At the beginning of January, the project team established different working groups that met frequently and discussed to generate innovative solutions and ideas. The institutions signed the partnership agreements and organized the first stakeholder meetings with the Finnish Embassy in Kenya. The team also started to prepare a kick-off meeting in Nairobi, hosted by the University of Nairobi.
From March 4th to 8th, a one-week kick-off meeting took place at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. Four key experts from Universidade Lúrio and five key experts from the University of Helsinki traveled to Nairobi. The first two days focused on planning the project activities and timelines, while the last three days were dedicated to various stakeholder meetings. We visited two primary schools to discuss the school feeding programs and explored the potential collaboration. The heads of the schools described the current school feeding programs and their benefits and challenges. In addition, we visited the State Department of Agriculture in Nairobi, among other meetings. Altogether, the kick-off meeting was successful and clarified various project activities, milestones, and responsibilities, as well as the collaboration between the universities.
After the kick-off meeting, the team began preparing the updated project documents. We arranged several financial and working group meetings to further develop the project administration and activities. Additionally, the Universidade Lúrio team organized meetings with the Department of Education in Nampula. In April, the stakeholder meetings continued; three project members from the University of Helsinki traveled to Nampula, Mozambique, to meet with the World Food Programme and the Finnish Embassy in Mozambique. At the end of the inception phase, the team successfully submitted the updated inception documents to the Finnish National Agency for Education and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Finland.
- Establishment of working groups
- Signed partnership agreements
- One-week project kick-off meeting in Nairobi.
- Development of a detailed work plan and specific milestones.
- Active engagement of the various working groups in advancing their tasks.
- Revised the project documents.