The vulnerability of coastal territories has multiple dimensions, making it difficult to assess. One way of collecting data about the vulnerability of coastal areas is to interview people living on the coast. These communities have information on the coastal phenomena that occur on their territory and on the evolution over time of the frequency, intensity, and speed of progression of the pressures and pulses affecting them. They are the first observers of these phenomena. They are also the ones who suffer the consequences first, and who are most able to provide information on the impacts of coastal hazards on their territory. People living on the coast are also actors in their territory, where they carry out activities and development practices. Coastal communities, which are the focus of our survey, can therefore play four roles in the vulnerability of coastal socio-ecosystems: observers, impacted victims, agents of degradation, and agents of remediation. The consideration of these four roles is the basis for designing the current survey. The questionnaire is designed to be administered in several areas of the West African coastline. It is simple, accessible, and portable. In addition, it covers the major hazards, which are salinization, coastal erosion, flooding, plastic pollution, and oil pollution for cases in Senegal and Ghana. The second dimension that structured the questionnaire is an in-depth description of these major hazards. Thus, the questionnaire is designed as an appropriate tool for vulnerability assessment. A pilot survey was conducted in the Anlo Beach community in the Western Region of Ghana to obtain information on risk perceptions. The survey targeted a sample of 156 respondents, with each respondent being an adult member (generally husband or wife) of a given household. To get the sample of households, a systematic sampling of every 5th household within the list of 740 enumerated households was carried out to ensure that the results that will be obtained from our survey will approximate what would have been obtained if the entire population had been surveyed. The interviews were conducted face-to-face in September and October 2021. Kobocollect software, installed on mobile phones, was used to conduct the interview. In most cases, responses provided to the questionnaire were used directly as binary or multi-modal variables. Dada, Olusegun; Morand, Pierre; Louarn, Aubree; Angnuureng, Donatus Bapentire; Almar, Rafael, 2023, "Coastal Vulnerability: Perception survey in Anlo Beach (Ghana), 2021", https://doi.org/10.23708/RN7RWS, DataSuds, V1 Related paper: Dada O.A., Angnuureng D.B., Almar R., Dzantor S., Morand P. (2022) « Social perceptions of coastal hazards in the Anlo Beach Community in the Western Region of Ghana », Journal of Coastal Conservation. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi: 10.1007/s11852-022-00909-9

For more than two years after the emergence of COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease-2019), significant regional differences in morbidity persist. These differences clearly show lower incidence rates in several regions of the African and Asian continents. The work reported here aimed to test the hypothesis of a pre-pandemic natural immunity acquired by some human populations in central and western Africa, which would, therefore, pose the hypothesis of an original antigenic sin with a virus antigenically close to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). To identify such pre-existing immunity, sera samples collected before the emergence of COVID-19 were tested to detect the presence of IgG reacting antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 proteins of major significance. Sera samples from French blood donors collected before the pandemic served as a control. The results showed a statistically significant difference of antibodies prevalence between the collected samples in Africa and the control samples collected in France. Given the novelty of our results, our next step consists in highlighting neutralizing antibodies to evaluate their potential for pre-pandemic protective acquired immunity against SARS-CoV-2. In conclusion, our results suggest that, in the investigated African sub-regions, the tested populations could have been potentially and partially pre-exposed, before the COVID-19 pandemic, to the antigens of a yet non-identified Coronaviruses.

More than a year after the emergence of COVID-19, significant regional differences in terms of morbidity persist, showing in particular lower incidence rates in some regions of Africa or Asia. The work reported here aims to test for a pre-pandemic natural immunity among populations in central and western Africa and a suspected SARS-CoV-2 original antigenic sin. To identify such pre-existing immunity, sera samples collected before the emergence of COVID-19 were tested to detect the presence of IgG antibodies reacting against SARS-CoV-2 proteins of major significance. Sera samples from blood donors of France also collected before the pandemic were used as control. The results showed a statistically highly significant difference for antibodies prevalence between the samples collected in Africa and the control samples. Our results suggest that in the tested African sub-regions the populations have been potentially pre-exposed before the COVID-19 pandemic to the antigens of a SARS-CoV-2-like virus.

Erosion and flooding are the most visible consequences of coastal zone degradation in West Africa. Man-made and natural processes, aggravated by the effects of climate change, cause erosion and flooding. These threatened densely populated coasts, the nerve center of the region’s demographic and economic growth. Every year, coastal degradation takes a heavy toll on human life and socio-economic prosperity. Moreover, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projections suggest that coastal erosion and flooding in West Africa is set to increase in the 21st century. Understanding the hazards and managing the coastline sustainably is a major challenge for the development of the region. The West Africa Coastal Areas Management Program (WACA) supports ongoing efforts led by countries and regional institutions to strengthen the resilience of communities and ecosystems. This is achieved by providing financing, facilitating access to knowledge and deepening dialogue around development challenges. The main objective of the Compendium: Coastal Management Practices in West Africa is to make knowledge on coastal management practices available to practitioners and decision-makers engaged in building coastal resilience in West Africa. At the same time, it informs any stakeholder concerned by risks related to coastal erosion and flooding. It complements technical catalogs on vulnerability to erosion, flood risks and flood protection infrastructure in West Africa.