Official opening of the COMIFAC Summer School in Frankfurt

On Monday, 1st of August, the official opening of this year’s Summer School took place in the Geo Centre of the Goethe University of Frankfurt. For the next two month AMBERO Consulting is organizing this Summer school in cooperation with the Centre for Interdisciplinary African Studies (ZIAF) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit mbH (GIZ).

In the course of this two month summer school, participants from the 22 member institutions of the RIFFEAC network (Réseau des institutions de Formation Forestière et Environnementale de l’Afrique Centrale) will be supported in widening their technical knowledge in the relevant fields (sustainable forest management, protected area management, climate and climate adaptation, Access and Benefit Sharing, cartography and GIS). Furthermore, they will learn how to strengthen their competences in the fields of curricula and further training modules development. Apart from that, the main emphasis will be on capacity building, regarding university marketing and the development of cooperations, both with the private and the professional sector (North-South, South-South).

In addition to the participants from the nine central African member states of the RIFFEAC network, representatives of several national institutions attended the opening ceremony. Among others, Barbara Steinbrinker, as representative for the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Prof. Dr. Andreas Junge, vice dean of the faculty of geo sciences/geography and on behalf of the University Board of Directors, as well as the two responsible project leaders of the Summer School, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Runge, director of the ZIAF and Dr. Marion Neumer from AMBERO Consulting attended the ceremony. Furthermore, a GIZ delegation consisting of Dr. Paul Scholte, responsible for the GIZ project in Cameroon, as well as Danièle Fouth Obang, responsible for the project implementation, joined the opening from Yaoundé.

While Prof. Runge welcomed the participants in his opening speech and illustrated the history of African Studies in Frankfurt and the activities of the ZIAF, other speakers highlighted the special quality of this program within the framework of the larger project context, within the GIZ’s regional support for the Central Africa Forests Commission (COMIFAC). They illustrated the additional value for all participants and hereinafter stressed the importance of interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge and capacity and knowledge production for the member states of RIFFEAC.

The RIFFEAC-Network was founded in Libreville, Gabon in 2001. It supports the promotion and further development of forestry and environment related education, as well as further training in the region. The GIZ supports RIFFEAC with the realization of its goals since 2009.

Finally, Dr. Marion Neumer from AMBERO Consulting presented this year’s program, which is composed of the ten-week summer school, a ten day study trip and the development of transfer projects. She wished everyone involved a productive working environment, interesting and sustainable encounters and success with the elaboration of valuable initiatives for central African vocational training sectors.

Read more about the Summer School at ‚AMBERO goes UNI‚