Call for Abstracts Workshop ‘Cross‐cutting Agriculture and Health’ Göttingen International Health Network (GIHN) in Accra, Ghana 19 May to 24 May 2012

Deadline for Submission of Abstracts for oral presentations: April 18, 2012
Submit abstract including 1 page CV to cetsaf@gwdg.de

The Centre for Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use, Section of Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture and Forestry (CeTSAF) and the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) have recently established the Göttingen International Health Network, a multidisciplinary team composed of members of UMG, CeTSAF and seven other partner faculties, aiming to substantially contribute to the development of interdisciplinary strategies on how to improve health in a resource-poor setting in Africa and to strengthen African institutions by human capacity building.
This announcement aims at the establishment of a new thematic alumni network International Health. This first announcement is directed to Alumni from West and Central Africa, and is a follow-up of a similar workshop held in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania, in December 2011.

1. Overall Goal

The overall goal of the workshop is to initiate activities for a north-south-south partnership between German and African institutions on aspects of


  • agriculture and health
  • epidemics related to human in connection with animal and plant health, and
  • health in the context of environmental issues
  • availability of sufficient and non-contaminated, high-quality food and water.


Our workshop is addressing the improvement of health as an integrated approach, specifically at the interface of agriculture/environment and health, merging natural science, medicine, social and economic science under one roof to provide an improvement of mother child health care.

2. Objectives


  • Compilation of available information on

    • i. potential risk factors in agricultural and environmental surroundings, and
      ii. presently employed measures and strategies for improving health in relation to quality of nutrition and food supply, and
      iii. needs in health related fields of agriculture (e.g. research on and detection of mycotoxin contamination, sustainable production of high quality food) and nutrition,
      iv. possible causes of maternal and child morbidity and mortality in African countries related to health problems in the context of bad quality of food and insufficient nutrition.


3. Disciplines addessed


  • Agricultural and Forest Sciences, Biology, Geography, Medicine Securing/Improving the quality of food derived from plants and animals (“Production” and Storage)
  • Agricultural and Forest Sciences, Biology, Geography Securing the access to clean water and safe food
  • Medicine, Veterinary, Plant Health Diagnose / influence / control of infections and other diseases
  • Economic Sciences Influence of economical factors
  • Social Sciences, Theology, Ethics Influence of ethnic factors, religion, gender


4. Major subject areas for the workshop

The general themes on the aspects of Health and Environment to be presented and discussed will be:


  • Securing / Improving the quality of drinking water (Agricultural and forest sciences, Biology, Geography, Medicine)
  • Securing/Improving the quality of food derived from plants and animals (“Production” and Storage) (Agricultural and forest sciences, Biology, Geography, Medicine)
  • Securing the access to clean water and safe food (Agricultural and Forest Sciences, Biology, Geography, Medicine, Economic Sciences, Theology)
  • Influence / control of infections and other diseases (Medicine)
  • Influence of economical factors (Economic Sciences)
  • Influence of ethnic factors, religion, gender (Social Sciences, Theology, Ethics)
    Available Information should be collated by the participants on


      - nutritive value of major food (concentration of trace elements in common regional foods i.e., local cereals, bovine milk and poultry meat
      - hygiene and sanitation especially on water-borne infectious diseases
      - zoonoses, pathogen-burden of potential rodent hosts, vector-borne diseases, and density of infected vectors (DIV) in health of animals and humans
      - production and quality constraints of food and fodder
      - diagnostic tools for toxin and pathogen detection in plants, animals, food and water for prophylactic monitoring and surveillance programs
      - integrated sustainable control strategies to stabilize and enhance food production and quality
      - food security and availability of water: Deriving geographic determinants affecting health
      - gender, ethical and religious issues (incl. traditional medicine) and their impact on women’s health
      - economic issues; the interdependence of so-called non-income dimensions of poverty




Costs
Travel and accommodation will be covered by DAAD. Applicants with suitable abstracts will be selected.