October 6, 2003

Videoconference, Panel Discussion
To Mark World Food Day October 16

The impact of food shortages, HIV/AIDS, land and water issues, war, educational deprivation, and the burden of debt on sub-Saharan Africa will be the focus of a World Food Day videoconference, "Collaboration or Calamity: Africa in Peril," followed by a panel discussion on "Human Rights and Food Security in Africa."

The event will take place on October 16, from noon to 2:30 p.m., in the Dodd Center's Konover Auditorium.

The videoconference will be a conversation with Urban Jonsson, UNICEF regional director for eastern and southern Africa, broadcast live from George Washington University.

Panel members, who will be introduced by Provost John D. Petersen, include UConn experts Asma Abdel Halim, assistant director of women's studies; Amii Omara-Otunnu, UNESCO Chair in Comparative Human Rights; Morty Ortega, assistant professor of natural resources management and engineering; and Rafael Perez-Escamilla, associate professor of nutritional sciences. Other panelists are Michael Magwa, a professor at the University of Fort Hare, South Africa, and a visiting Fulbright Scholar; and Leslye Obiora, Gladstein Visiting Professor and a professor of law at the University of Arizona.