Institutional Capacity Needs Assessment of the Centre de Suivi Ecologique. Worked with CSE staff to develop a vision of desired future capacities for supporting sustainable land management initiatives, then assessed current capacities versus this vision. Developed detailed recommendations for institutional capacity building for each. Employed by UNOPS for UNDP in 2006
Project Exit Strategy for the UNDP/UNEP/GEF Senegal River Valley Biodiversity Project in Mauritania and Senegal. Communities had been structured and empowered to manage 300,000 hectares of rangelands. Discovered the greatest weakness of this community-based range and forest management project is the lack of self-financing mechanisms for community managers. Developed a vision for the end of project conditions, assessed progress towards achieving this vision and developed recommendations for maximizing the probability that project initiatives will be sustained beyond project completion. Visited 5 of 16 sites and observed renewed woody regeneration on parts of all five sites where there had been none prior to the project. Employed by UNOPS for UNDP in 2007.
Project restructuring Led the review and restructuring of this same UNDP/UNEP/GEF biodiversity project that had deviated strongly from its major objective and was threatened with closure by UNDP. Led a participatory but conflictual and impassioned process to change the project focus from treating the symptoms of land degradation on fenced parcels of land to the development of community-based range and forest management models on 16 sites covering 300,000ha. Developed new logframe impact indicators. Employed by UNOPS for UNDP in 2003 & ’04.
Community-Based Range and Forest Management Design. Co-team leader for UNDP in 1998 to redesign as a biodiversity conservation project a land degradation project that UNEP had prepared six years before GEF had a land degradation funding window. Worked with high level officials from Senegal and Mauritania to develop a design for a participatory range and forest management project in the Senegal River Valley that was technically sound and satisfactory to the two donor agencies that were in conflict over design criteria. Employed by UNOPS for UNDP in 1998.
NBSAP preparation. Provided training and strategic assistance to the national team mandated with the preparation of Senegal’s first national biodiversity strategy and action plan (NBSAP) in 1998. Drafted a guidebook for the development of national biodiversity strategies and action plans based on my work assisting national planning teams in eight countries. Guidebook was distributed at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in May 98. Employed by UNOPS for UNDP.
River Basin Master Planning Prepared community-based natural resources management options on the Upper Senegal River Valley in Senegal and Mali downstream from the Manantali Dam during two missions in 1990. Employed by xxx under USAID funding in 1990.
NRM success stories. Member of USAID-funded “Opportunities for Development” study to identify successful NRM initiatives in four Sahelian countries and to analyze the conditions leading to their success. Senegal assessment was completed in 1988.