The YEEES Team met for the overall project kick-off. With more than 30 participants from different disciplines we successfully conducted workshops on both of the YEEES Centers, Research and Training, at the University of Namibia (UNAM).

As main results we developed the basic structure for the YEEES Training Center and made a schedule for the 2017 activities – including lectures and an interaction plan for students and researchers.

The YEEES Research Center was able to build the first international trans- und interdisciplinary (iti) research groups based on an interactive research meeting and different field excursions, e.g.,

• The Katutura Township (with a focus on township economy, education, food and urban agriculture)
• Swakopmund and Walfisbay (with a focus on distribution/ infrastructure and economy)
• The northern areas, including a part of the Etosha national park (with a focus on agriculture and farming, tourism, and mobility)

Besides the YEEES meetings, some of the YEEES professors gave a talk to UNAM students and colleagues. Prof. Dr. Dr. André Calitz offered a lecture on research methods and Prof. Dr. Jorge Marx Gómez spoke about “Big Data in Support of Sustainable Development”. We thus directly got in touch with the UNAM community.