Céline S., one of our IESD students, has just spent 3 months in Nairobi, Kenya for an internship with UNEP, working in the Division of Regional Cooperation. During her time there, she worked on a project involving the development of an online platform for knowledge sharing, which is meant to be launched on the 23rd of May 2012, at the UN General Assembly High Level Committee on South-South Cooperation in New York.

The online platform is called the UNEP South-South Cooperation (SSC) Exchange Mechanism. It has been designed to act as a tool for practitioners and all the people interested in environmental SSC, with in-depth information about projects and programmes that have been carried on successfully. The Mechanism will feature a database of case studies, where projects and programmes involving SSC in the environmental field are showcased, highlighting best practices and lessons learned. The website will be user-friendly and interactive by featuring blogs, discussion forums, news, events, publications, photos and videos.

Céline’s scope of work mainly relied on populating the Exchange Mechanism with case studies. She thus got the chance to be in touch with many NGOs and international organizations, researching, interviewing and writing up cases for this purpose. Céline also worked on improving and editing the general layout and content of the Mechanism, and later, gave support to the preparation of the website launch. She has assisted several colleagues from the Division of Communication and Public Information in the preparation of the media activities designed for the launch.

The experience of working and living in Kenya was an eyed-opening experience for Céline, who has now grown a bigger interest in working with African countries in her future professional career.