Delegates from the organisations CILSS/AGHRYMET, UEMOA and ECOWAS as well as IPCC and UNFCCC focal points and key scientists from ten West African countries met in Ouagadougou to discuss the upcoming IPCC Special Report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems (SR Land) at WASCAL Competence Center on 27 and 28 May. Participants discussed key issues for the region and ways of strengthening regional scientific cooperation at the event organised by Climate Analytics and WASCAL under the IMPACT project.

Learn more about the workshops organised under IMPACT.

Many policymakers and researchers have to deal with climate related questions in fields such as agriculture, energy or human health but finding easily accessible and user-friendly climate projections can be a challenge. RegioClim is an online tool that gives non-expert users simple access to regional climate projections for African countries for five climate indicators: temperature, hot extremes, precipitation, wet extremes and 5-day wet extremes. Its key feature is the ability to access projections not just at the national but also at the province level. The tool offers great flexibility in terms of selecting seasonal data, configurable depending on seasonal change in question – rainy or dry season, country vs. sector specific or crop growing season.

Understanding how rising temperatures might affect staple crops is a key element of planning adaptation measures in many countries. RegioCrop is an online tool that gives non-expert users simple access to crop yield projections for all African countries – down to the province level – derived from state-of-the-art global crop models.

This tool gives access to spatial patterns of relative change in crop yields at different levels of global average temperature warming and corresponding aggregated impacts at the country level for a selection of crops.

Dr. Djibril S. Dayamba is a Regional Senior Scientist and Climate Impact and Adaptation Expert based in Ouagadougou, who, for the past 18 months at Climate Analytics, has focused on science-based support to national adaptation planning processes though conduct / coordination of climate vulnerability studies. Djibril has experience in diverse agro-sylvo-pastoral systems-related domains and has worked on a number of projects dealing with climate change, adaptation and resilience in production systems in West Africa, particularly upscaling climate-smart agriculture (CSA); supporting capacity building of stakeholders on aspects related to CSA and climate services for agriculture.

Under IMPACT, his responsibilities include:
Contributing to the coordination of the regional Country Request Mechanism in West Africa, namely by:
- Liaising with regional and national partners to identify priorities and needs and to shape concrete products to be delivered
- Liaising with IMPACT project management to align requests to available resources and overall project delivery
- Delivering on scientific analyses for the IMPACT Country Request mechanism, under which partner countries identify specific needs in terms of science support form national strategies such as NAPs and NDCs.
Contributing to the planning, implementation and facilitation of IMPACT regional workshops and facilitation of stakeholder consultations in the region

Our office in Lomé, Togo is an implementing partner of IMPACT and focuses on climate issues relating to Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Our presence in this particularly vulnerable region has enabled us to considerably expand our networks in West- and Sub-Saharan Africa, creating strong ties to key regional institutions, government ministries and agencies as well as civil society actors.

This allows us to tailor projects to meet these countries’ specific demands, in consultation with these stakeholders, and ultimately enable climate policy decision making to be based on robust scientific evidence. Our Lomé team focuses on developing an interface between climate science and policy, in the context of climate plan (NDC) implementation and building resilience to climate change through technical support to countries in mainstreaming their National Adaptation Plan (NAP) processes. These play a significant role in promoting comprehensive climate action and adaptation to the adverse e—ffects of climate change on vital aspects such as food security, water, health and the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. In this context, we are able to support by providing capacity building for ministers, high-level officials,climate negotiators and practitioners and facilitating access to climate finance. Our experts also provide scientific capacity building to institutions and climate service providers.