INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT
Towards a Climate Resilient Society for the Desired Sustainable Futures in Africa
October 8th – 10th, 2019.
Please Note:
The Conference has been rescheduled to 8th – 10th October, 2019.
The deadline for submitting an Abstract is extended to 20th August 2019.
The authors of shortlisted abstract will be requested to submit full paper by 31st August 2019 for compilation of the presentations
The Mwalimu Nyerere Professorial Chair on Environment and Climate Change in collaboration with the Institute of Resource Assessment (IRA) and Center for Climate Change Studies (CCCS) of the University of Dar es Salaam is delighted to announce an International Conference which will take place at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from 8th - 10th October 2019.
The proposed conference seeks to bring together scientists and high level policy and decision-makers, development partners and the diplomatic community, and practitioners from different parts of the world for information sharing, identification of areas for further research and deliberation on resulting key policy issues on enhancing resilience to climate change. The need for this nature of conference is derived from the fact that climate change poses a major threat to all the advances made by humanity unless drastic and urgent responses are implemented to control CO2 emissions and support adaptation to already occurring climate change. For Africa, climate change already had massive negative implications for spheres of development. The continent is the most vulnerable to climate change because of its limited adaptation capacity. Thus, climate change presents massive challenges for the growth of developing economies as the incidence and costs of climate related disasters increases. While the world has long been taking actions to address the climate change challenge, evidence indicates that the response thus far is inadequate. Erratic rainfall and recurrent droughts are already threatening agricultural production and output and contributing to the migration of young people into urban areas and abroad. Flooding and other extreme events are also destroying the little infrastructure that exists in both urban and rural areas. The predominantly agrarian nature of African economies and the rural nature of the bulk of its population, coupled with dependence on natural resources and the low adaptive capacities combine to make them highly vulnerable to climate change.
The conference will aim to focus on the three major thematic areas relevant for enhancing societal resilience and sustainable future of African socio-ecological systems as elaborated below:
A. Ecosystems Management in a Changing Climate
Ecosystem services are vital to the well-being and health of people everywhere. In providing life's basic needs, changes in their flow affect livelihoods, income and security of the communities dependent on them. Managing them for the human well-being remains a challenge to natural resources managers. This Theme enables participants understand various ways/ mechanisms through which ecosystems can be better managed in a changing climate. There is a growing body of knowledge on the link between ecosystem integrity and climate change. Literature has shown that ecosystems are already responding to climate change. Thus, continued warming will impair the ability of many such systems to provide critical resources and services like food, clean water, and carbon sequestration. Interventions are required to both mitigate the extent of ecosystems change and adapt to changes that are inevitable. Hence, ecosystems should be managed to limit and adapt to both the near- and long-term impacts of climate change. While some efforts have been done in some developed communities elsewhere in the world, much of such knowledge is limited in the African region. It is on these grounds that the conference seeks to provide an avenue for sharing the known current research findings in the region and for the region. Sub-themes to be covered during this Conference will include, among others, the following:
B. Climate Change and Food Security
Climate change may affect food systems in several ways ranging from direct effects on crop production (e.g. changes in rainfall leading to drought or flooding, or warmer or cooler temperatures leading to changes in the length of growing season), to changes in markets, food prices and supply chain infrastructure. Food systems encompass food availability (production, distribution and exchange), food access (affordability, allocation and preference) and food utilization (nutritional and societal values and safety), so that food security is, therefore, diminished when food systems are stressed. However, the relative importance of climate change for food security differs between regions. For example, in Africa, climate is among the most frequently cited drivers of food insecurity because it acts both as an underlying, ongoing issue and as a short-lived shock.
The low ability to cope with shocks and to mitigate long-term stresses means that coping strategies that might be available in other regions of the globe are unavailable or inappropriate for Africa. During this Conference, contributions will be made based on studies conducted in different regions of Africa. This will provide avenue for comparing different findings on climate change impacts on food security in the region and various responses being made to address the challenges. Sub-themes to be covered during this Conference will include:
C. Technological Innovation, Environmental Ethics and Management of Climate Change
The true threat of climate change is the effect this has on Sustainable Development, especially the adverse effects that are felt by the poor and that will be felt by future generations. Many sustainable climate change solutions lie in technological innovations and creativity in response to the effects of climate change. Technology adaptation, in this respect, is in the form of both soft and hard technology. For example, soft technology is where people take insurance for various aspects of climate change and they caution themselves from the likelihood of paying for the adverse effects of climate change and thus transfer this risk to a third party. Hard technology, on the other hand, is where technical solutions are developed to respond to the risks of climate change. Soft and hard technology is used differently depending on what organizations or individuals aim at achieving. The technological innovations have run across different sectors and have solutions that are different at each level. Numerous technologies developed that respond to climate change target the poor in society and thus one of the considerations should be the accessibility of these technologies and how useful they are to the target market. It is on these grounds that this thematic area will be covered during the Conference to share scientific findings on the effectiveness and efficiency of the various technologies in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
On the other hand, for many years science, engineering, policy, law, and economics were considered indispensable for understanding and resolving environmental problems, including climate change. We now have abundant knowledge from these disciplines about environmental issues, but still not sufficient will to engage in long-term change for the flourishing of the Earth community. Thus, there is a growing realization that religion, spirituality, ethics, and values can make important contributions, in collaboration with science and policy, to address complex ecological issues. During the Conference attempts will be made to examine those contributions, acknowledging both the problems and promise of religions. In addition, religion and ecology will be reviewed amid the broader emergence of environmental humanities, i.e., the examination of the roles of humans in nature through the lens of anthropology and religious ecology. Sub-themes to be covered are the following:
Call for Papers
The call for papers for the Conference “Towards a Climate Resilient Society for the Desired Sustainable Futures in Africa” is now open, and we invite researchers and practitioners from the fullest range of disciplinary perspectives to consider the Conference themes in an open-minded and thought provoking manner.
We welcome abstracts of no more than 300 words from the above mentioned thematic areas and sub-themes for oral presentations, poster presentations and exhibitions or showcasing or key projects results and/or best practices related to climate change adaptation, mitigation and policy development.
Please send the Abstract to climateconference@udsm.ac.tz. The deadline to submit an Abstract is 20th August 2019. For further details about the Conference, please contact the organizers at
The authors of shortlisted abstract will be requested to submit full paper by 31st August 2019 for compilation of the presentations
Registration fee is USD 100.00 for non - students foreign presenters and foreigh participants, USD 50.00 for foreign student presenters, TZS 100,000/= for Tanzanian non-student presenters and participants, TZS 50,000 for Tanzanian student presenters, USD 300 for foreign project exhibitions and TZS 500,000 for projects exhibitions implemented in Tanzania. However, project exhibitions may attract more fees if there will be special requirements for booth preparation (s). Please pay the registration fee through the following bank accounts:
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BANK DETAILS FOR TANZANIANS Bank Name: National Bank Of Commerce Limited Bank Branch: Ubungo Branch A/C Name: Institute of Resource Assessment MITI Project A/C Number: 022103002979 SWIFTCODE: NLCBTZTX Address: P.O. Box 35181, Dar es Salaam |
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BANK DETAILS FOR NON-TANZANIANS Bank Name: National Bank Of Commerce Limited Bank Branch: Samora Branch A/C Name: UDSM Institute of Resource Assessment A/C Number: 012105006765, SWIFTCODE: NLCBTZTX Address: P.O. Box 35181, Dar es Salaam |
Conference Sponsors:
University of Dar Es Salaam
Norad through NORHED Projects
For more information and enquiries, please contact us through climateconference@udsm.ac.tz.
Click the Link below to download the Conference Registration Form