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Environmental and Social

YoungProfsNet

Development Practitioners

YoungProfsNet:
cooperative learning and development
Introducing YoungProfsNet

Young environmental and social development practitioners join forces


to foster their professional development through YoungProfsNet. The
objective of this international network is to provide a platform for
mutual and cooperative learning and (professional) development for
young professionals.

How does YoungProfsNet work ?


YoungProfsNet is a working network. That work may be done in
various ways. Small teams can work together on social development
or environmental projects that will provide learning. Or they may
make environmental engineering designs together. While projects
may focus on a single country, the teams will always be open to all
members who wish to take part.

Anybody can join: environmental people (from ecologists to engineers


and energy and renewables experts), social development people (from
scientists to development experts) and those who work on sustainable
development and (corporate) social responsibility. We hope that
younger people will dominate but more experienced professionals can
make a valuable contribution.

Providing a bridge to your future

We already have considerable experience in one on one consulting


between members and there are boundless opportunities to seek
second opinions or give informal advice and for guidance, coaching
and mentoring. While much of the work will be carried out over the
internet, we have held a number of successful local meetings in a
variety of countries.
Aspiring to reach the top in your profession

parallel project to review impact assessment reports for petrol station


projects in South Africa.
And we are looking for other projects to be developed in the course of
2016 covering other areas of interest than just impact assessment.
YoungProfsNet meeting in the Netherlands September 2015

And we recognise that projects may be carried out using another


language than English, e.g. Spanish or French, if that is easier for
members from some countries.
Communications will be in many forms: using our website
(www.youngprofsnet.org) and our pages on LinkedIn, Facebook and
Google+, by email and instant messaging systems such as Skype and
Hangouts. We are experimenting with using Slack (www.slack.com)
as a working and communications tool for our network.

A short history

YoungProfsNet is an initiative of Eva Kimonye (Kenya) and Maarten


Smies (the Netherlands), who in the spring of 2015 discussed how
experienced environmentalists could share their knowledge and
experience with young professionals. They reckoned that young
professionals working together would be able to gain learning and
professional development in a variety of ways.
They launched YoungProfsNet on 26 May 2015. The network reached
500 members on 19 August and on 23 October we welcomed our
1000th member. At present we have 1700 members in 100 countries.
We started a project to review some 40 impact assessment reports for
petrol station projects in Kenya that the National Environment
Management Agency approved since 2013. And we are working on a

We are in the process of establishing a database with information on


the expertise of individual members, their areas of interest and their
areas of learning and development interest. Such a database will be of
great value to facilitate professional contacts between members of
YoungProfsNet. Contact details will not be publicly available.

Organisation

YoungProfsNet does not have a legal status yet, but we are exploring
the various options for that. We have four network directors: Eva
Kimonye (from Kenya but now in Algeria), Carolina Casserly
(Argentina), Trupti Jain (India) and Maarten Smies (the Netherlands)
and we would love to have one or more representatives in all
countries where we have members.
To develop and oversee our work programme we shall establish a
programme council. We have just appointed our first sixteen council
members and we expect the council to grow to some 50 members this
year.

Interested in joining YoungProfsNet ?


You can join us by sending an email message to Maarten Smies
(ms@frogsinternational.com) or by joining our group on LinkedIn
(just type youngprofsnet in the LinkedIn search bar, or:
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8313692).
Membership is free.

Areas of interest for YoungProfsNet


1.
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
2.
2.1
2.2

Environment
Environment and environmental research: ecology
and biodiversity; agroecology, nature conservation;
ecosystem services
Environmental quality; air; soil; ground water; fresh
water; rivers; lakes; estuaries and coastal seas; seas
and oceans
Environmental chemistry and toxicology
Environmental and ecological engineering and
bioremediation

Social development
Social (development) research
Social and community structure and functioning;
social and community development
2.3 Livelihood and employment: economic development
and equity; ecosystem services
2.4 Education
2.5 Gender and equality
2.6 Cultural resources
2.7 Youth participation
2.8 Community and public health
2.9 Vulnerability and marginalisation
2.10 Indigenous peoples and communities
2.11 Resettlement planning

3.
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.9
3.10
3.11
3.12
3.13
3.14
3.15
3.16
3.17
3.18
3.19
3.20
3.21
3.22
3.23
3.24
3.25
3.26
3.27

General areas of interest


Environmental and social development policy,
strategy and management
(Environmental and social) management (systems);
performance measurement and reporting
Audit and (value assurance) review
Baseline surveys
Impact assessment and strategic impact assessment;
environmental and social compliance, control and
protection during construction and operations phases
Integrated assessments
Sustainability assessment and reporting
Site assessments
Life cycle analysis (LCA) and assessment
Governance and due diligence
Participation, engagement and consultation
Sustainable development and (corporate) social
responsibility
Human rights and labour
Legal and regulatory (including performance
standards and safeguards)
International relations and diplomacy
Economic and financial instruments
Occupational health and safety
Environmental health
Natural resources management
Water research, engineering and management
Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
Energy and climate; GHG emissions; carbon footprint;
climate change mitigation, resilience and adaptation
Waste and waste management
Environmental and social development education and
learning and development
Environmental and social development
communication
Earth observation, mapping and Geographical
Information Systems
Emergency preparedness and response

Environmental and Social

YoungProfsNet

Development Practitioners

YoungProfsNet
of environmental and
social development practitioners
www.youngprofsnet.org
LinkedIn: YoungProfsNet
Facebook: YoungProfsNet
Google+: YoungProfsNet
contact: Maarten Smies
email: ms@frogsinternational.com
phone: +31 70 326 8365
mobile: +31 6 2207 3021
skype: maartensmies
hangouts: maartensmies@gmail.com
whatsapp: +31 6 2649 4940
PO Box 96992
2509 JJ The Hague
(the Netherlands)

5 September 2016

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