Thursday, 21 March 2013

The Climate System

The Climate is an Interactive System  www.icpac.net

The Greenhouse effect

-Visible energy from the sun passes through the glass and heats the ground

-Infra-red heat energy from the ground is partly reflected by the glass and some is trapped inside the greenhouse.

Natural variability of climate
1. External forcings:
-Solar radiation
-Volcanic eruptions- aerosols source into the atmosphere

2. Internal climate variability:
-ENSO
-NAO and other leading modes of variability

Causes of Climate Change
In as much as we have the natural causes (which are not major) human activities are most responsible for climate change.
How do we quantify the response of the climate system?
The response of the climate system to forcing agents is complicated by feedback effects, the non-linearity of many processes

Science Based Evidence on Climate Change

Detection- is climate changing at global; regional and local levels?
Attribution: Possible causes



Wednesday, 20 March 2013

How Best to Manage Funded Projects

Project Management skills are necessary for effective development and implementation of any given project/draft proposal www.tcc-africa.org

Guidelines to Proposal Writing

1. Proposal Cover Page
2. Executive summary (summary of your project proposal- Briefing on introduction on organisation, problem being addressed, methods, expected results, interventions, budget). It needs 1 page summary.
3.Organizational Background (should tell the reader more about you)
4. Problem Statement (confine it into half a page) maximum
5. Justification (which is in 2 phases):
- Describing why the problem should be addressed
- Why you are the best placed to implement the proposed research (e.g. informing knowledge or for development)
(Half a page maximum)
6 Project description section:
- goal
-objectives
-outline activities
-Inputs
-Implementation methodology (your description of the proposed activities)
-Explain how you will carry out each activity in details
7. Project Implementation-Work Plan
- It should depict the timeline when the project will be implemented and time frame for each activity
8. Project Management