Muna Mohamed Elhag: filling the gaps to address climate change in Sudan

The vulnerability to climatic stress of agro-pastoral based communities in Sudan is compounded by various issues. Amongst these there is an inadequate understanding amongst the scientific community of the nature and degree of  vulnerability of these communities. This is due to poor facilitation, minimal access to regionalized climate change scenarios, limited methodological experience and skill in regional modeling. Collaboration between meteorological and agricultural scientists is still week. 

My PhD focuses on climate change, a topic still poorly examined in Sudan. The OWSD fellowship helped me to address these gaps by studying climate change and human activities as a driving force for land degradation and desertification in rangeland in North-Eastern part of Sudan.

I was very privileged to have received the opportunity to be trained and involved in Ph.D. study under the OWSD fellowship in 2003, in one of the leading South Africa Universities, University of the Free State. I was trained at the department of Crop, Soil and Climate Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, between 2004 and 2007.Since returning to Sudan in 2007, I have tried to pass on to my students and colleagues at University of Gezira, the technical skills, knowledge and experience gained. 

I will remain highly grateful for the support, encouragement and guidance bestowed on me by OWSD, which helped me to pass through all the difficulties and gave me the strength to accomplish what I set out to do. It allowed me to uncover hidden courage and realize aspects of myself that I never thought I possessed.

Muna Mohamed Elhag

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The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) 

OWSD was founded in 1987 and is the first international forum to unite eminent women scientists from the developing and developed worlds with the objective of strengthening their role in the development process and promoting their representation in scientific and technological leadership. OWSD provides research training, career development and networking opportunities for women scientists throughout the developing world at different stages in their careers. OWSD is hosted by The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS), a UNESCO Programme based in Trieste, Italy.