A new G-WADI network in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa including the Sahel now has its own G-WADI network, with its secretariat at AGRHYMET Centre in Niamey, Niger http://www.agrhymet.ne/gwadi/. This was established following a regional workshop held from 20-21 April 2010 in Dakar, Senegal. This workshop focused on policy needs for sustainable management of scarce water resources within the region, the participants focused on strategies to make scientific data and knowledge in the region more accessible and how to bring scientific knowledge into policy. They also discussed gaps and needs in capacity development and research in relation to arid and semi arid areas in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The G-WADI SSA network was formalized in Paris on 9 December 2010. The representatives of three key African sub-regional centres—ICPAC (IGAD Climate Prediction and Application Centre), AGRHYMET (Centre for Training, Research and Applications of Agrometeorology and Operational Hydrology) and SADC Climate Service Centre—in addition to UCAD (Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar), NASA, the G-WADI global secretariat ICIWaRM, members of the G-WADI Scientific Advisory Group, and UNESCO science officers participated in the meeting.

G-WADI SSA will contribute to achieving the main objectives of the global G-WADI network. Membership is open with participants of the Dakar meeting as founding members. The structure of the network is composed of a) a Secretariat http://www.agrhymet.ne/gwadi/  hosted by a sub-regional institution on a rotational basis for a period of four years and b) an expert group in support to the Secretariat and providing oversight of the activities of the network.

At present, the experts group is composed of, but not limited to representatives ICPAC, AGRHYMET, SADC, UCAD and UNESCO, and is chaired by Prof. Cheikh Gaye from UCAD. AGRHYMET agreed to host the Secretariat for the first four-year period.

The participants have also discussed and adopted the terms of references for the Secretariat including duties of the experts group. The Network will be supported by UNESCO and the G-WADI Technical Secretariat within the framework of IHP for the development phase of the network.

For more information about the network and AGRHYMET http://www.agrhymet.ne/eng/index.html.