Our Story
Welcome to WASCAL
With climate change being one of the most severe challenges to Africa in the 21st century, West Africa is facing an urgent need to develop effective adaptation and mitigation measures.
The West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) is a West African intergovernmental organisation dedicated to providing comprehensive climate change solutions through Capacity Building, research and innovation, and Climate and Environmental Services, with particular emphasis on Renewable Energy and Green Hydrogen.
Since its inception in 2012, WASCAL has trained over 700 West African PhD and Master’s degree holders through its graduate studies programmes and has mobilised significant resources for climate research and capacity building across the region. The Graduate Studies Programmes, which provide full scholarships to all its students at both the master’s and Ph.D. levels, are implemented in thirteen (13) Lead Universities across thirteen (13) West African countries (Benin, Burkina-Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo).
Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), WASCAL is headquartered in Accra, operates a dedicated Competence Centre in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and works across its member countries to strengthen the region’s resilience to climate change.
About WASCAL
The West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) is a West African intergovernmental organization mandated to strengthen the resilience and adaptive capacity of the region to the impacts of climate change. Headquartered in Accra, Ghana, WASCAL
brings together 13 member countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
WASCAL fulfills this mandate by providing comprehensive climate change solutions through a combination of research and innovation, capacity building, and climate and environmental services, with a strong emphasis on supporting evidence-based policies, promoting renewable energy, and
advancing the development of green hydrogen.
WASCAL is headquartered in Accra, operates a dedicated Competence Centre in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and works across its member countries to strengthen the region’s resilience to climate change.
The organization conducts applied research, innovation and delivers climate and environmental advisory services primarily through its Competence Centre (CoC), hosted in Burkina Faso. The CoC acts as WASCAL’s technical and scientific hub, supporting member countries with research programs, project management, data infrastructure, and policy-relevant knowledge. Its data infrastructure, known as WADI, integrates high performance computing, observation networks, remote sensing, artificial intelligence (AI), and modeling systems that enable large-scale climate data collection, processing, and dissemination.
In parallel, WASCAL’s Capacity Building Department implements a network of Graduate Studies Programmes (GSPs) established in thirteen leading universities across the sub-region. These programs educate the next generation of climate scientists and practitioners, equipping them with the skills to design and implement adaptation and mitigation strategies. As part of this effort, doctoral students participate in immersive research placements at partner institutions in Germany, fostering international collaboration and knowledge exchange. Through this integrated approach, WASCAL serves as a regional centre of excellence dedicated to generating scientific knowledge, strengthening institutional capacities, and providing tailored climate services to support sustainable development across West Africa.
OUR CORE VALUES
- Integrity: Commit to openness, honesty, and responsible governance in all operations to build trust with partners, stakeholders, and the public.
- Excellence and Innovation: Strive for the highest standards in research, service delivery, and operational performance, while embracing creativity and new technologies to generate transformative solutions.
- Knowledge and Data Sharing: Champion open access to scientific knowledge, environmental and climate data, and best practices to empower evidence-based decision-making and policy development.
- Teamwork : Promote collaboration, mutual respect, and collective responsibility to achieve common goals and strengthen institutional cohesion.
- Diversity and Inclusion: Ensure equal opportunities, embrace diverse perspectives, and actively remove barriers to participation for underrepresented groups in climate science, education, and leadership.
OUR PROMISE
- WASCAL is dedicated to combating climate change and improving livelihoods in West African.
- WASCAL is committed to significantly improving the climate change research infrastructure and maintenance capacity in West Africa.
- We seek to explore science-based scenarios and options for enhancing the resilience of socio-ecological systems on which current and future generations depend, in the face of climate change.
- To assist policy and decision makers to design and implement land use patterns that ensure the provision of essential ecosystem services while supporting the livelihoods of local communities.
- To help educate the next generation of scientists and policy makers by providing intimate knowledge of climate-related issues, thereby enabling them to develop suitable coping strategies and to participate in international climate change policy discussions with evidence based strength.
What We Do
Our Research Programme
WASCAL conducts research through a dedicated Centre in Burkina Faso and through its 19 graduate programmes across the member countries. It has more than thousands of scientific publications to its credentials, proposing adapted solutions to combat the effects of climate change in West Africa. In addition, WASCAL provides climate and environmental services to benefit our populations in critical areas such as agriculture, energy, mining and forestry, biodiversity, land use, human habitat, water resources, economics, climate systems, education, disaster risk management, marine sciences, and informatics.
The Research Programme focuses on:
(1) Land Use Systems and Nature-Based Solutions,
(2) Risks, Early Warning Systems, and Anticipatory Action,
(3) Climate change-Conflict-Migration Nexus,
(4) Climate-Smart Agriculture and Food Security,
(5) Water Resources & Hydrology,
(6) Renewable Energy and Green Hydrogen Technologies,
(7) Data Management and Digital Solutions,
(8) Climate change and Health and Bio-Innovation Systems,
9) Wastes and Circular Economy,
10) Marine Science and Blue Economy.
From these priority programmes, various projects have been implemented across the region.
Our Capacity Building Programme
WASCAL has a strong commitment to help educate the next generation of scientists to attain an in- depth knowledge of different climate-related issues in order to help the region develop suitable management strategies.
The Capacity Building Department of WASCAL operates on two platforms: the GSP and In-service Training.
The Capacity Building Programme facilitates academic education amongst 13 West African universities in collaboration with German institutions through the Graduate Studies Programme (GSP). The Graduate studies programme handle helps educate the next generation of scientists to attain an intimate knowledge of different climate-related issues in order to help the region develop suitable management strategies. Change and respond to current and future adaptation/mitigation challenges.
Based in Burkina Faso, the Competence Centre is led by the Director of research, and heads of programs. Its serves as WASCAL’s research, innovation, and climate service hub and hosts a wide range of technical staff, including heads of research & innovation programs (e.g., Land Use Systems and Nature-based Solutions, Risks, Early Warning Systems and Anticipatory Actions, Climate Change, Conflicts, and Migration Nexus, Data Management and Digital solutions, Renewable Energy and Green Hydrogen, etc.). The Centre also houses the WASCAL data infrastructure (WADI) and is responsible for scientific output and regional services operations and laboratories.
