ARTS

06

Team

A Franco-Swiss-Senegalese consortium, spanning Bern, Dakar, Casamance and the Petite-Côte. Nine researchers and practitioners in action.

Partners

Five institutions, two continents

Co-applicants · Co-grantees

Université de Berne (GIUB) ENDA Pronat IPAR

Implementing partners

CIRAD Mélanzé

Who does what

  • Université de Berne (GIUB)

    Institute of Geography, University of Bern - responsible grantee (Jean-David Gerber) and scientific coordination of the project.

    Contribution to the project Scientific direction and overall coordination. Mbour diagnostic, ATFS framework, database and mapping tools, historical analysis of agricultural policies with the Joint Research Centre. Continuous field presence, well beyond the formal project allocations.

  • ENDA Pronat

    Senegalese NGO pioneer of agroecology since the 1980s - co-grantee, coordination of civil society engagement and advocacy.

    Contribution to the project Led communication and advocacy. Media coverage of public activities (20 press publications, 5 national TV channels), civil society engagement, access to national policy spaces: DyTAES, national agroecology strategy, revision of the agro-sylvo-pastoral law.

  • IPAR

    Initiative for Agricultural and Rural Foresight - Dakar-based think tank. Co-grantee, leads territorial foresight and policy analysis.

    Contribution to the project Led territorial foresight and facilitated the DyTAEL platforms. Bignona diagnostic, 2045 foresight, study on horticultural price formation (April 2026), DyTAES focal point, access to national decision-making circles up to ministerial level.

  • CIRAD

    French agricultural research centre for international development - implementing partner, expertise on value chains and agricultural systems.

    Contribution to the project Value chain and farming systems expertise. Photographic reading of the territory and public programme around Raphaël Belmin's exhibition at the Dak'Art Biennale. Took up the ATFS framework as a working tool, notably through the PRATAM project.

  • Mélanzé

    Senegalese NGO founded by Joan Bastide - implementing partner, supports the Mbour DyTAEL and the establishment of CREATES.

    Contribution to the project Field anchoring on the Petite-Côte: support and structuring of the Mbour DyTAEL, mobilisation of local actors, artistic and audiovisual production, multimedia studio. Drove the creation of CREATES, the structure carrying the living lab beyond ARTS funding.

Our team

The ARTS team

A team of researchers and practitioners with diverse backgrounds, experiences and areas of expertise - geography, agronomy, economics, sociology, political ecology, photography, theatre and agro-economic engineering.

Jean-David Gerber

GIUB

Jean-David Gerber

Responsible grantee · Scientific lead

Bern, Suisse

Jean-David Gerber is a full professor of geography and Executive Director of the Institute of Geography at the University of Bern, where he leads the Political Urbanism and Sustainable Spatial Development unit. His work addresses political urbanism, land policy and sustainable spatial development. He holds an MSc in Environmental Sciences from ETH Zurich (2001) and a PhD in Public Administration from IDHEAP, University of Lausanne (2005); he was a research associate at IDHEAP and then a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. Since 2023 he has chaired the foundation board of Durabilitas, a Swiss think-and-do tank on sustainability. In ARTS he is the responsible grantee and scientific lead.

Laure Tall

IPAR

Laure Tall

Co-grantee · IPAR Research Director

Dakar, Sénégal

Laure Tall is an agroecologist and research director at the Initiative Prospective Agricole et Rurale (IPAR), a Dakar-based think tank, where she leads a team working on the structural transformation of agriculture, migration and youth employment, climate change, the sustainable development goals, natural resource and land management, and the uses of artificial intelligence. She previously directed the National Laboratory for Research on Plant Production (LNRPV) at the Senegalese Institute of Agricultural Research (ISRA), and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Montreal and Environment Canada. She holds a PhD in ecology and biogeochemistry and a master's degree in community ecology from the University of Montreal.

Jean-Michel Sène

ENDA Pronat

Jean-Michel Sène

Co-grantee · Agroecology Program Officer

Dakar, Sénégal

Jean-Michel Waly Sène is an agro-economist engineer with a specialised master's degree in entrepreneurship and SMEs from the University of Paris XII. Since March 2015 he has been Agroecology Programme Officer at ENDA Pronat, Senegal, where he supervises projects promoting agroecological practices in West Africa. He mentors master's students and takes part in regional agroecology forums. Before ENDA Pronat he worked as a consultant and as a monitoring and evaluation specialist on agricultural and economic growth projects.

Patrick Bottazzi

GIUB

Patrick Bottazzi

Scientific coordination · Political ecology

Bern, Suisse

Patrick Bottazzi is a researcher in political ecology and development studies at the Institute of Geography, University of Bern. His PhD, completed at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, examined protected areas, ethnicity and indigenous governance in Bolivia. For some twenty years he has worked on natural resource governance, social-ecological transitions and social justice, from the Upper Amazon basin to sub-Saharan Africa. His methods combine knowledge co-production, institutional analysis, spatial analysis and participatory approaches. He is the scientific coordinator of ARTS and co-founded CREATES, where he serves as scientific director.

Sébastien Boillat

BFH · GIUB

Sébastien Boillat

Senior researcher · Environmental sciences

Bern, Suisse

Sébastien Boillat, a Swiss-Bolivian researcher, is a senior researcher and lecturer at the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH-HAFL). He holds an MSc in Environmental Sciences from ETH Zurich (2002) and a PhD in geography from the University of Bern, where he was a researcher at the Institute of Geography. His work addresses environmental justice, political ecology, agroecology and local knowledge, with fieldwork in Brazil, Bolivia, Laos and Canada.

Joan Bastide

GIUB · Mélanzé

Joan Bastide

Senior research scientist · Senegal liaison · Mélanzé founder

Dakar, Sénégal

Joan Bastide is a geographer, filmmaker and social entrepreneur based in Senegal. A senior research scientist at the Institute of Geography, University of Bern, he works on land governance, food security, climate change and agroecology, after fifteen years of fieldwork across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. He holds a PhD in Geography and Environment from the University of Geneva. He founded the NGO Mélanzé and the music label Som'One Music, and is director of development at CREATES. In ARTS he handles the Senegal field liaison and audiovisual production.

Lise Landrin

GIUB

Lise Landrin

Post-doctoral researcher · Forum theatre · Co-creative methods

Bern · Sénégal

Lise Landrin is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Geography, University of Bern. Her geography thesis, "Se mettre en jeu: enquêter dans le Népal rural par le théâtre déclencheur" (Université Grenoble Alpes, 2021), received the French National Geography Committee thesis prize in 2023. After a childhood in Mali, literary training in French Guiana and post-doctoral fieldwork on the France-Luxembourg border, she works on the methods through which narratives emerge from the theatre of the oppressed. She conducts research-creation with theatre artists, performers, photographers and storytellers, building settings in which groups articulate their own knowledge and strengthen their capacity to act. Taking it that the humanities and social sciences also produce narratives, she works to make a plurality of voices heard within them, from a critical, postcolonial and ecofeminist perspective.

Sidy Tounkara

IPAR

Sidy Tounkara

Researcher · Project coordinator · DyTAES focal point

Dakar, Sénégal

Sidy Tounkara is a researcher and project coordinator at IPAR. He holds a PhD in environmental sociology from Université Jean-Jaurès in Toulouse and a master's degree in social management of the environment and valorisation of territorial resources from Centre universitaire Champollion in Albi. His research addresses the structural transformation of agriculture in urban and rural settings, the agroecological transition, solid waste management and urban sanitation. Within IPAR he is the person who maintains the link with DyTAES, the national platform for agroecological transition in Senegal: he represents the institute there and carries information both ways.

Raphaël Belmin

CIRAD

Raphaël Belmin

Implementing partner · Photographer · Value chains

Dakar, Sénégal

Raphaël Belmin is a researcher at CIRAD, based in Dakar. His work covers strategic niche management, innovation studies, farming system design, geographical indications, value chain analysis and foresight. He holds a PhD in agricultural sciences (Université de Corse, 2016) and is also a photographer: he has produced several photo essays and the Cirad-DyTAES exhibition "On the paths of African agroecology", shown at the Africa-France Summit and COP26 among others.