SLU news

Tackling global challenges with know-how from international collaborations

Published: 22 September 2020
Woman giving a speech

The importance of international collaborations to tackle the current global challenges was discussed at an SLU seminar today. The starting point is an evaluation that has been conducted to highlight the results and lessons learnt from SLU’s collaborations with Vietnam during 1977-2018.

SLU:s Vice-Chancellor Maria Knutson Wedel opened the seminar and the Secretary of State Per Callenberg sent his greeting to the seminar participants via a recorded video. Vietnam’s ambassador to Sweden, H.E. Phan Dang Duong gave a welcome address followed by a presentation of the evaluation by Dr. Solveig Freudenthal, the independant consultant that performed the evaluation. 

"International collaboration is vital for SLU and is becoming more and more important to solve climate change, food security, antimicrobial resistence and other global challenges. Especially in these times, it is important to reflect on previous experiences when moving into the future." said Maria Knutson Wedel

A panel consisting of Sweden’s ambassador to Vietnam, H.E. Ann Måwe, as well as Vietnamese ministries and universities, Sida, and SLU, discussed the importance of agricultural and environmental sciences and international collaborations in tackling the current global challenges.

An open discussion with all the participants, where very important and valuable comments and reflections came up, ended the seminar.

The seminar which was mainly held online was moderated by Annika Åhnberg, Honorary Doctor at SLU and former Swedish Minister of Agriculture.

Download the seminar programme here.

Read a post from the Swedish Embassy in Hanoi has made about the seminar on Facebook.

Coming up

Workshop: Future SLU - Vietnam collaborations? 1 October

Facts:

Background

The evaluation of SLU’s collaborations with Vietnam was commissioned by SLU Global to increase SLU’s learning from past experiences and to feed into our present and future international collaborations. SLU has been engaged together with Vietnamese actors for more than four decades in a wide range of collaborative programmes and projects and through different modalities and topics. Focus of the study was on initiatives within the sectors relevant to agriculture, rural development, and forestry. The time scope for the study was 1977-2018.

Here you can find more information about the evaluation, download the report, and take part of interviews and other resources connected to the process.


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