Climate Change and Migration in the Sahel - a workshop to validate the results of a study funded by UNESCO in Senegal

In order to better understand the relationship between environmental challenges and migration, and promote better inclusion of these issues in planning and policy development in West Africa UNESCO has initiated two case studies related to the impact of climate change on migration in two countries of the Sahel: Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal.

This workshop will provide an opportunity to discuss the results of the study conducted in Senegal, just one week after a similar workshop has been held in Cote d’Ivoire to validate the results of the study led carried out in this country.

Funded by UNESCO’s Emergency Fund, the project was launched during a workshop on methodology held on 27 and 28 February 2013 in Dakar, Senegal.

After more than five months’ work, it is now time to share and validate the conclusions of the study, which will be put at the disposal of Senegalese authorities, and of those of other countries affected by similar phenomena.

Intended results:

• the reinforcement and promotion of the interdisciplinarity of the climate change knowledge base, by producing rigorous and impartial data on the situations in the target countries;

• an improvement in the understanding of the social dimensions of climate change, including of gender issues, through research focused on policies, in cooperation with the relevant actors and networks at the national and regional level;

• the elaboration and implementation of policies which are better-informed by the relevant scientific knowledge, including regional mobility of people.

Once validated by the forty participants of the workshop to be held in Dakar, the results of the study carried out in Senegal should be widely disseminated on the Web.

In addition, this case study should be published, like the one carried out in Côte d’Ivoire.