Having joined WASCAL from the beginning of January
2014, Dr. Sédogo will officially take over the mandate of the executive
director from his predecessor and founding Director of WASCAL Professor
Paul Vlek on February 14, 2014. “Climate Change is one of the biggest
challenges in Africa’s development agenda. I share the vision of WASCAL
to take science and technique and put it into practice and on the
development agenda in a way that will touch local people. At the same
time, WASCAL strives to foster development on the level of
policy-making. It will be a big challenge for WASCAL to bring together
the local and national levels of decision and policy making regarding
sustainable land management under climate threats. That is why I was
very happy to be selected as executive director,” says Sédogo.
Vitae
Dr.
Laurent Sédogo graduated with a PhD in sustainable management of
natural resources from ITC in Enschede and Wageningen University, The
Netherlands in 2002. Before this he had obtained a Master of Science in
GIS at Wageningen Agricultural University.
Dr. Sédogo worked with
institutions dealing with land degradation and desertification control
at the national level and the regional level (Interstate Committee for
Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS). He held a variety of political
offices, starting with the post of Minister of Farmers’ Cooperatives
from 1988 to 1990. After completing his PhD he returned to the political
office as Minister of the Environment and Quality of Life until 2008,
followed by the post of Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and
Fishery. He was a Member of Parliament until joining WASCAL in January
2013.
Laurent Sédogo was Vice President of the Governing Council
of UNEP and Member of the Governing Council of the OSS (Sahara and Sahel
Observatory) and is a member of the Centre for Sustainable Development
Initiative.
Watch a video interview with Laurent Sédogo on the Center of Development Research’s youtube channel