UNESCO’s network of centres of excellence are using science to catalyse sustainable development

Meanwhile, in West Africa, UNESCO has been developing an early warning system for floods with the support of another member of its network of centres of excellence, the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management. Between 2008 and 2020, West Africa experienced unprecedented flooding which devastated agriculture, livestock, freshwater supplies, infrastructure and homes. 'The damage has been catastrophic', sighs Dene Salifou from the Volta Basin Authority's Observatory for Water Resources and Related Ecosystems (Burkina Faso).

The project has created flood simulation models and trained more than 300 experts from the 11 countries involved, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria.