July 20, 2011
Fourteen delegates from a dozen African nations, concerned about how to keep their countries’ farms producing and people fed, came to UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health on July 18 seeking guidance.

Members of the African delegation pose during a break in the presentations at the public health school on July 18.

Members of the African delegation pose during a break in the presentations at the public health school on July 18.

The School’s Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering and the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases (IGHID) hosted the delegation. The visitors, many of whom work in ministries of agriculture and the environment, were invited to the United States through the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program.

They were brought to North Carolina by the International Affairs Council, based in Raleigh, N.C., through a project called “Sustainable Agriculture: Food Security in the Face of Global Climate Change – A Regional Project for Africa” and sponsored by area universities. Among the sponsors were The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s public health school and the IGHID; North Carolina State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Office of Global Health Initiatives; and Duke University’s Terry Sanford School of Public Policy and Nicholas School for the Environment.

The U.S. Department of State outlined specific objectives for the project, including to examine U.S.-Africa initiatives on food security, including infrastructure development and technological advancement; to provide an understanding of how good governance, including fair and transparent policies and the rule of law, stimulate growth, investment and trade while promoting sustainable development; and to learn how partnerships between the private and public sectors help lead to increased agricultural production at a lower cost to the environment, both in the U.S. and around the world.

The African delegation was interested in research conducted in the UNC public health school’s environmental sciences and engineering department regarding the impact of global climate change on food security in the U.S.

Presenters at the half-day meeting included, among others, David Marshall, PhD, research leader at the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Research Service (USDA/ARS) Plant Science Research Unit at N.C. State University, and Mark Sobsey, PhD, Kenan Distinguished Professor of environmental sciences and engineering at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. The meeting was coordinated and led by Mamie Sackey Harris, MS, MPH, Africa Programs director at the UNC IGHID, and managed by Jack Whaley, student services manager in the UNC environmental sciences and engineering department.

“We welcomed the opportunity to host the delegates here in Chapel Hill,” Harris said. “With the reality of increasingly warmer climates, the direct interface of climate change and food security, and the knowledge that climate change does not respect national borders, the opportunity to have such domestic and transnational discussions could not have been more timely. North Carolina maintains a plethora of quality expertise in global climate change and food security. Having the discussions here at UNC-Chapel Hill, in collaboration with our partner institutions, ensured a wealth of experience-sharing and created a rich environment for constructive dialogue and feedback.”

Abdulkadir Iman Mohamoud, delegate from Ethiopia and spokesperson for the group, agreed with Harris. Mohamoud expressed the delegates’ appreciation for their warm reception and the quality of the dialogue, saying that he hoped the meeting would be the start of more international interaction and collaboration around climate change and food security issues.

In addition to Mohamoud, who is livestock manager in the Crop and Rural Development Bureau, Somali Region, Ethiopia, delegates included Joaquim Duarte Gomes, director of planning, statistics and studies, in the Ministry of Agriculture, Angola; Christian Romuald Ngoma, manager of sustainable development at Polyglone Research and Consulting, in Benin; Jean de Dieu Mutabazi, director general of the Burundian Palm Oil Company, in Burundi; Fnu Kokoh Wakdet, senior agriculture engineer in the National Food Security Program, in Chad; Auguste Itoua, agricultural engineer in the Ministry of Agriculture, Congo, and Nadege Mbiali Ntsiba, program assistant, in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Congo; Jeremie Kan Kouassi, director of the Cocoa Research Station, National Agricultural Research Center, in Cote d’Ivoire; Sechaba Elliot Mokhameleli, project manager, Action Aid, in Lesotho; Abdou Maisharou, manager, socioeconomic observatories and environmental accounting, at the National Center for Ecological and Environmental Monitoring, in Niger; Omolara Abiodun Fasanmi, scientific officer in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, in Nigeria; Sokhna Mbaye Diop, assistant director of analysis, previsions and statistics, in the Ministry of Agriculture, in Senegal, and Aminata Sy, technical adviser and trade specialist in the Ministry of Commerce and Office of Trade, in Senegal; and Mery Yaou, technical assistant in the Ministry of the Environment, in Togo.

 

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.

 

 

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