A BRAVE new approach to community climate resilience

re-posted from UPGro BRAVE

The Fifth International Conference on Climate Services (ICCS 5) is the premier global event for Climate Services Partnership in Africa.  This year’s conference will take place in Cape Town, from February 28 until March 2, 2017, and focuses on capacity building and forging connections, with a particular focus on activities and persistent challenges in Africa.
The conference is a platform for knowledge sharing and collaboration aimed at promoting resilience and advancing climate service capabilities worldwide.  It aims to bring together policy makers, international actors, scientists, service providers, and product developers.

BRAVE Researcher, Dr Narcisse Gahi, has been selected to present a paper entitled Improving climate services through a new “no regret” cross-sectorial approach for the benefit of the communities and policy makers.

This paper builds on the interactive and ongoing work of Dr Gahi within the BRAVE project, presenting information from discussions concerning challenges, needs, and knowledge for groundwater access and management with Burkinabè and Ghanaian project stakeholders, policy makers, NGOs, and Project Communities.  This paper looks to validate and present initial findings from usage of the integrated assessment tool used for providing communities with efficient and effective climate services.  This tool can also aid in understanding and adapting to impacts on livelihoods and will be used to support community follow-up regarding groundwater management impacts to combatting climate risks such as drought.

See Dr Gahi’s accepted abstract here.

As a BRAVE Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Dr Gahi works on community-based data collection in Burkina Faso, as well as management and monitoring of physical science data for the project.  In addition to BRAVE partners in Burkina, Dr Gahi works closely with British Geological Survey and University of Reading scientists.

Dr Gahi’s research interests within BRAVE are the applications of multi-dimensional approaches and timescales in integrated groundwater research, specifically looking at groundwater monitoring and management.  His research also informs the related human impacts on society because groundwater is particularly important for understanding society adaptation, resilience, resource management, agricultural production, and the related wider impacts to governance and policy.

Witnessing the impacts of BRAVE’s work firsthand, Dr Gahi has seen the benefits to scientists, communities, and practitioners from increased skills and knowledge in groundwater management, rainfall, and soil moisture monitoring.  This has strengthened stakeholder capacity and technical research capability to monitor groundwater.

Dr Gahi is eager to share the exciting work of BRAVE at ICCS 5 stating, “More interaction among the wide range of attendees at ICCS 5 will promote the successes from the unique approaches of BRAVE.  I am eager to share our experience and continual thinking about how climate services can be improved and be made more effective for users and communities.”