In October 2024, the Vice Rectorate of the United Nations University in Europe (UNU-VIE) organised a hackathon in Niamey, Niger, as part of the CLIENT II project RETO-DOSSO. The event marked the establishment of a Living Lab. The aim of the Living Lab is to promote innovation around an Internet of Things (IoT)-based agricultural production and to improve the distribution of water resources. The hackathon raised awareness among students and young professionals about the use of IoT in precision agriculture. Participants developed five solutions during the hackathon.

In June 2024, research partners of the SUFACHAIN project from the Technical University Dresden and the Kyrgyz State Technical University (KSTU), in collaboration with local colleagues from Osh Technological University, have conducted a training for farmers and fruit and nut processors in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

In September 2024, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz travelled to Kazakhstan as part of his trip to Central Asia to further deepen the already extensive partnership with the country. The joint final declaration emphasises the importance of cooperation in education and science between the two countries. The contribution of the CASIB project office, funded by the BMBF under CLIENT II, to research cooperation is emphasised.

On 21 June 2024, CASIB organized an excursion to the partner universities and a test facility of the KendyrTex project in Almaty for the German conference delegation, consisting of project managers and project executing agency DLR-PT, as part of the CLIENT II Wrap-up Conference 2024.

One year before the end of the CLIENT II funding programme “International Partnerships for Sustainable Innovation”, CASIB organized a wrap-up conference for the regional project partners from Central Asia and Mongolia in Almaty on 20 June 2024 with the support of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and DLR-PT.

After looking at how CLIENT II projects contributed to SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals in our last newsletter, this time we turn to SDG 12 – the SDG where the CLIENT II programme makes its second largest contribution. This Sustainable Development Goal aims to “ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns” to “sustain the livelihoods of current and future generations”.

In July 2024, the German-Jordanian CLIENT II project CapTain Rain came to an end. Two events were held in Amman and Wadi Musa to present and discuss the results of the project. Both events were successful and a continuation of the cooperation was discussed. The products of the project, such as flash flood risk maps, hydrological models, climate and water data portals for Jordan and the vulnerability analysis, were also successfully handed over to the partners. The results are documented in an online wiki and will be available even after the project has ended.

Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia and the coldest capital in the world, suffers from extreme air pollution. During the seven-month winter period with temperatures as low as minus 30°C, residents are dependent on constant heating. Outdated coal-fired power stations and heating with wood and waste create a thick blanket of smog. As a part of the CLIENT II PV-2-Heat project, an international consortium worked on clean, safe and affordable heating solutions for Ulaanbaatar. The latest issue of the FONA newsletter includes a report on the project.

CLIENT II projects contribute to all of the Sustainable Development Goals between them, but there is one goal that unites them all – SDG 17. This SDG “Partnerships for the Goals” aims to “strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development”.

On 25th and 26th April 2024, scientists, entrepreneurs and representatives of civil society organisations from Germany and Central Asia participated in the SUFACHAIN project workshop at the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers Institute (TIIAME), Uzbekistan.