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, May, 2012 By Mamadou I. Ouattara, P. Vlek & B. Barry

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

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.

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 ChangeOnset of the rainy season Annual mean Precipitation Change [%] Increase in Temperature ( °C ) Greater variability in rainfall and runoff greater frequency of extremes Regional floods and droughts today up to 30 days later than 40 years ago more variable Prolongation of the dry season

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,

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

The WASCAL Components The Competence Center in Ouagadougou The Core Research Program The Capacity Building Program

Proposed Operational Structure

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.

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 on Climate and Adapted Land Use

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

Weir for runoff measurement Automated weather station Total & photo- synthetically active radiation Scintillometer: heat flux Eddy covariance Hydro-Climatological Observatory

Concept of WASCAL Competence Centre observatory network

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

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

Competence Center (cont’d): Building Partnership Regional partnership: RBO, AGRHYMET, 2iE International partnership

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

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

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

Competence Center (cont’d): Building Partnership Planning and Policy Advice: Strengthening existing channels of participating institutions to dialog with policy makers

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)

Core Research Program (cont’d) Conceptual Framework: Resilience of social-ecological systems Small watersheds (100 km2) Different land use intensity

Diagram of a socio-ecological system

West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use Integration

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

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

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.

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

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

Capacity Building Program (cont’d) Lead University German University 1 Partner University 1 …………..2 …………..3 Lead University 2 --German University 2 Partner University 1 …………..2 …………..3

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

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

Capacity Building Program (cont’d) Participants regional & national universities together with German partner universities UNU regional & international institutes national research centers

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

Lessons Learned / Constraints 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

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

Lessons Learned / Constraints Existing channels of dialog with policy makers should be adapted and strengthened

CONCLUSION WASCAL = Work in Progress Partnership is still open. But national institutions need to be pro-active and aggressive for ensuring ownership and sustainability

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