OSS representative, Mrs Aissa Touré Sarr, who coordinates the Research for Development Programme, participated, on 29-31 January 2010 in Ouagadougou,  in the meeting which saw the presentation of the Research Group on Climate and Environment in West Africa (GREC-AO) before the “Steering Committee of the sub-regional action programme for the reduction of vulnerability in West Africa” of ECOWAS.

The steering committee, which consists of representatives of the African Centre of Meteorological Application for Development of CILSS; AGRYMET and ECOWAS, discussed the institutional set-up  of GREC-AO within ECOWAS. It is worth noting that GREC-AO was incepted following the CILSS proposal to set up a “West African IPCC”. GREC-AO is expected to launch in April 2010 in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) and would be integrated into the current ECOWAS configuration as follows:  

 

Mrs Touré discussed with the participants, notably the representatives of national and regional institutions in West Africa, the impact that OSS Strategy 2010 has had since 2004. A number of interviews were conducted with the representatives of CILSS, the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering (2IE), the Liptako Gourma Authority and the ECOWAS Water Resources Coordination Unit.  The salient points of these interviews will feed into the ongoing reflection which aims to devise the OSS Strategy 2020.