Co-developing DCAS for The Gambia

The first visit of the Weather Impact team to The Gambia was done in April 2024 for a Kick-off week. During our stay, we visited the DWR (Department of Water Resources) on multiple days for meetings, interviews, and for them to showcase their current tools and services. Input is used for the needs assessment of the DWR and skill assessment of its staff. Based on these findings, a Capacity Building Training Plan is drawn for the coming half year to train DWR staff on-site and digitally, while co-developing DCAS for The Gambia.

Combined with that, an interactive web-platform to store and visualize geospatial data across The Gambia is designed. This will be filled with environmental and socio-economic data relevant to agricultural stakeholders.

During the week we had an official kick-off event where we presented our plans to ca. 40 stakeholders across the Gambian government. Furthermore, we got an opportunity to brief the Minister of Fisheries and Water Resources, Hon. Musa S. Drammeh, on the project.

The week was concluded with a debrief session with the DWR to discuss a path forward regarding the project and upcoming capacity building.  An important pillar of the project is the sustainability of the services and platform after the project ends. Therefore, this will be a core theme throughout the capacity building trainings.