Africa Food Environment Research Network (FERN) Initiative
Integrated into the project’s technical Work Packages are two capacity-building workshops.
Workshop 1 took place in Ghana in August 2019 – during the week of the Project Launch. It focused on strengthening project team capacity to adopt and adapt the INFORMAS protocols and processes.
Workshop 2 will convene the project team, project Advisory Board, and researchers in the African sub-region whose work relate directly to improving food environments in Africa, to share experiences, challenges and opportunities. As part of the workshop, a critical mass of experts will be identified to form Africa Food Environment Research Network (FERN). Having received the needed training, FERN members would be encouraged to implement at minimum, the Food EPI Module of INFORMAS in their respective countries. For details, visit the 1st Africa Food Environment Research Network (FERN) Meeting 2020 page.
The opportunity of such a Network to seek funding support to continue with its research and advocacy work – beyond the life of this project, will be enhanced. It is further hoped that such a network will improve South-South, and North-South FE research collaboration, and will lay the foundation for robust and innovative implementation food environment research and practice in Africa.