Network Meeting of the Bilateral SDG Graduate Schools: “Making SDGs reality?”

November 28 - December 2, 2018 in Hawassa, Ethiopia.

On November 28 – December 2, 2018 the German-Ethiopian SDG graduate school “Climate Change Effects on Food Security” (CLIFOOD) organized and hosted the first Network Meeting of the 7 SDG Graduate Schools on the African continent. At Hawassa University, Ethiopia, the  SDG Graduate Schools met up to discuss jointly how the main challenges in terms of higher education and SDGs achievements could be addressed:

• Participation of different stakeholders
• Integration (using of synergies, conflict of objectives, interactions)
• ‘leave no one behind’ (first experiences in addressing poverty and social inequality, human rights, avoiding discrimination and marginalization)
• Security (regarding different aspects such as Higher Education, Pros and Cons: tri- or bilateral, emergency state in the country)

DAAD representatives and external experts from CLEAN-AFRICA e.V. (Germany), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technlogy (Ghana) and Agenda 2030 Facilitator from the Global Governance Institute (GGI) Brussels contributed their valuable experience.

Parallel to the SDG network meeting the CLIFOOD Block Seminar (part of the qualification program) entitled “Sustainable Intensification of African Livestock Systems in a Changing World” was conducted. Participants of the Network Meeting joined the official day of the Block Seminar with a key note speaker from the Human Nutrition Program of Ethiopia, Save the Children (Ethiopia). Furthermore, the main outcomes of the Network Meeting were presented during this public event.

SDG Graduate Schools are supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).