Today, 1 October, is the day of the official launch of the Mentorship Programme promoted by ALBATROSS. It is a programme designed to build the skills and knowledge of African scientists and field practitioners across the five countries ALBATROSS is operating in sub-Saharan Africa: Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and Madagascar.

The official launch of the ALBATROSS Project Mentoring Programme took place with an online meeting attended by the 30 mentees, their mentors and members of the ALBATROSS Training Board. During the session, the objectives of the programme were presented and discussed, setting the foundation for the activities to follow.

This Mentorship Programme is designed in such a way that it pairs mentees within the field of climate science, disaster risk reduction, natural resource management, biodiversity conservation, and climate change adaptation with experienced ALBATROSS partner experts, acting as mentors. The aim of this initiative is to facilitate and enhance the transfer of knowledge, tools, skills, expertise, and insights between the mentors and mentees. Each mentee has been assigned two mentors, one ALBATROSS project consortium member from Europe, and another one from Africa.

The call of interest had very positive answer, receiving a total amount of 88 applications (29 women and 59 men) across the five countries. Out of this, 31 applicants were selected as mentees, seven each in Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa, and five mentees each in Madagascar and Tanzania. All these mentees have different skills, being researchers in climate data and services or field-based practitioners, coming from government institutions, UNESCO designated Biosphere Reserves  or research organisations. Those scientists and professionals working with meteorological agencies, regional climate centres, or research institutions, will have the opportunity to learn from ALBATROSS partners, particularly in areas such as interpreting and obtaining data from available climate services, as well as to make use of ALBATROSS project outputs and products. Field-based practitioners will be applying climate services, nature-based solutions, indigenous and local knowledge, in their field of work, especially in natural resources management, biodiversity conservation, disaster risk reduction amongst others.

“The beauty of this mentorship is that the mentees are mid-career to late-career, implying that they already have skills and knowledge in the field. Therefore, the learning process between the mentors and the mentees will be mutual, there will be knowledge exchange between them”, says Mary Nyasimi, the ALBATROSS partner at UNESCO and responsible for the mentorship programme.