Berry van den Pol
YEP period 2017 - 2019, batch 10
Young Expert at Practica Foundation - Burkina FasoFirst position after YEP
Project Engineer Water and Irrigation at PRACTICA Foundation, the Netherlands
YEP Role
Liaison officer and technical advisor. Practica provides technical assistance to a range of irrigation projects in the Sahel. I will represent Practica Foundation locally, coordinate project activities, execute field assessments, facilitate trainings and make linkages with other organisations and initiatives. I hope to learn a lot about the local dynamics related to the implementation of the various irrigation projects.
Click here for more information about my project.
Skills
- An interest to understand and connect the needs from different actors: farmers, enterprises, donors
- Positive and open attitude to new developments
- Flexible and rapidly adopting knowledge on new topics
- French, Spanish and Portuguese language skills
Nationality: Dutch
Education: MSc International Land and Water Management (Wageningen) with a specialization in Agriculture and Rural Development (Montpellier)
Experience before YEP
For my MSc thesis I have done field research on business strategies of small-scale farmers in Mozambique. This has given me a lot of insights in the opportunities and struggles faced by farmers and rural traders.. and is still in my mind whenever we try to come up with new ideas. After that I’ve worked for Practica, with a focus on developing tools and facilitating trainings for local well drilling enterprises in Africa, as well as making market linkages to introduce solar irrigation systems.
