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 ([email protected]) and Mr Peter Erb ([email protected]) Part-time: Liaison officer: Bertchen Kohrs ([email protected]) Technical Assistant: Mr Vilho Mtuleni ([email protected]) 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