Chloé Salmon has just finished her one year contract in the APEFE office in Burkina Faso during which she worked as a Junior Expert on the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel programme (IGMVSS).

The Junior Program, set up by Enabel, offers young professionals the opportunity of going to work in the field in order to acquire professional experience and give their career a boost. In return, the host organisation benefits from know-how and expertise in order to contribute to setting up the programme. This is a win-win exchange from which the APEFE has benefited due to Chloé’s skills, trained as a bio-engineer.

“The tasks carried out enabled me to develop skills in the design and setting up of a Geographic Information System (GIS), in handling the “Delta” evaluation monitoring software and in data capture and processing using a drone. I have also gained knowledge on sustainable land management in regard to Sahel, on how decentralisation operates and in particular environmental management in Burkina Faso”, states Chloé. Following this experience, she has now been employed as a GIS technical assistant and environmental manager for the ULB-Coopération in Burkina Faso.

As a reminder, since 2014 the APEFE has been developing support in the Environmental sector in Burkina Faso and especially in improving the implementation of the strategy and action plan for the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel initiative. The purpose of this initiative is to combat land degradation and desertification, strengthen food security and help the communities of the Sahara and Sahel to adapt to climate change. The intervention of the APEFE, financed by the Belgian Cooperation in Development, aims at strengthening the Ministry of the Environment’s organisational and technical capabilities to implement the initiative, to build on the scientific results and to capitalise and spread good practices concerning Sustainable Land Management.