At the crossroads of global research! - Web Talk Series (EN)
Online event series organized by the FU Berlin Liaison Offices
Freie Universität Berlin maintains a worldwide network of liaison offices. With their regional expertise and local networks, the 5 Liaison Offices (Beijing, Cairo, Moscow, New Delhi and São Paulo) provide support in establishing and supporting collaborations with scholars from their respective regions and FU Berlin. The idea of this new web talk series “At the Crossroads of Global Research!” is to create a platform for scholars and the public to discuss common experiences, best practices to examine possible channels of cooperation and to initiate a successful collaboration between the participating scholars and institutions with Freie Universität being the nucleus of such a collaboration.
17.06.2021 | 15:00 - 16:30
The first edition was dedicated to “Tackling SDG6: Clean water and sanitation” as it will focus on water which is fundamentally regarded as an essential resource as well as a basic human right. Bio-physical environment, society, economy, technology, and, effectively, human rights are inseparable dimensions of water starting at the scale of an individual to the global. At this first edition the experts that have joined us from Brazil, Egypt, Germany and India represented the local efforts exerted to reach the different targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goal Number 6 - to secure clean water and sanitation in their regions. After short presentations a panel discussion among the experts has shed further light on best practices and success stories that could be applied on the other regions but also on possible cross border cooperation opportunities between the different stakeholders of the water sector.
05.10.2021 | 13:00 - 14:30
The second event of the „Crossroads” series took place on Tuesday, October 5th 2021 at 13:00 CEST where the participating experts shed a light on „The Effects of Covid-19 on Food Security: Challenges and Opportunities for Transforming Food Systems”. Prof. Dr. Renata Motta from the Latin America Institute of FU Berlin has moderated the discussion between Dr. Marco Antônio Teixeira - Food for Justice Project at FU Berlin, Dr. Malancha Chakrabarty - Observer Research Foundation in India as well as Dr. Racha Ramadan - Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences of the Cairo University in Egypt.
The Covid-19 pandemic presented a crisis that reveals connections between climate change, environmental degradation and the global food system. Concerns about its impacts on food security have been present since its beginning. In a report released in June 2020, the United Nations (UN) estimated that more than 130 million people worldwide could be facing insecurity regarding food by the end of the year. Among producers, there were fears about harvest loss, disruption of food trade and closure of local markets. After one and a half years of experience of living in pandemic times, what is the scientific evidence on its effects on food security? This debate aims to exchange experiences across the globe from an interdisciplinary perspective about the pandemic and food.
