Mahamadou MAIGA

To: Managing Director Agriculture, SNV

From: Mahamadou Maïga (PhD, Development/Planning
Economics, University of Paris-1, April 1976)

Subject: APPLICATION
FOR GLOBAL SECTOR COORDINATOR - AGRICULTURE – GHANA

1.1
Cover Letter of
Motivation

Madam, Sir,

I have the pleasure to apply for the above
mentioned position. I am convinced I could be the best candidate for this
position for the following reasons: since 1971 I have been evolving in a
regional and international background, experience and scene in Europe, Africa,
Asia and America, successively with the OECD Development Centre (Paris,
1971-72); UN-IDEP (Dakar,
1972-1976); OMVS (Dakar, 1976-77); PAID
(Douala, 1978-79); CILSS (Ouagadougou, 1979-82); UN-FAO (various assignments at
Addis-Ababa, Rome, Freetown, Saint-Louis of Senegal and Accra, from 1982-2005 -
period during which I went on duty travel to at least 32 African countries, to
Thailand, Yemen and Haiti). Since 2006 I have been an “African Developer” and
an international consultant with UNDP, African Development Bank (AfDB), EU and
AGRER (a Belgium consulting firm). All that experience has been performed in
liaison and collaboration with National Governments, Intergovernmental
Organizations (IGOs), the civil society, private institutions, etc. (see details
in my CV below). Since January 2012 I have been working with AGRER which
assigned me to the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) at N’Djaména, Chad, giving
me the opportunity, among others, to collaborate with SNV-Cameroon in Maroua
for making and distributing biogas infrastructure units to some rural and urban
beneficiaries of the AfDB’s funded Sustainable
Development Programme for the Lake Chad Basin of LCBC.

My specific background and experience in
agriculture development cum environmental sustainability have been evolving since 1971 as the major subject submitted for my
doctoral dissertation to Paris-1 University was on agricultural
irrigation/intensification and farmers’ groupings/cooperatives after 5-year
researches on this subject (1971-75) on the one hand, and based on my 3-year
working experience with CILSS/DTCD/UNDP (1979-82) and 22-year working
experience with FAO (1982-2005) on the other.

In addition I am very familiar with Ghana where
I worked for FAO as Agriculture Policy
Officer for more than 6 years (February 1996-April 2002) for the FAO Regional Office for Africa, from
where I was covering Africa including Ghana (see details in my CV below).

As I have been working since 1971 in an
excellent health condition (medically covered since December 1979 by the
international medical insurance company Van
Breda International, based in Anvers, Belgium, which has been covering all UN active and
retired staff), my age should not be a constraint to SNV which would not need
to cover me medically (as a comparison for the last 22 months I have
been working for AGRER with LCBC at N’Djaména, which recruited me on the
condition that I had to be privately covered by a medical insurance company, which has been the case
with Van Breda International since December 1979).

Many thanks for your kind
attention. Happy to hear from you at your earliest convenience.