I am a beneficiary of this partnership and would like to celebrate this recognition! :)

In December 2015, just a few months after The Centre of Renewable Energy and Industrial Maintenance (CERMI) of Cabo Verde was officially inaugurated in order to build capacities in renewable energy and energy efficiency, I had the opportunity of 'experiencing' the Centre (with a solar farm on site, air flow considerations displayed, energy management in use, etc). My interest in energy efficiency and sustainable building practices peeked after visiting CERMI, during the "ECOWAS Regional Training Workshop on Energy Audit for buildings", organized by ECREEE. I stayed on for a two-day Workshop for the validation of the JTA - Regional Certification Scheme for PV off-grid Installers, also organized by ECREEE, in partnership with IRENA and GIZ (with CERMI as the venue!)

The collaboration between ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) and CERMI for 10 years has been beneficial to West Africa, especially with respect to capacity building.

Congratulations and kudos to the teams!

 https://www.ecreee.org/ecreee-recognized-as-a-regional-partner-of-excellence-by-cermi/

Fast forward...I got to work with a team of three other young engineers - mainly via emails in an era where there was no Zoom or MS Teams, no working together real-time on documents, etc. The four of us were on 3 different continents. To cut a long story short - ours was one of the projects chosen to be presented at the World Engineers' Convention held in Geneva in 2011. We had to put in some hours of in-person final touches to our work; a great opportunity for knowledge-sharing and collaboration.

I got chosen at a point to represent Young Engineers on a panel, we had to present our paper together to a team of judges and other colleagues - and we also got to build some great friendships, go sightseeing and have fun :)

So...get involved. Start young. Start in your mid-years. Start 'old'. It doesn't matter when or where you start - just make a move today and keep walking.