We are thrilled to announce the upcoming 2nd Stakeholder Forum and Annual Partnership Meeting of the internationali cooperation project, "WATDEV - Climate Smart WATer Management and Sustainable DEVelopment for Food and Agriculture in East Africa." This Euro-African meeting will be held at CIHEAM Bari, Italy, on May 13th and 14th, 2024.
Nearly 60 participants are expected next week, among project partners and stakeholders. The WATDEV Stakeholder Forum is comprised of national and local public authorities, universities,research institutes, and value chain extension services from Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan. Their tasks will be to take stock of the relevant results achieved during the last year of the project and orient the next phases by providing recommendations for further actions, facilitating the dialogue with representatives of a wider range of actors, and helping ensure project adherence to local communities and country needs.
The CIHEAM Bari Director and AICS Cairo Director will welcome participants and open the meeting. The project officer from the DG INTPA of the European Commission will join the assembly of participants remotely.
After selecting last year in Nairobi the best agricultural practices for water, soil, and crop management in the study areas, the WATDEV project partnership has conducted a series of awareness events and training sessions, engaging key stakeholders, gathering critical data, and starting thefeasibility studies. Simultaneously, the modeling working group has been refining the integration of various models to simulate future agronomic scenarios. The International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM) Bari as the scientific and technical lead partner and the Agenzia Italiana per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo (AICS), as the project coordinator, are convening the Stakeholder Forum and project partnership at this pivotal juncture to present the project's mid-term outcomes and chart the course for future endeavors.
Besides the Members of the Stakeholder Forum, the two-day event will feature key representatives from diverse international organizations partnered with the WATDEV project, including the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), the International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC), the Italian National Research Council (CNR-IPSP), the Heliopolis University (HU), the Water Research Centre of Khartoum University (WRC), the Water and Land Resources Centre of Addis Ababa University (WRLC), and the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO). These esteemed partners play integral roles in advancing the project's objectives, leveraging their specialized knowledge and networks to enhance climate-smart water management and sustainable agricultural practices.
Funded by the DeSIRA Program of the European Union (DG INTPA), WATDEV aims to address and mitigate the problems caused by climate change in East Africa and Egypt, by boosting research and innovation in water and soil management.
Further info:
Agenda of the meeting:
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