The fifth Research and Innovation Session took place in Malawi, Africa. This makes it the second R&IS, that took place outside of Europe, after the Session in the Argentinian Andes in February-March 2023. It was held for 4 weeks, from February to March 2024. The hosting institution, the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Ressources (LUANAR), welcomed 13 participants from 8 different countries, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Slovenia, Germany, Italy, Norway and the USA. Besides the external participants, there was a strong support from staff and students from LUANAR. Altogether, 22 motivated local Malawians helped a lot with organizing and supporting the session, while it was ongoing. The session was organized in cooperation with the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) and the projects Transform and FoodMa.
They worked side by side with us and joined at the total of 40 initiatives that were visited and interviewed in a total of 4 different Districts, from which 3 are in the Central Region, and 1 in the Northern Region of Malawi. The session started in Lilongwe with the opening meeting of all participants at LUANAR. Accomodated in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, we visited initiatives around the Districts of Mchinji and Dowa, which are accessible from the capital within one day. After travelling north to the city Mzuzu, we visited Initiatives in the District of Rumphi, before travelling back to Lilongwe.
There, we finished the session with a 2-day conference at LUANAR, with stakeholders, researchers and students.
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