Food security and human security in semi-arid regions: the Impact of Climate Change on Drylands, with a Focus on West Africa

In the first phase of the Dutch National Research Programme on Global Air Pollution and Climate Change (NOP-I) the emphasis was on global modelling, on a natural science-based approach and with more detailed studies focused on the Netherlands/Western Europe. In 1995 it was decided that in NOP-II (1996-2000) more attention should be devoted to the impact of climate change, to a social science perspective and to developing countries. This project (NOP-ICCD) was one of the results of this change of focus. It brought together groups of scientists from an agro-biological, and climate modelling background with those from an anthropological, geographical and economic background. It also joined existing research efforts and expertise from a Wageningen-based consortium of natural scientists and economists (‘DLV’), RIVM-Bilthoven and the national research school for resource studies and development CERES (for this project adding geographical and anthropological expertise). The research team also succeeded to involve researchers from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Senegal, partly financed by funds from the Dutch participating universities. And the research team succeeded to involve not only senior scientists but quite some postdocs, and PhD and M.A/M.Sc. students as well, both from the Netherlands and from Africa. NOP-ICCD has worked as a catalyst to get a number of new (and still on-going) projects started. We knew in advance that it would become a complex, rather pioneering effort. Looking back, we can say that we did not yet fully succeed to bridge the large disciplinary and location-specific gaps in approaches and styles of doing research and of reporting. However, some bridges have been built and they seem strong enough to use for further attempts to cross boundaries. We feel that the research field that we have tried to cover deserves much more investment of scientific energy and funding.