EcoFoodSystems meets Embassy of Ireland in Ethiopia

The University of Galway’s EcoFoodSystems team recently met with the Embassy of Ireland in Ethiopia, Ambassador of Ireland to Ethiopia, Ms. Olivia Leslie met Principal Investigator Prof. Charles Spillane, Project Manager, Anna Lorente Sebastian, and EcoFoodSystems PhD Researcher Jemima O’ Farrell. The team discussed some of EcoFoodSystems’ ongoing work in the Addis Ababa city region with the delegation.

While in Addis Ababa, the project also met with stakeholders from across government, NGOs, private sector, academia and research organisations to discuss the latest prototype of the EcoFoodSystems’ City Regional Level Food Systems Decision-Support Dashboard. The dashboard – which aims to collate data related to Addis Ababa’s food system into an interactive dashboard system – was identified as a tool with high potential for enabling better decision-making across Addis Ababa food systems at the project’s Multistakeholder Research Prioritisation Workshop held earlier in March.

The team also discussed the project’s development of ‘serious games’ for food system education with secondary school students in Addis Ababa, conducted by Wageningen University & Research and the Ethiopian Public Health Institute in collaboration with Efuyegela. Project Researcher, Dawit Alemayehu Chekol, shared some of the latest findings from the piloting of the game in schools.

The EcoFoodSystems’ team look forward to continuing our work in Addis Ababa in the coming year.