International DAAD Alumni Expert Seminar “Hidden Hunger” 12-19 March 2017 in Giessen and participation at the 3rd International Congress Hidden Hunger, 20-22 March 2017 in Stuttgart, Germany

On behalf of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) the Centre for International Capacity Development (CICD) at University of Siegen conducted the International DAAD Alumni Expert Seminar “Hidden Hunger” from 12 to 19 March 2017 in Giessen, Germany.

The Expert Seminar was organized in close cooperation with the Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU), Center for Development and Environmental Research (ZEU), Institute of Nutritional Sciences and Department of Agricultural and Environmental Policy.

The seminar took place at the ZEU in order to prepare for the “International Congress Hidden Hunger” from 20 to 22 March 2017 in Stuttgart.25 Alumni out of 22 countries participated in the seminar.

The main objective was to enhance competence in answering the challenges of the Nutrition – Water – Rural Development – Nexus. Existing strategies to cope with the challenges of hunger and hidden hunger in different parts of the world were compared, analyzed and further developed based on sustainable resource management. Each alumni held a short presentation about the topic of hidden hunger in their country. To visualize the results of the seminar the alumni were divided in regional groups to design posters, which were presented at the congress.

Since the alumni came from different academic backgrounds and had different expertise, some introductory presentations – e.g. on „mechanisms of food safety and food security“ or „concepts and challenges of malnutrition“ – were held by Dr Irmgard Jordan from the working group “international nutrition” (JLU). Furthermore Dr Sandra Habicht from the working group “nutrition in prevention and therapy” (JLU) spoke about the double burden of malnutrition.

The difficulty of nutrition is an important topic of the German development cooperation. Therefore Annika Reinbott from the German Development Agency (GIZ) was invited to present the project “Affordable Nutritious Foods for Women“.

To demonstrate a German high standard agricultural production site the alumni were invited to the “Hofgemeinschaft Friedelhausen”, a Demeter certified organic farm with a social therapeutic community. During a guided tour the alumni could visit different areas of the farm. Afterwards they could enjoy homemade products from the farm. The alumni visited the Justus-Liebig-Museum in Giessen and took part in a historical experimental lecture demonstrating life and research of Liebig.

Two days were jointly conducted with a second Alumni Seminar at the University of Hohenheim. Objectives were the presentation of group work in the two seminars, enhanced networking among the two Alumni groups, and the discussion of a common position as preparation for the upcoming congress. All Alumni continued the discussion on strategies to fight hidden hunger with group work focussing on the topics gender, communication, implementation, indicators, and rural-urban differentiation.

A common excursion to BASF Ludwigshafen was organised by the colleagues at Hohenheim. Next to a guided tour showing the production sites, BASF presented on “Food fortification as a sustainable business model“. A cultural tour to Ulm including a visit of the Museum für Brotkultur was another highlight of the seminar.

At the congress, Alumni took actively the chance to involve speakers of the congress in discussions and formulated their views and perspectives developed during the seminars in form of comments to the presentations. During breaks, several spontaneous side events were organized with experts for in-depth discussions and further networking. Following up the congress the alumni got the opportunity to publish their poster contributions in a book which will be edited by the congress organizers (www.hiddenhunger.uni-hohenheim.de).