International Working Meeting in Cameroon

FoodAfrica Home Purpose Committee Internet-based Forum International Working Meeting in Cameroon Programme Venue information Proceedings

Contact:
FoodAfrica Secretariat
Natural Resources Institute
The University of Greenwich at Medway
Central Avenue
Chatham Maritime
Kent ME4 4TB
United Kingdom

Email: Keith Tomlins
Tel: +44 (0)1634 883360
Fax: +44 (0)1634 883567
Web: www.nri.org

The FoodAfrica International Working Meeting was held in the Congress Centre/Palais de Congres, Yaounde, Cameroon from 5 to 9 May 2003. The programme included keynote presentations, offered papers, posters, discussion groups on the themes of the meeting. The Programme was set around five key themes:

• Food, nutrition and health;
• Food safety and quality management;
• Impact of urbanisation on food systems;
• Agro-food enterprises: adding value and meeting consumer demand; and
• Food security: access and quality

A total number of 547 people registered to participate in the FoodAfrica initiative; these came from 51 countries from all continents. The majority of participants were, however, from Africa and Europe. The International Working Meeting held 5 May – 9 May 2003 in Yaoundé had 137 participants. They came from 33 different countries, with the vast majority from Africa. More then 100 grants were made available for participants to attend the International Working Meeting. The main donors were the European Commission, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Who participated
Most people who registered to participate in FoodAfrica were in the field of science/research. There were 316 of these of which 90 called themselves researchers, and 84 lecturers. In addition, there were 41 food scientists, 28 agricultural scientists, 24 economists and 10 technological sciences and 39 other scientists included those working on plant sciences, pathology, entomology, chemistry and microbiology.

There were 84 young scientists of which 53 students, 13 post-doctoral and 18 in “assistant” position. There were 33 in the health sector of which 28 were nutritionists, 5 were in medical professions and in addition there were five veterinarians. Of the registrants, 27 were in leadership roles; 11 of these were professors. Fifteen contributors worked in social development.

Of the registrations, there were 17 in private sector, which included entrepreneurs, consultants and farmers.; 14 people were active in other professional fields including administration, information technology and policy.