PRESIDENT, GLOBAL ECOVILLAGE NETWORK AFRICA
Dr. Ousmane Pame is an educator and community leader. He worked as the resident Academic Director of Living Routes at the Dakar Earth Rights Ecovillage Institute in Senegal. He is the director of an academic program in ecovillages which engage international and local students on rural community projects.
Since 1997, Dr Pame has been actively involved in community development projects in Senegal (capacity building, permaculture, agroforestry, fish farming, drinking water, nutrition and food processing programmes for rural areas,). He has been supporting deprived schoolchildren in his region through the distribution of free school and classroom construction materials. Thirty-five villages have benefited from his programmes.
In December 2007, after participating in an ecovillage design course in Auroville (India), he introduced the ecovillage concept to his community (7000 people). Two years later, he was elected as mayor of the Guédé Chantier, the first in the history of his community. During his mandate, he strived to transition his municipality in an eco-community. He also supported the transition of other communities in the West African region. He is a founding member and President of the Global Ecovillage Network/ Africa and of REDES (Network for Ecovillage Emergence and Development in the Sahel.
