Supporting IPBES capacity building in West Africa

State of implementation/results

• Project completed.
• In January 2022, the master's theses of students from 15 West African countries in the SPIBES programme were completed and defended in an online event.
• On 30 November 2021, a virtual workshop was held with IPBES national focal points from West African countries on the thematic assessment of business and biodiversity.
• An online mini-workshop was held on 17 August 2021 (title: "Enhancing the capacities of West African National Focal Points and Experts on Engaging in IPBES Processes - the case of the Nexus and Transformative Change Assessments"). The workshop was well attended with 35 participants from 14 African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Senegal, Sierra-Leone, Gambia and Togo) as well as from Germany and the United Kingdom.
• Scientific publications were generated from research conducted by first-year Master's students, including Ouedraogo et al. (2021, Journal of Agricultural Studies, 9(3), 336-351), Dao et al. (2021, Agronomie Africaine, 33(1), 21-32) and Sogodogo et al. (2021, European Scientific Journal, 17(13), 41).
• Lectures of the second batch of Master's students are still to a large extent provided via digital platforms. The revised curriculum is successfully implemented through interactive teaching formats and digital classrooms.
• Based on the positive feedback, one more mini-workshop was held in 2020 to raise awareness amongst African experts and governments about the Business and Biodiversity assessment and the options to identify and nominate experts.
• The project facilitated communication between West African experts and the international IPBES community, for example through the co-organisation of the online workshop, 3 and 4 November 2020 on “ Linking Science and Policy for Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity” together with the Young Ecosystem Services Specialists (YESS).
• WABES contributed to the IPBES capacity building mandate, e.g. by contributing to the IPBES Capacity Building Forum, 7./8.12.2020 or by contributing to the online workshop on “Pathways to a Regional Biodiversity Platform in Central Asia, Workshop” 16 to 18 March 2021.
• The graduation of the first year of the Master programme „Managing the Science-Policy Interface on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for sustainable development in West Africa – SPIBES“ was successfully completed. The defence of the work took place in a virtual meeting at the end of July 2020. All 15 students from 14 countries in West Africa have successfully obtained their master's degree.
• Since April 2020, most lectures for the second year of SPIBES Master's students have been held via digital platforms. The newly revised curriculum was successfully implemented through highly interactive teaching formats and digital classrooms.

Latest Update:
12/2025