Southeast Asia

South Asia

Temperate East Asia

Oceania

Africa

Mediterranean

Africa

Africa is highly vulnerable to changes in climate, as was noted in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) (http://www.ipcc.ch/).  Critical environmental issues in Africa include:

• food and water security,
• landscape degradation and desertification,
• coastal impacts from rising sea level,
• changing air quality, changes in abundance and diversity of species, and
• threats to the health of humans and livestock as a result of expansion or creation of habitats for disease-carrying organisms. 

Specifically in Africa:

• START engages the African research community in global environmental change research.   Priorities for research in the region can be found in various documents including:

• The science plans of the African Network for Earth System Science (AfricanNESS) ¹,
• The Plans of the International Council for Science Regional Office for Africa (ICSU ROA) ², and
• Documents from intergovernmental and multi-lateral organizations. 

• START promotes collaboration within the African research community for sound scientific assessments of the impacts of global environmental changes to include:

• climate variability and change,
• coping strategies relevant to critical socio-economic sectors, and
• sustainable development. 

• START promotes collaboration with international partners outside of Africa. 

• START provides programs and mobilizes resources for African researchers to build human and institutional capacity for attending to issues of global environmental change within Africa. 

• START provides input to the community of policy/decision-makers at various levels.  

• START fosters regional research networks to:
  • conduct research on regional aspects of environmental change,
  • assess impacts and vulnerabilities to environmental changes,
  • provide information to policy-makers. 

• START’s strategy of research-driven capacity building engages the younger generation of scientists in regional research projects and networks.

PASS News Brief - March 2009

START’s activities in Africa are coordinated by the Pan African Regional Committee for START (PACOM) through the Pan-African START Secretariat (PASS) based at the Institute for Resource Assessment (IRA) of the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. 

Current contacts for PACOM and PASS are:

Prof. Isabelle NIANG, Chair of PACOM
University Cheikh Anta Diop
Dakar, SENEGAL
isabelleniang@yahoo.fr

Prof Pius YANDA, Director of PASS
Institute of Resource Assessment
University of Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam, TANZANIA
yanda@ira.udsm.ac.tz

Pan-African START Secrtariat (PASS) Webpage

In addition to PASS, there are regional nodes that focus on specific themes.  Current nodes in Africa are: 

• START Regional Node for Climate Modeling and Downscaling
  University of Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA (contact: Prof. Bruce Hewitson, hewitson@egs.uct.ac.za) 

• START Regional Node for Wetlands and Coastal Zone Management
  University of Ghana-Legon, GHANA (contact: Prof. Chris Gordon, cgordon@ug.edu.gh) 

• START Regional Node for Past Global Changes (PAGES),
  University of Nairobi, KENYA (contact: Prof. Eric Odada, africanness@uonbi.ac.ke)

Dr. Salif DIOP of United Nations Environmental Program, KENYA, salif.diop@unep.org

Prof. Chris GORDON of University of Ghana, Legon, GHANA. cgordon@ug.edu.gh

Dr. Evans KITUYI of University of Nairobi, KENYA, ekituyi@uonbi.ac.ke

Prof. Isabelle NIANG, (PACOM Chair) University Cheikh Anta Diop, SENEGAL,
isabelleniang@yahoo.fr

Dr. Jane OLWOCH of University of Pretoria, SOUTH AFRICA, jane.olwoch@up.ac.za

Dr. Bekele SHIFERAW of The International Crop Research Institute of the Semi-Arid
Tropics, KENYA, b.shiferaw@cgiar.org

Dr. Youba SOKONA of The Observatory of Shara and Sahel, TUNISIA,
youba.sokona@oss.org.tn

Dr. Ramadjita TABO, The International Crop Research Institute of the Semi-Arid
Tropics, NIGER, R.Tabo@cgiar.org

Prof. Shem WANDIGA, University of Nairobi, KENYA, sowandiga@iconnect.co.ke

Prof Pius YANDA (Director of PASS) University of Dar es Salaam, TANZANIA,
yanda@ira.udsm.ac.tz

¹ The AFRICANness Science Plan can be found at: http://www.igbp.kva.se/page.php?pid=412
² The ICSU ROA Science Plans can be found at http://www.icsu-africa.org/sp_hh_rep_2007.pdf, http://www.icsu-africa.org/hazards_rep_2007.pdf, and http://www.icsu-africa.org/sustainable_energy_rep_2007.pdf

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