“The Niger River and Climate Change – Bamako 9 December 2021”

The first workshop of the WATIGUELEYA KÈLÊ project was successfully concluded on 10 December 2020 in Bamako after five days of intensive training. The event brought together 20 village partners from Mali, Senegal and Guinea – the three countries targeted by the project. The aim was to train these village partners to use mobile phones to collect local knowledge and document the climate resilience of their community.

During this training, the project researchers and the Malian NGO Donkosira, who conducted the introductory workshop, successfully trained and familiarised the village partners in video reporting techniques. A presentation of the project’s mobile application that will be used to collect data was also made. The sessions were accompanied by rich group discussions on the different climate change adaptation strategies practiced by the communities represented. Finally, a field trip to the Niger River was also used to deepen discussions on the impact of climate change on the river. The villagers are now tasked to start collecting data until the next workshop in spring 2021.