Niger

DW first worked in Niger in 1979, to demonstrate the ancient middle eastern techniques of earth vault and dome construction in the tiny village of Chikal, in north west Niger. These techniques developed thousands of years ago in Iran and Egypt ideally suit the increasingly treeless regions of sub saharan west Africa. The initial DW input over the next ten years led to the development of the Woodless Construction programme in Niger with support from IUCN and the Danish Government, and allowed DW to design a programme that trained hundreds of builders in Niger to build decent and sustainable housing and other buildings. The International Labour Organisation adopted the techniques to build cereal banks. In 2011 builders trained in Woodless Construction are still building using the same techniques. The programme in Niger was duplicated by DW in Mali as of 1992 and in Burkina Faso in 1995. DW also took the techniques to Mauritania, Namibia and Senegal.