Southern African countries to benefit from grant to combat climate change

WINDHOEK, May 20 — Southern African countries are set to benefit from the 10-million-euro grant from the German government to the Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL) to combat the ripple effects of climate change.

The implementation of the grant will cover countries including Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, which have been hit hard by the effects of climate change from drought, floods and cyclones.

According to a statement released by SASSCAL on Sunday in Windhoek, the grant came from Germany in response to the challenges of global change.

“SASSCAL has secured funding of 10 million euros from German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for research in climate change. This will be implemented under SASSCAL’s second phase of the Research and Capacity Development Portfolio, SASSCAL II. SASSCAL II will build on the successes of SASSCAL,” the statement said.

SASSCAL also added that under the first phase of SASSCAL, a total of 23.8 million euros was availed in 2012 to support 88 research projects.

Focused on five themes: climate, water, forestry agriculture, and biodiversity, the research projects were designed to integrate research and capacity development, said SASSCAL.
To date, more than 500 individuals and over 80 academic, governmental and non-governmental institutions are involved in the research tasks of SASSCAL I in various countries. – XINHUA