Industrialisation, power generation, deforestation and other human activities cause the world’s climate to change for the worse rapidly. These changes are severe and result in extremities in almost every weather element. Excessive rainfall, more extended periods of droughts leading to bushfires and many other negative consequences on our environment are some of the effects these changes bring.

Even though the effect of these human activities are predictable, the changes that happen in climate are highly random and non-deterministic. Most African farmers rely on rainfall for their farms, and these climate changes cause them to lose their products and increase their pain in poverty. However, research institutions can help better the lives of these farmers and others like them with the help of scientifically proven approaches.

With support from the Mastercard Foundation, AIMS runs a Climate Science stream where students are exposed to mathematical and statistical methods of modeling climate data to make predictions about them. AIMS also ensures that graduates from the climate stream are allowed to intern with organisations that work directly with farmers and other climate science organisations to impact their outputs directly. Some centres like AIMS Rwanda and AIMS Ghana have research groups that specifically run pieces of research in Climate Science. These research centres have prominent researchers like Dr. Nana Ama Brown Klutse, Dr. Patrick Essien, Dr. Gandomè Mayeul Léger Davy Quenum, Dr. Francis Nkrumah, etc.

At the just ended Alumni Meet-up held in Senegal, Wangari Kimotho shared her experience as an alumna of the Climate Science stream. She is a Kenyan and an alumna of AIMS Cameroon who is currently interning in Senegal with Manobi Africa. The video below summarises her experience.