INTERFACES Colloquium Series - Aperçu général

Thursday 11 January, 16-17 hrs CET, Dr. Constance Akurugu from Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies Ghana, will present on “Interrogating Field Research and Power dynamics: Towards decolonization and ethically responsible knowledge production in sub-Saharan Africa”.

The 4th edition of the INTERFACES colloquium series on 30 November 2023 saw a presentation by Juliane Wiesenhütter and Nina Bisom, both from the GIZ Sector programme soil conservation and sustainable land management, entitled “United for Land – Partners, networks and contributions from a German perspective”. Speaking to a small but very interested audience they gave well appreciated insights into international policy processes related to land management with a particular focus on Germany’s involvement.

INTERFACES Colloquium Series – #4

INTERFACES and International Day to stop Violence against Women

INTERFACES organised a special colloquium session in commemoration of the United Nations “International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women”, which is on the 25th November every year, followed by 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.

Globally, gender-based violence (GBV) is still widespread and rotes of occurrence are persistently high, no matter if we talk of the Global North or Global South. Violence against women and girls remains one of the most prevalent and pervasive human rights violations in the world. Almost one in three women worldwide have been subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both, at least once in their life or more frequently. In northern Ghana’s Savannah region, more than half of all women experience GBV, which is the highest level in Ghana.

INTERFACES Colloquium Series – Special Session

On 2 November 2023, Dr. Heike Baumüller, Senior Researcher at ZEF, gave a presentation entitled “Digitalization in Agriculture: Potentials and Pitfalls”. In it, she explained various form of digital tools, from communication tools to digital money transfer that can impact on farmers’ lives. While many digital tools are being developed and promoted, the reality shows that many small-scale farmers do not have access to high-end tools, like smart phones or tablets, or to the required bandwidth required to operate sophisticated tools. More important is the involvement of intermediaries, such as extension officers, input or output dealers. As expected, the presentation raised a very lively discussion in which participants from Africa also reported about their experiences with the use of digital information tools by small-scale farmers. Several regional projects plan to develop digital tools and examples were provided how these are co-developed with local developers and intermediaries.

INTERFACES Colloquium Series – #3

The second lecture in the INTERFACES colloquium series on « Sustainable land management in sub‐Saharan Africa: Improving livelihoods through local research » was given on 5 October 2023 by Dr. David Anaafo from WASCAL’s Competence Center in Burkina Faso.

The lecture entitled: « Will customary land rights hold in Africa » was listened to by 14 participants, the majority from Ghana themselves. The presentation, based on Dr. Anaafo’s recent research, showed exemplary how customary land rights changed over time and which consequences this may have for access, management, use and sale of land. After the presentation, a very lively debate ensued which focused in particular on the effects of land governance reform and large-scale land sales to private investors on women and on the sustainability of production especially in the Northern Region of Ghana where several of the regional projects undertake their research.

INTERFACES Colloquium Series – #2

On Thursday, 7 September, INTERFACES started the colloquium series on Sustainable land management in sub‐Saharan Africa: Improving livelihoods through local research. The inaugural presentation was given by Prof. Anna-Katharina Hornidge, Director of IDOS, Bonn, Germany. Twenty participants coming from the five projects under this funding umbrella listened to Prof. Hornidge’s presentation on “Research for the global common Good. Science as a World-making Activity”. Prof. Hornidge referred about the diversity of science systems and about the relevance of secure funding for agenda setting in science. She showed how well-funded regions dictate, wanted or unwanted, the science agenda in less-endowed regions. She also covered the need to present knowledge to stakeholders in a targeted way and how important it is to reduce the complexity of innovations by working at a local level, for example through innovation labs. A lot of her examples resonated with the experiences of the listeners which contributed to a lively debate.

INTERFACES Colloquium Series – #1