NEWS About the SASSCAL Programme S A

NEWS
Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Use
FEBRUARY 2012
The core Namibian SASSCAL
team comprise of:
National Programme
Coordinators (NPC):
Dr Anna Matros-Goreses
(a.matrosgoreses@rsscsouthernafrica.net) and
Mr Peter Erb
(p.erb@rsscsouthernafrica.net)
Part-time:
Liaison officer: Bertchen
Kohrs (bertchenk@iway.na)
Technical Assistant: Mr Vilho
Mtuleni
(vilhomsnake@gmail.com)
Contact us at:
Tel: 061- 224868
Fax: 061-226242
Physical address:
6 Sinclair Street
Klein Windhoek
Interim Committee Members:
Ministry of Agriculture, Water
and Forestry (MAWF) are:
Ms Anna Shiweda (DeputyPS)
Mr Abraham Nehemia (UnderSecretary of Department of
Water Affairs)
Dr Gillian Maggs-Kolling
(Deputy-Director: Forestry
research)
Science for
development
NAMIBIA
NUMBER 6
About the SASSCAL Programme
This newsletter aims to address all news with regard to the SASSCAL initiative as well as
to update the readers on progress. The newsletter focuses on Namibian (local) SASSCAL
developments, complementing our Web-site (www.sasscal.org) which has a regional
focus. The key aim of the SASSCAL Programme is to become the REGIONAL DRIVER for
innovation and knowledge exchange to enhance adaptive land use and sustainable
economic development in Southern Africa under global CHANGE conditions.
The Programme start-up phase involves Angola, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and
Zambia, with the potential to expand to the rest of SADC.
What now?... What is next?...When is SASSCAL starting?
These are the questions on all task proponents and partners' lips since their task
reviews were submitted in September 2011! The Coordination team (see second
page) since then has been hard at work, reviewing all 172 TASKS submitted to
ensure that these are aligned with the SASSCAL aims and objectives. These were
all included in the Integrated Science & Implementation Plan that was submitted
end of January 2012 to the Interim Committee and the Federal Ministry of
Education and Research, who is providing the bulk of seed funding during the first
four years. The iterative process of consultation with partners will continue and
as such proponents will be contacted to ensure that tasks adhere to criteria such
as regionality and originality with a climate change orientation.
The Interim Committee (IC) of SASSCAL is currently the highest decision making
body and as such during their informal meeting held in Windhoek, December
2011, the implementation phase was
mapped out to start August 2012. To
enable this, the IC members agreed to
sign the Memorandum of Understanding in
April 2012 at Ministerial level. The next
milestone meeting for the IC members
is scheduled for end of February 2012
which will set the pace towards turning
Namibian IC members, Mr Abraham Nehemia
and Dr Gillian Maggs-Kolling discussing the way
SASSCAL implementation into reality!
forward at the informal IC meeting in Windhoek,
December 2011.
"Hallo" to the Coordination Team...
The team was selected through normal employment
channels, following the route of newspaper
advertisements and interviews conducted by the IC
members. This process was supported by Prof Norbert
Juergens [together with his team including Dr Ute
Schmiedel; Dr Manfred Finckh and Dr Ingo Homburg
from Hamburg University-Germany], who is appointed
by the BMBF- Ministry of Education and ResearchGermany- to facilitate the process on their behalf.
Left to right: Casper (Botswana); Norbert (Germany); Anna & Peter
(Namibia); Gabin (Germany); Paulo (Angola); Jonathan (South Africa) and
Indie (Zambia)
The SASSCAL Coordination Team (CT) is one of the most diverse,
multifaceted teams you could expect and represents REAL integration.
In May 2010, Dr Anna Matros-Goreses- who has
extensive working experience with Non-Governmental
Organisations was recruited and was later joined by Mr
Peter Erb (June 2010) who has been with the Ministry
of Environment and Tourism for at least 20 years. These
two were later joined in August 2010 by Mr Jonathan
Diederiks (South Africa) who has worked with a donor
organisation-DANIDA for many years. Ms Indie Dinala
was seconded to the Initiative in August 2011 by the
Ministry of Science and Technology in Zambia. Mr
Paulo Kiala has been with the University of Huambo in
Angola and joined the team in July 2011. Similarly from
the Academic sector, Dr Casper Bonyongo (Botswana)
came on board to complete the team from the
Okavango Research Institute in September 2011.
"Good bye" to team member....
Completing the start-up phase of the Initiative as originally planned by end of February 2012, Anna MatrosGoreses, one of the Namibian Programme Coordinators is leaving the Coordination team, HOWEVER, will
join the team again- this time representing the Polytechnic of Namibia as one of the SASSCAL- Namibia
implementing partners. The CT team wishes her all the best and is looking forward to working with her in
her new capacity as the Director: Project Service Centre. For all official correspondences, contact Mr Peter
Erb as from 14 February 2012.
This newsletter is distributed to 139
professionals and 41 organizations in
Namibia. Please feel free to circulate
the newsletter as widely as possible to
any interested colleagues to contribute
towards improving the initiative.
Upcoming events/Next steps



27-29 February 2012 -IC meeting- Germany Bonn- to discuss the Integrated Science Plan and Implementation Plan
Mid April- SASSCAL Ministers meeting- Venue to be confirmed- Signing of Memorandum of Understanding
1 August 2012- SASSCAL Implementation phase is starting