results achieved during the first phase, BMBF is funding a second phase for the period September 2018 to June 2020.

From 19th to 30th November 2018, ten master’s students from the PAUWES- Tlemcen (energy program) had their training workshop on the  development  of  Energy  in  Africa. This was organized at the Graduate Research Program on Climate Change and Energy (WASCAL) based in the University of Abdou Moumouni (UAM) Niamey. Apart from their training sessions, they interacted with energy experts in Niger. The students were introduced to HOMER software, created dye sentitized sola cells and had a field visit to Sekoukou village which is a village that is powered by solar energy. 

Ten master’s students from PAUWES- Tlemcen (WATER- Track) had a training workshop on water resources from 9th to 30th November 2018. This was organized at theGraduate Research Program on Climate Change and Water Resources (WASCAL) at the University of University of Abomey Calavi in Benin Republic. In addition to their training sessions, and lectures, they interacted with water experts in Benin, visited the Directorat General responsible for the combat against coastal erosion and went on field visits to the Mono River at Agbannankin.

From the 18th March to 27th April 2019, there was a six weeks internship for ten PAUWES students at the Competency Center of WASCAL in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. During this period, they interracted with the researchers  at the Competency Center. Some of the students chose researchers at the center as their supervisors of their master’s thesis. The students had a WEAP-LEAP training workshop, proposal presentation, water resources assessment, statistical data analysis and quality control, Climate impact assessments, climate change/variability modelling, geographic information systems, remote sensing and general algebraic modelling system. They also went to National Agency for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ANEREE) in Burkina Faso.