{"id":5958,"date":"2026-02-09T10:21:54","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T10:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foodsafety4africa.eu\/?p=5958"},"modified":"2026-02-09T15:22:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T15:22:37","slug":"fs4africa-general-assembly-february-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodsafety4africa.eu\/zu\/fs4africa-general-assembly-february-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"FS4Africa General Assembly | February 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Food Safety for Africa (FS4Africa) consortium<\/strong> successfully conducted its General Assembly<\/strong>, held virtually from February 3rd to 5th, 2026<\/strong>.<\/p>

Project partners, European Commission representatives<\/strong>, and External Advisory Board members<\/strong> gathered to strategically define actions to achieve FS4Africa’s long-term impact on food safety interventions across the African continent<\/strong>. The discussions included a briefing on the project\u2019s progress to date and highlighted the critical dimension of gender inclusion in research<\/strong>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Day 1<\/strong> of the online meeting opened with remarks from <\/span>IITA Senior Management<\/strong>, delivered by <\/span>Dr. Arega Alene<\/strong><\/a>. Following this, the assembly received critical guidance from the <\/span>European Commission<\/strong>, including remarks from the <\/span>Project Officer of the European Research Executive Agency (REA), Dr. Arianna Pasa<\/a><\/strong>, and the <\/span>Policy Officer of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD), Dr. Hans-Joerg Lutzeyer<\/a><\/strong>, who provided insights on policy alignment and opportunities for advancing the consortium’s progress in future phases. <\/span>Dr. Titilayo Falade<\/a>, FS4Africa Project Coordinator and IITA Scientist<\/strong>, provided a comprehensive project update, setting the stage for the <\/span>work package discussions<\/strong> that followed on <\/span>Day 2 (February 4th, 2026)<\/strong>. The day concluded with a <\/span>specialized seminar on gender inclusion in research<\/strong> given by <\/span>Dr. Faustina Obeng Adomaa<\/a> (IITA)<\/strong>, emphasizing the project’s commitment to integrating gender dimensions across all activities.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Day 2<\/span>\u00a0was dedicated to\u00a0updates, results, technical advancements, and strategic foresight<\/span>\u00a0in science, policy, and scaling directions of the work conducted by the consortium partners. Insights were provided by\u00a0FSTS<\/a>, Ubuntoo B.V.<\/a>, WUR<\/a>, RFF<\/a>, and IITA<\/a><\/span>\u00a0in their roles as leaders of each\u00a0Work Package (WP1\u2013WP7)<\/span>.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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A session of high importance on\u00a0sustainable food production from an ethical standpoint<\/span>\u00a0was presented by an external expert,\u00a0Prof. Ilja Pavone<\/span>. Furthermore, a deliberation on the\u00a0sustainability roadmap<\/span>\u00a0of the project\u2019s \u201cproducts\u201d was held, including the\u00a0Knowledge Platform<\/span>, the\u00a0Food Safety Operators\u2019 Network<\/span>,<\/a> and the\u00a0WFSD Symposium<\/span>. The day concluded with strategic feedback from the\u00a0External Advisory Board (EAB)<\/span>, which focused on priorities for the roadmap and enhanced networking with other\u00a0EU-funded projects<\/span>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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U-\u00a0final day (Day 3)<\/span>\u00a0focused on\u00a0practical application and management<\/span>.\u00a0Dr. Dorra Fiani<\/a>, President of the Knowledge Economy Foundation<\/span>, conducted a\u00a0hands-on training session<\/span>\u00a0for the\u00a0Food Safety Operators\u2019 Network<\/span>, a vital tool for connecting food safety stakeholders.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The assembly also reflected on the\u00a0<\/span>expansion of its network<\/span>, with more\u00a0<\/span>Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs)<\/span>\u00a0kanye\u00a0<\/span>Letters of Intent (LoIs)<\/span>\u00a0to be signed, and on further deepening the established ones with\u00a0<\/span>concrete actions for exploiting them<\/span>.<\/span>The assembly also reflected on the\u00a0<\/span>expansion of its network<\/span>, with more\u00a0<\/span>Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs)<\/span>\u00a0kanye\u00a0<\/span>Letters of Intent (LoIs)<\/span>\u00a0to be signed, and on further deepening the established ones with\u00a0<\/span>concrete actions for exploiting them<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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U-\u00a0FS4Africa consortium<\/span>\u00a0is now moving into a phase of\u00a0intensified dissemination of its outputs<\/span>, including the\u00a0core digital platforms<\/span>, to ensure a\u00a0lasting impact on food safety in Africa<\/span>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n

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    The Food Safety for Africa (FS4Africa) consortium successfully conducted its General Assembly, held virtually from February 3rd to 5th, 2026.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5986,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"iawp_total_views":68,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,17],"tags":[26,35,45],"class_list":["post-5958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsroom","category-project-news","tag-food-safety","tag-food-safety-for-africa","tag-food-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodsafety4africa.eu\/zu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodsafety4africa.eu\/zu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodsafety4africa.eu\/zu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodsafety4africa.eu\/zu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodsafety4africa.eu\/zu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5958"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/foodsafety4africa.eu\/zu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6051,"href":"https:\/\/foodsafety4africa.eu\/zu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5958\/revisions\/6051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodsafety4africa.eu\/zu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodsafety4africa.eu\/zu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodsafety4africa.eu\/zu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodsafety4africa.eu\/zu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}