More accurate weather and climate information is just one of many concrete benefits, as six new countries are included in the high-speed network operated by WACREN, the West and Central African Research and Education Network. The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, and Senegal join the six existing member countries.
WACREN plans to leverage this expanded connectivity to advance its ambitious climate agenda. Building on successful pilot projects in Ghana and Nigeria, the organization will deploy weather stations compliant with WMO (World Meteorological Organization) standards in more countries. These will form the backbone of a regional climate monitoring platform, providing real-time data to support local adaptation strategies.
In parallel, WACREN will launch a data portal, giving African researchers and national meteorological agencies access to terrestrial data streams from meteorological satellites. By combining observations with data from local weather stations, the portal will make critical weather and climate information more accessible, even in resource-constrained institutions.
“This is more than an infrastructure upgrade – it’s Africa asserting its place in the global research ecosystem. For too long, African researchers have been digital guests in their own continent. Today, we become hosts of our own scientific destiny,” says Dr. Eyouleki T. G. Palanga, CEO of WACREN.
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Submitted by Morten Anderson
