Botswana will this month host the first-ever African exhibition and symposium aimed at preparing and equipping communities to deal with the effects of climate change through the development and adoption of technological innovations that can help subsistence farmers cope better with drought.
The event is set to take place in Gaborone on October 26 and 27. It is sponsored by Afri-Alliance, a project which aims to prepare Africa for future climate change challenges through collaborations between 16 African and European stakeholders in the areas of water innovation.
In a statement, the Afri-Alliance said two Innovative Bridge Events (IBE) will be held in Gaborone in conjunction with lead organiser, the 17th WaterNet Symposium, as well as the University of Botswana and the Okavango Research Institute. The major highlights will include a “Water and Climate Change” exhibition that is set to run under the theme “Building Resilience in Agriculture and Water Sectors”.
“The focus of this element will be on both soft and hard technologies, technologies which can help farmers to cope better with drought, such as new drought resistant crop varieties, (ways of) making better use of scarce water resources, as with systems of drip irrigation, water retention and rainfall harvesting techniques.
“The second IBE will be a plenary session organised from 2 pm to 5 pm on 27 October under the theme, ‘Bridging the gap between innovators, industry, funding partners & policy makers’. This event will include policy dialogues and plenary discussions focused on Innovations & Technology in water and climate change, the challenges faced by innovators, industry, funding partners & policy makers and possible solutions to these problems,” the Afri-Alliance said.
The sessions will be attended by universities, research organisations, science councils and industrial companies that wish to showcase their latest innovations in water and climate change mitigatory technologies. Three more Innovative Bridge Events (IBE) will be held across Africa under the “Africa-EU Innovation Alliance for Water and Climate” platform within the next five years.
The organisation noted that Africa is one of the global regions that lacked innovative solutions for tackling water and climate-change related challenges. Further, the continent faced a serious lack of water-related skills and capacity, a situation partly blamed on institutional fragmentation.
“The Afri-Alliance project aims to prepare Africa for future climate change challenges by having African and European stakeholders work together in the areas of water innovation, research, policy, and capacity development. Rather than creating new networks, the 16 EU and African partners in this project will consolidate existing ones, consisting of scientists, decision makers, practitioners, citizens and other key stakeholders, into an effective, problem-focused knowledge sharing mechanism,” the alliance said.
