FETE kick-off workshop in Tanzania

The inaugural workshop for the "Food Environments in Transitioning Economies" (FETE) project was held from November 21 to 24. This event was marked by a gathering of approximately 20 project participants in front of the Sokoine University of Agriculture’s main building in Morogoro, Tanzania, as captured in the photograph provided by the university.

Four years after the project's inception, partners from the FETE consortium came together in person for the first time. The meeting aimed to establish a unified understanding of the project’s goals, action plans, roles, organisational frameworks, and administrative processes.

The workshop was hosted by the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in collaboration with the Thünen Institute for Market Analysis and convened in Morogoro, Tanzania. Alongside SUA and the Thünen Institute, other contributing research entities included the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-STEPRI), the University of Nottingham Malaysia (UNM), and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).

The kick-off event for FETE saw the participation of 18 researchers and 4 administrative staff from Ghana, Malaysia, South Africa, Tanzania, and Germany. Characterized by its diverse and multidisciplinary team, the project over the next three years will explore food environments in selected regions across sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. It aims to devise strategies for healthier and more sustainable food systems. Utilising various research methodologies, the project will evaluate both personal and external food environments, including the governing policy landscape. Collaboratively with local stakeholders, the project endeavours to formulate evidence-based policy recommendations.