On February 22 2024, the NEEMA consortium, held its kick-off meeting to start the beginning of the project. The event gather representatives from all partner universities and introduced groundbreaking initiatives aimed at addressing the region’s food and nutritional challenges. The event was divided into two parts, featuring presentations and discussions led by esteemed speakers and partners.
NEEMA means food in Fula, a Senegambian language. The starting hypothesis of the NEEMA project is that the conceptual framework provided by the European Green Deal (EGD) and the Farm to Fork (F2F) Strategy must be adapted to the conditions of the Sahel and West Africa (WA), identifying, minimising and reducing its negative impact on Food and Nutritional security, especially for the most vulnerable populations.
The project is aimed at achieving the following objectives:
The project will be implemented by the NEEMA consortium, established in June 2021 and made up of 14 HEIs from Africa (8) and Europe (6), with the participation of leading universities from the Ulysseus Alliance. The main outcomes of the project will be a new and adapted FNR curricula, a FNR Social Innovation Pilot Model, the development of the NEEMA Strategy and Action Plan on FNR challenges in the WA-Sahel region and the creation of a Regional FNR training and research Network. The project will contribute to strengthen and modernise the 8 participating African HEIs through the generation and transfer of new knowledge, adapted to local needs.
The Kick-off meeting is the first meeting with the project teams and partners. It communicates the project goals, objectives, work packages and tasks to ensure a smooth start of the project. It is also the time for the constitution of the Steering Committee, the principal and highest managerial decision-making body of the project.
Moderated by: Tíscar Ortega, Neema Project Manager.
10:30 Welcoming words (in English) by Pr. Carmen Vargas, Vice rector of Institutional Projection & Internationalisation, University of Seville (Spain).
10:45 General presentation of Neema (in French) by Pr. Miguel Ángel Martín, Project Coordinator, University of Seville (Spain).
11:00 Work Package 1: Management and Coordination (in French), Work Package leader: University of Seville (Spain), Tíscar Ortega, Project Manager
11:10 Work Package 2: Food and Nutritional Resilience curricula (in French), Work package leader: University of Legal and Political Sciences of Bamako (Mali) by Pr. Mamadou Nientao
11:30 Work Package 3: Social Innovation Pilot Initiative (in French), Work package leader: Kehl University of Applied Sciences (Germany) by Pr. Ewald Eisenberg
11:45 Work Package 4: Strengthening synergies and cooperation (in French), Work package leader: University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar (Senegal) by Pr. Lucienne Kodou Ndione
12:00 Work Package 5: Communication, dissemination and exploitation (in French), Work package leader: University Côte d’Azur (France) by María Hernandez
12:15 End of streaming
12:15-12:45 Break
Moderated by: Miguel Ángel Martín, Neema Project Coordinator
12:45 Constitution of the Steering Committee
13:15 Next steps
13:30 Closure
NEEMA: Capacity Building in Higher Education through the development of a Food and Nutritional Resilience curricula adapted to the European Green Deal, Farm to Fork Strategy and to the needs of West Africa. NEEMA has received funding from the European Union under the Grant Agreenment no 101128930. The views and opinions expressed in this communication are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.