Environmental mainstreaming

My experience is in political journalism, media relations, policy communication, public diplomacy, strategic planning, and knowledge management with a focus on online communication and the coordination of complex international outreach programmes in emerging and developing countries on the main cooperation issues, and 25 years experience in journalism/writing. Since I believe our greatest common challenge is restoring the environmental balance, I am engaged in the EU funded Global Climate Change Alliance Plus, one of the largest initiatives to build climate resilience in the most vulnerable countries, and in the Forest for Future Facility that contributes to healthy forest ecosystems and Forest Partnerships in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Dr. Florent BLANC, Ph.D. is Director of the “Negotiators of Europe” research and training program at ESSEC Business School.
He is the consortium team leader for the implementation of the Framework Contract (HR/R1/PO/2019/024 - LOT 3) covering the conception and delivery of negotiation-related trainings and services for the European institutions. This consortium joins the teams of College of Europe and the European Institute for Public Administration (EIPA).
As part of ESSEC IRENE’s negotiation training team, Florent delivers negotiation-related modules for the European Commission, public institutions in France and around the globe as well as private sector clients.
He contributed to capacity4dev activities as a member of the pool of trainers delivering Policy Dialogue and Negotiation as well as Context for Development modules under recent training contracts. For over 7 years, he also contributed to develop and adapt dedicated training modules for EUD teams (Nepal, Ivory Coast and Barbados). He also advised EUD on contractual negotiations for large infrastructure projects.

He contributed to the EU-PALOP-TL partnership by proposing a reflexion on the dialogue mechanisms and necessary capacity-building for Members of the partnership.

Florent holds a PhD from Northwestern University where he was George Lurcy scholar (Fulbright Program 2004-2005) and adjunct professor between 2006 and 2010. With a focus on national security policies and counterterrorism, Florent taught also courses in immigration policies, social changes, legal studies and journalism methodologies. From 2011 to 2016, he was West African Program manager for a French NGO where he oversaw and delivered projects on social cohesion, crisis prevention and education policy reform, with a focus on Mali. Florent also holds a doctorate from SciencesPo Paris.

I have extensive experience in the design, implementation, and monitoring of third-party funded projects, with particular expertise in projects financed by the European Union. I am well-versed in both technical and financial requirements and understand the importance of strictly complying with donor regulations.

I possess strong teamwork and stakeholder coordination skills, and I have been responsible for managing multidisciplinary teams composed of both in-house and contracted personnel.

I also have solid analytical and organizational skills. All my roles have involved significant data analysis components, for which I have specialized in both quantitative and qualitative research and data processing techniques.

I have been working in aid for development for the last 20 years and have managed projects with a range of topics ranging from rural development, private sector development, climate change, conservation of forest, biodiversity, and ecosystems.