During this period, he became a member of an international multi-disciplinary research team, whose work focused on “risks in agriculture” in semi-arid areas. This international research body, whose headquarters is in Europe, brings together researchers from the European Union and ECOWAS countries like Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo, the Ivory Coast, etc. The PhD thesis which he defended in 1997 at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands was a logical progression from the research results discovered by this international team in Burkina Faso, particularly in the provinces of Yatenga, Sanmatenga, Namentenga, Bam and Passoré. In October 1994, Paramanga Ernest Yonli was appointed, in addition to his role as researcher, as Director General of the National Fund for the Promotion of Employment (F.A.P.E.). He was tasked with reorganising this body, which is aimed at promoting the self-employment of graduates from the country's universities and professional training colleges. Upon receiving further funding, Yonli extended the Fund to craftsmen and to the informal sector. He simultaneously decentralised the Fund, opening branches in Burkina Faso's ten main towns after Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso, thus also demonstrating his sense of innovation and openness to modernisation. In 1992, during the first general elections which saw the return of Burkina Faso to rule of law, Yonli was approached to head up the list of ODP/MT candidates in his constituency of Tapoa. He declined the offer for personal reasons, but led the campaign which saw his party go on to win two of the three contested seats. During the elections for the second government of the 4th Republic in 1997, whilst simultaneously serving as Cabinet Leader for Prime Minister Kadré Désiré Ouedraogo from 1996, he headed up the list of candidates for the ruling party, which had since become the Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP). He won the two contested seats in his constituency, and would go on to do the same in 2002, in 2007 and in 2012. Although elected four times as a Member of the National Assembly (1997 to 2012), Yonli never took his seat as an MP, going on instead to occupy senior governmental posts throughout this period. Firstly, as Cabinet Leader for the Prime Minister in 1996 as mentioned above, then as Minister of Civil Service and of State Reform in 1997, and finally as Prime Minister and Head of Government in 2000, a post which he would occupy for 7 years.