The ASAF Board and the Service Provider had a fruitful meeting in Abidjan, Ivory Coast spanning over the course of 2 days. The meeting involved discussions over various topics relevant to ASAF's functioning and future.

On the first day of the meeting, the 24th of February, the main discussion points revolved around approving the last board meeting's minutes and discussing pending topics, recapitulating each board member's various past activities as well as outlook for the next 3 months, activity reports from the Service Provider about their own activities, contract and ASAF projects' framework, and the highlight of the day was a productive discussion with Ms. Hélène Banegas and Ms. Fiorella Perotto from the European Commission about some crucial and interesting points pertaining to ASAF going forward.

On the same evening, a networking dinner was held with relevant stakeholders to higher education and mobility, including Ms. Maria Rauscher, the director of DAAD in the Ivory Coast, His Excellency Mr. Ingo Herbert, Ambassador of Germany, Mr. Massimo Scalorbi, Head of Cooperation at the European Union Delegation, Mr. Eric Tillous, Erasmus National Focal Point, as well as Professor. Kouassi Paul Anoh, Rector of the Institut Universitaire d'Abidjan (IUA). The meeting joined these various stakeholders with local ASAF members including the Co-Ambassador Mr. Toussaint Yoboué and the board members, in order to open doors for exchange and collaboration within the field of higher education and mobility and reinforce the EU-Africa connection.

On the next day, the 25th of February, the board discussed the current Rules of Procedure and Statutes and their pros and cons, as well as how to fairly and efficiently add amendments to them. Following that, the upcoming ASAF General Forum in Nairobi, Kenya was discussed including task distribution for the various components of the event and how to make the event as consistent with ASAF's overall objectives as possible. Afterwards, other planned events and trainings for this year were discussed and we worked on defining them as clearly as possible. To wrap up the day, the ASAF annual plan was revised in order to include our newly acquired conclusions and ideas for the remainder of 2023.

The meeting was completed on the morning of the 26th of February where we had an overview of what we discussed over the course of the days, gave our feedback on good practices and what can be improved upon as well as started thinking about the next Board Meeting and our plans for it.

We believe that this meeting is a step in the right direction for ASAF as a whole and for us as a board, in order to work together more cohesively and achieve ASAF's vision by carrying out our mission together.

Imane Benrabiaa

ASAF Board President

edited by the Service Provider 

Ivory Coast, Abidjan, 26th February 2023