The Association la Voute Nubienne (AVN) is an NGO registered in France and in Burkina Faso; founded in the year 2000, it promotes the construction, in the Sahel region of Africa, of timberless vaulted earth brick houses which are environmentally friendly, sustainable, affordable, and comfortable, using a now well-proven technique: la Voute Nubienne (VN).

The VN technique, a simplified, standardised, adaptation of an age-old technique from the Nubian region of Egypt, is relatively unknown in the Sahel and West Africa. This simplified technique - an exemplar of South > South technology transfer. - has been validated at the technical and socio-economic levels during the first few years of AVN's activity and is now in a phase of development and scaling up.

Through its Earth roofs in the Sahel Programme, the AVN organises the recruitment and on-the-job training of VN builders in the Sahel, helps them to become independent VN entrepreneurs, and provides a developing pool of clients for them through its promotional, communication, and networking activities.

Key beneficiaries of this project are rural families who acquire VN homes, local builders and apprentices working for the programme who become independent VN artisans and entrepreneurs, and the associated workers (earth brick makers, transporters, labourers). Scarce funds previously used for buying imported roofing materials stay in, and stimulate, the local economy.

Over the last eight years, the 'Earth roofs in the Sahel' Programme has seen an average annual growth rate of 70% in the numbers of vaults built and VN masons trained. By the end of 2008, the Program's results include:

• 550 vaults built, mainly for family homes, but also for public buildings (schools, dispensaries, churches...)
• 115 VN masons trained
• 170 apprentices in training
• 3000 months of wages generated
• 4,500 direct beneficiaries.

The AVN Programme, which started in the small town of Boromo, in central Burkina Faso, has spread to many parts of the country, and beyond, with trained VN builders in Mali, Senegal, Togo, Ivory Coast. and Guinea. The potential social impact of the Program is considerable, at several levels: housing, design and construction methods, employment, import substitution, sustainability....