portraits of the 2021 Global Opportunity Fellows from CESAAM
The 2021 CESAAM fellows participating in the Global Opportunity Initiative

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS Global) and the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, in collaboration with the Africa Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Agriculture and Agribusiness Management (CESAAM), successfully organized a series of Global Opportunity Initiative (GOI 2021) networking and capacity building collaborations. The USA-East Africa collaborations commenced in March 2021 with a series of capacity-building initiatives such as agricultural challenges and system mappings in a co-learning approach. The ten VT GOI 2021 Fellows together with thirteen others from Egerton University (Kenya), Gulu University (Uganda), Rwanda University (Rwanda), and Nelson Mandela University of Science and Technology - NMAIST (Tanzania), will continue with this collaboration even after subsequent capacity building workshops in April and May 2021.

This initiative's overall objective is to enhance the global networking opportunities for Virginia Tech Faculty and its partners. The USA and East Africa fellows are in five thematic areas: (i) human nutrition, (ii) animal health, (iii) food systems, (iv) connections, and (v) Water and Energy. Ultimately, the teams will carry out joint research projects to contribute to knowledge generation to address food and nutrition concerns.