A 3-day training workshop was organized in collaboration with Agriculture Research Corporation (ARC)  during the period 22nd -24th of February 2022 at Paradise Hotel, Khartoum, aimed at:

• share information, data and knowledge between agencies and research institutions,
•   explore different methodologies and approaches for crop modeling and impact assessment,
• to ensure coordination between all ongoing research and CC impact assessment activities across institution, and
• to train the representatives on how to utilize climate data as inputs into crop modeling systems.

The training workshop attended by 35 participants from the relevant governmental institutions, ministries, universities, representatives of the national technical committees and the researchers from ARC.

Lectures and hands-on-training as well as round tables discussions have been delivered in the field of crop production, crop modeling climate change impacts on the crop yields, soil properties and productivity under climate change and the socio-economic impact of the climate change on the crop productivity.

Lectures and hands-on-training as well as round tables discussions have been delivered in the field of crop production, crop modeling climate change impacts on the crop yields, soil properties and productivity under climate change and the socio-economic impact of the climate change on the crop productivity.

DG of ARC addressed the training workshop in the opening session and shared its thoughts about the importance of the crop modeling for Sudan in the climate change era.

     

     

     

                           

 

The government of Sudan represented by the Higher Council for Environment and Natural Resources (HCNER) has received fund from the GCF in support of National Adaptation Plan (NAP) Readiness through the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) under the programme titled “strengthening adaptation planning processes and capacity for implementation of adaptation actions in agricultural and water sectors in the Sudan”. 

The NAP Readiness, with a focus on agriculture and water addresses gaps in the 2016 NAP of the Republic of the Sudan, including an identified lack of Climate Change (CC) data and information and impact assessments, well-designed training opportunities for Climate Change impact modelling at the State and federal levels, and Capacities of State-level Technical Committees for CC adaptation planning and implementation. 

This project was prepared jointly by the FAO and the HCENR (GCF-National Designated Authority (NDA)/Focal Point (FP)), to support the generation of mid- to long-term CC projections and vulnerability assessments (and the national capacity to take on such task without external support in the future) and help to re-strengthening the State-level Technical Committees for CC adaptation (which provide the foundation for revising and updating the NAP 2016 in the future). This project will strengthen female representation in the State-level Technical Committees for adaptation planning and thus will lay the foundation for continuous equal participation of women in CC adaptation planning processes beyond this project. Beneficiaries will be the Technical Committees at state-level, smallholder farmers, pastoralists, NGOs, CSOs, and research institutions including Sudan Meteorological Authority (SMA), the Institute of Environmental Studies of the University of Khartoum, and Agricultural Research Corporation and the National Centre for Research. 

The objective of this NAP Readiness Project is to strengthen climate change (CC) adaptation planning in the Sudan based on updated and reliable CC data. Data and information made available under this project will be absorbed and utilized through the 18 reactivated State-Level Technical Committees, which will operate in an inclusive participatory manner and inform the national-level adaptation planning (and implementation under Phase 2 of the GCF adaptation planning process) in the Sudan. 

The project will be implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which is an Accredited Entity (AE) to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), acting as a Delivery Partner (DP) for this Readiness project and working in close collaboration with the Higher Council for Environment and Natural Resources (HCENR) which is GCF NDA. The timeframe for the project implementation is two-year period from 2020 to 2022.

Objectives: 

The overall objective of the capacity building training workshop is to support implement the project activity 2.1.1 through:

• Elevating the capacities of federal and state-level technical committees to participate effectively in the climate change projection process and product production.

1. Analysis of climate trends and climate change downscaled projections.
2. Equip the participants with the climate analysis tools and techniques to participate in the climate change projection process effectively and effectively. This course aims to raise participants’ skills and knowledge of ways to analyze climate data and how to use them to update the National Plan for.
3. Interpolation of the climate change projections information to support NAP update process.

Course Period:

This course lasts for (3) three days from September 7 to September 9, 2021.

Venue: The course will be held in (to be determined later)

Target Audience: 

This course targets members of the Technical Committees in all the states and agriculture and water sectors specialists, researchers in the universities and the specialized research institutions.

Number of Participants:

The expected number of participants is 54 participants.

State	Description
	Participants	Secretariate
Khartoum (Beneficiaries)	14	4
The other states (TC)	36	–

Delivering Methodology:

1. This course contains theoretical and practical sessions. 
2. The theoretical part accounts for 25% of the cycle, while the practical part is 75%.
3. Trainees will be directed during the practical part. A practical guide on analytical methods will also be distributed to help the trainee follow up on the application of the analysis.
4. Participants will be divided into groups during the sessions to complete the group exercises and to ensure their active participation.

Materials and Tools:

1. The training materials will be distributed on daily bases in softcopy format.
2. Overhead projector will be used for displaying the materials.
3. Trainees are requested to bring their own laptops for the practical sessions.
4. Flip Charts and Sticky Notes will be used during the practical sessions.

Pre-requirements:

The following are restricting criteria for participation:

1. Participants must bring their laptops.
2. The trainees should be good in English.
3. The trainee must not be more than 45 years old.

Expected Outcomes:

After completing this course, the participant will be able to:

1. Distinguished between the climate variability and climate change.
2. Address the impact of the climate change on agriculture and water sectors in Sudan.
3. Allocate the climate and climate change projections data.
4. The difference between climate variability and climate change.
5. Find out how to analyze climate elemental data (rain and temperatures).
6. Learn how to clarify the behavior of certain elements and link them to the potential effects of climate change.
7. Find out how climate variability and climate change affect agriculture and water sectors.
8. How to use climate change projections to update the National Climate Change Plan.

Training Instructor: 

Name	Position	E-mail	Cell Phone
Ammar Mokhtar Gomaha Gaber	National Consultant	ammar.gomahagaber@fao.org	+2249129995222

Training Workshop Agenda and Timetable:

Day	First session 09:00 – 11:00 AM	Breakfast – and Prayer 11.30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.	Second Session 12:30 p.m. – 02:30 p.m.	Remarks
Tuesday September 7, 2021	Registration and Opening Session		Climate Data: Sources and in-depth analysis (Obtain and Analysis – Practical Session)	Exercise 60 -90 minutes
	Overview of Climate of Sudan and Agriculture
Wednesday September 8, 2021	Climate Variability and Climate Change impacts on Agriculture		Hands-on Analysis of Climate Data (Getting to know the CC information)	Practice 60 – 90 minutes
Thursday September 9, 2021	Beyond Climate Maps: Usage of Climate Information in NAP		Climate Change Projections for Developing National Adaptation Plan (NAP) + Interpolation of CC Projections (Rainfall & Temperature)	Practice 60 minutes

Stationeries:

No.	Item	Quantity	Total
	Flip charts	5	5
	Sticky Note (different colors)	30	30
	Markers	5 packages	5
	Note books	54	54
	Pens	54	54

 

 

INTRODUCTION

The training workshop took place from 13th to 20th December, 2021, the first three days spend at the Sudan Meteorological Authority (SMA) premises to install the RegCM model and the rest at Paradise hotel from 16th to 20th  December. The training was meant to build the capacity of the SMA to conduct climate change downscaling. The first three days involved the configuration of the models and tools needed for dynamical and statistical downscaling. The consultant had been informed beforehand that Food and Agriculture Organisation, Sudan (FAO-Sudan) had purchased three servers to be installed at the SMA premises. These servers would be used to perform the climate change downscaling tasks. The international consultant together with the SMA technical staff successfully installed the Regional Climate Model system (REgCM) regional climate model (RCM) and downscaled climate data for a few days. The training was then moved to the Paradise Hotel in Khartoum where the rest of the workshop was conducted. 

Objectives 

The main objective of the workshop was to equip the SMA team with the knowledge and tools required to perform climate change downscaling using an RCM. The specific objectives required to achieve this were:

• To conduct data quality control of observed rainfall and temperature.
• To demonstrate the process of dynamical downscaling using the REgCM model.
• To present different sources of climate projection data from known RCMs.
• To analyse NETCDF format data using Climate Data Operators (CDO) tools.
• To visualize NETCDF climate data using the Grid Analysis and Display System (GrADS) software.
• To determine the temporal trend of climate data.
• To statistically downscale GCM data to station level using R program.

Expected Outcomes

• Enhanced ability to conduct climate data quality control.
• Ability to downscale climate data using a regional climate model.
• Knowledge of different data stores for climate projection data gained.
• A better understanding of the NETCDF data type and how to analyse it.
• Ability to visualize processed climate data.
• Ability to determine the temporal trend of climate data.
• Ability to conduct statistical climate downscaling. 

Participants and Gender Balance

The participants had been well selected. There was a good balance between male and female. The participants were mostly young and running key operations at the SMA, therefore, they would be able to easily apply the knowledge learned to their duty stations. 

Training Workshop Topics Summary

The following topics have been discussed and explained in detailed during the training period:

1. Quality control of climate data.
2. Regional climate modelling.    
3. CORDEX Data Access.
4. Data Analysis using CDO.
5. Data Visualization using GrADS.
6. Trend Analysis and Statistical Down-scaling.
7. Evaluation and Recommendations  

Evaluation and recommendations

It was a lot of activity for 5 days so the consultant adjusted the training schedule to cater to this duration. The participants had to learn a lot in the few days, however, the consultant is confident they gained the skills needed to successfully perform climate projection downscaling on their own. 

The participants should use the installed REGCM model to further understand how regional climate projection downscaling is conducted. The participants should run the model using different physics as initialization schemes and determine which best reproduces the observed rainfall and temperature in Sudan. 

  

The overall objective of this training workshop is to support Outcome- 2 of the project                  (Strengthening national technical capacities) and project activity 2.3.2 

Specific objectives of this training are to:

1. Enhance participant’s knowledge about fundamental concepts of monitoring and evaluation
2. Participants get acquainted with monitoring and evaluation’s approaches.
3. Equip participants with skills of identifying indicators and targets in general and with respect to adaptation planning and implementation in water and agricultural sectors.

Time: This training will be conducted on 28-30 September 2021

Venue:  Paradise Hotel – Khartoum

Target beneficiaries: This training is designed for 40 participants who will be selected from the agricultural and water sectors experts and other stakeholders, according to the following criteria:

1. Expert selected should be Engaged in adaptation implementation (is a must) 
2. Expert would be a member or contributing to State Technical Committee activities (if not available) can select from outside the sector one with relevant experience to adaptation/M&E/information) context.
3. Gender Balance should be considered  

The total number of beneficiaries will be 40 participants of experts in water and agricultural sectors two from each state (36 state participants from 18 states) 4 participants from stakeholders at the national level.  

The expected number of audiences is 48 including participants and project support staff.

Methodology:

The training workshop will be theoretical and participatory practical learning-by-doing program, which simultaneously build capacity to produce results of immediate value. The workshop will include discussion and working groups. Participants during the introductory session will be asked by the facilitator about their expectation of the workshop, will be revealed when the facilitator presented the workshop objectives and compare them with the participants stated expectations to show participants awareness of reason about participation in the workshop. 

Workshop content:

This training will cover the following topics:

1. Project overview and adaptation concept
2. Basic concepts about M&E
3. Logical framework and results chain
4. Data sources and instruments
5. Indicators and targets 
6. Indicators and targets of agricultural and water sectors (adaptation context)

Expected Outcomes:

After completing this course, the participant will:

1. Know about M&E function and role
2. Use M&E approaches and techniques in his work.
3. Know and aware about indicators at different levels of the results hierarchy.
4. Know and aware about indicators of agriculture and water sectors especially cc adaptation indicators.

Training Workshop on Monitoring and Evaluation Methods and Possible

Indicators in the Agricultural and water sectors

Project A planned intervention with a clear set to closely linked objectives usually

lasting no more than 5 years

Program A set of complementary projects designed to converge on outcomes at a

higher level of the results chain

Accountability The means by which people and organizations are held responsible for their

actions by having to account for them to other people.

Beneficiaries The people, networks, organizations, or institutions targeted by a

development intervention

Evidence The available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or

proposition is true or valid.

Indicator A variable that measures progress towards intended result
Baseline study An analysis describing the situation prior to or at the start of a development

intervention against which progress can be assessed

Logic model A visual representation showing specific linkages between elements of

results chain

Findings Summaries, impressions, or conclusions reached after an examination or

investigation of data

Formative evaluation An early examination of an active programme with the aim of identifying

areas for improvement in its design and
performance. (Conducted during implementation)

Target A specific value imposed on an indicator
Project cycle The process and sequence in which a project develops from start to finish.
Or an approach describing the main tasks involved in managing a project