West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
Partnership for Strengthening Capacity for
Adaptation to Climate Change in West Africa: the
case of WASCAL
Presentation at:
Third West and Central Africa Agricultural Science Week of
CORAF/WECARD
N’djamena, Chad, 14-19 May, 2012
By Mamadou I. Ouattara, P. Vlek & B. Barry
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Sub-Theme 3: Strengthen and Coordinate Partnerships between key
Stakeholders to Consolidate and Exchange Ideas on Issues of
Adaptation to Climate Change
Presentation will focus on building partnership during the
preparatory phase of WASCAL in three areas:
• better understanding and knowledge of climate change in West
Africa
• Strengthening the analytical capacity in region to promote both
human and environmental systems resilience
• developing the human capacity on climate change....
• Lessons learned and conclusion
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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BUT First, What is WASCAL?
A German (BMBF) initiative inspired by UNFCC process…….
Aims at strengthening the research, educational and policy
capacity and competency of West-African countries………
to deal with issues of climate change through adapted land
use on a scientific basis……..
in partnership with German institutions.
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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BUT First, What is WASCAL?
Preparatory phase: February 2010 to present…….
Cooperation agreement signed in Lomé 2012 between 10
ECOWAS countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, The
Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo and
Germany………
WASCAL constitution adopted by Ministerial
Conference……..
Board established: country representatives, ECOWAS, ….
Climate Change
• Increase in Temperature (1.2-1.3 °C )
• Greater variability in rainfall and runoff
• greater frequency of extremes
• Regional floods and droughts
Annual mean
Precipitation Change [%]
Onset of the rainy season
• today up to 30 days later than 40 years ago
•more variable
•Prolongation of the dry season
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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WASCAL OBJECTIVES
1. significantly improve the climate change research
infrastructure and capacity in West Africa,
2. explore science-based scenarios and options for
enhancing the resilience of human and
environment systems in the face of climate change,
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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WASCAL OBJECTIVES (cont’d)
3. assist policy and decision makers in design and
implementation of land use patterns at watershed
level that ensure the provision of the essential
ecosystem services while supporting the
livelihoods of local communities, and
4. help educate the next generation of scientists and
policy makers that have intimate knowledge of the
different climate related issues and can help the
region in developing suitable coping strategies
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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The WASCAL Components
• The Competence Center in Ouagadougou
• The Core Research Program
• The Capacity Building Program
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Proposed Operational Structure
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Competence Center serves as a hub:
1. connect regional partners in data-gathering, analysis and data sharing
networks
2. offer them infrastructure and expertise to analyze the impacts of
climate change and develop strategies and policies to cope with them.
3. cover disciplinary know-how in climate, hydrology, land use, economics
and social sciences, each with a strong modeling competence.
4. coordinate and carry out the collection of meteorological,
hydrological, biological and household data within a “climate modeling
window” using where possible a common sampling frame.
West African Science Service Center on Climate and Adapted Land Use
Competence Center (Task 1)
Stakeholders and networks
Meteo (Station network)
Hydro (Station network)
Land (Satellite imagery/soils)
Biodiversity (Inventory surveys)
Households (socio-economic surveys)
Stakeholders
National Services of the target countries
River Basin Authorities / AGRHYMET / ACMAD
Supported by
AGHRYMET, ACMAD, KIT / IMK-IFU (Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research)
and DWD, Department of Geography of the University in Bonn/FZJ– Hydro observation
DLR-DFD - Land observation, University of Würzburg - Biodiversity observation
ZEF - Household observation
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Competence Center (cont’d):
• State-of-the-art data collection in a “climate modelling window”
• Meteorological, hydrological, land, biological and household
information
• Panel data to better calibrate the climate change models
• Better assess the interaction between climate, land and society
Hydro-Climatological Observatory
Hydro-Argos: near-real time data
transmission via dedicated satellite
uplink
• Data accessible via
password-protected
website
• 7 units deployed
Hydro-Climatological Observatory
Total & photosynthetically
active radiation
Automated weather station
Weir for runoff measurement
Scintillometer: heat flux
Eddy covariance
Concept of WASCAL Competence Centre observatory network
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Competence Center (cont’d):
Building Partnership
Workshops to take stock of the situation of observation
networks at country level (Met, Hydro, …)
Identification of need for strengthening the capacity of
partners: improving the density of observation stations,
improving equipment, strengthening information
exchange through internet, upgrading data storage
capacity, maintenance of equipment
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Competence Center (cont’d):
Building Partnership
Standardization: compliance with WMO standards;
harmonization of brand of equipment used to facilitate
operation and maintenance
Agreement on principle of sharing of information and data
for scientific purposes – Copyright and intellectual property
compliance must be guaranteed
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Competence Center (cont’d):
Building Partnership
Regional partnership: RBO, AGRHYMET, 2iE
International partnership
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Competence Center (cont’d):
Building Partnership
Land surveying/mapping institutes problems of service delivery
(mapping of land) because of constraints of ageing equipment,
lack of proper funding, data processing and storage constraints
Land projects were spatially bound and not long term
perspective. Therefore no continuous and consistent monitoring
of land surface parameters
Linkages to other international and regional institutions
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Competence Center (cont’d):
Building Partnership
Household survey; socio-economic network to collect high
quality data including long term panel household data
Communities for survey:
• Agro-ecological zones
• Dominant production systems
• Degree of representative of agro-ecological zones and
production systems
• Presence of other networks
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Competence Center (cont’d):
Building Partnership
Biodiversity: need for more accurate and long term data and
concept of biodiversity monitoring
Coordination : consultation to be conducted within each
country to identify the institution in charge of data collection
on biodiversity - existing or potential observatories,
laboratories, herbaria/natural history museum
Define taxa and standardized methods
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Competence Center (cont’d):
Building Partnership
Planning and Policy Advice: Strengthening existing
channels of participating institutions to dialog with
policy makers
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Core Research Program
Aim: strengthen the analytical capability of the
Competence Center by the development of integrated
models (link bio-physical and societal processes and
feed-backs)
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Core Research Program (cont’d)
• Conceptual Framework: Resilience of
social-ecological systems
• Small watersheds (100 km2)
• Different land use intensity
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Diagram of a socio-ecological system
West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use
Integration
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Core Research Program (cont’d)
Key Partners:
• Regional & national universities and research
institutions together with German partner
universities
• UNU
• Regional & international institutes
• National research centers
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Core Research Program (cont’d)
Research Clusters:
1. Climate and weather
2. Land Dynamics
3. Agricultural Systems
4. Markets and livelihoods
5. Risk management
6. Integrated assessment
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Capacity Building Program
Objective:
To establish and sponsor regional graduate research
programs on priority climate change topics
The graduate research program will be based at a lead
universities networked across the region and
supported by WASCAL Center of Competence and the
research community in Germany.
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Capacity Building Program
Process:
Stakeholders workshop to identify priority areas: Countries UNFCC Focal
Points, Scientists, Regional and International Organizations:
Consensus on key areas:
• Climate and West African Monsoon
• Climate change and land use
• Climate change and biodiversity
• Climate change and water
• Climate change and agriculture
• Climate change and human security
• Climate change economics
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Capacity Building Program
Partnership Building
Planning workshop to plan each of the Graduate Research Program:
• Selection of Lead Universities based existing programs and
laboratories, staff strength, and regional partnership
• Agreement by universities to join effort to develop and implement
the Graduate Program (official through letters of intent)
• Agreement on some program characteristics and components:
Regional Program, Selection of Students, English, …
• Establishing of a Program Advisory Board
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Capacity Building Program (cont’d)
Lead University 1 --------- German
University 1
Partner University 1
…………..2
…………..3
Lead University 2 --German University 2
Partner University 1
…………..2
…………..3
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Capacity Building Program (cont’d)
Lead Universities:
1. West African Climate System – FUTA, Nigeria
2. Climate Change and Water Resources – UAC, Benin
3. Climate Change Economics - UCAD, Senegal
4. Climate Change and Land Resources – KNUST, Ghana
5. Climate Change and Agriculture - IPR/IFRA &UB, Mali
6. Climate Change and Biodiversity – UCA, Cote d’Ivoire
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Capacity Building Program (cont’d)
Master’s Programs
1. Climate Change and People (security) – UL, Togo
2. Master’s Climate Change and Adapted Land Use,
– FUT Minna, Nigeria
3. Master’s Climate Change and Energy – UAM,
Niger
4. Master’s Climate Change and Education, UTG,
The Gambia
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Capacity Building Program (cont’d)
Participants
• regional & national universities together with German
partner universities
• UNU
• regional & international institutes
• national research centers
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Lessons Learned / Constraints
Our approach for adaptation to climate change
should include science based information and
solutions – hence the importance of national,
regional and international research
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
Lessons
Learned / Constraints
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Data exchange, data storage and analysis capacity are
important component of climate change study and should
be part of the partnership
Several high technological tools are necessary in the area of
climate change: modeling, remote sensing, analytical tools.
Partnership with advanced institutions and laboratories is
important
Copyright and intellectual property compliance must be
guaranteed
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Lessons Learned / Constraints
Climate change is a relatively new science and field of
activity: Capacity strengthening and building should be
important component of partnership and collaboration
Selection of principal partners is not always straight
forward: biodiversity, household survey, land use / land
cover information
Multidisciplinary science - need to create new alliances and
promote coordination at all levels: local, national level,
regional and international
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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Lessons Learned / Constraints
Existing channels of dialog with policy makers
should be adapted and strengthened
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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CONCLUSION
WASCAL = Work in Progress
Partnership is still open. But national institutions
need to be pro-active and aggressive for
ensuring ownership and sustainability
West African Science Service Center for Climate
Change and Adapted Land Use
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THANK YOU
www.wascal.org