On 12 February 2018, SEAMEO BIOTROP and the Bogor City Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to formalize their collaboration for the next five years. The MoU was signed by SEAMEO BIOTROP Director Dr Irdika Mansur and Bogor City Mayor Dr Bima Arya at the City Hall.

The collaboration aims to facilitate socioeconomic development in the City through research and technology transfer, likeskills capacity building, and information exchange in support of the City’s Green Bogor Program. Specifically, both parties agreed to focus on the following projects: 1) establishment of Bogor City as a School Garden City by training school teachers at all levels and developing teaching-learning materials on agri-based technologies available at the Centre toward improving students’ literacy, nutrition and entrepreneurship; 2) development and dissemination of appropriate technology for community empowerment with special focus on urban agriculture, and 3) application of GIS and remote sensing technologies for urban planning, agriculture development, and biodiversity health monitoring.

In August 2017, SEAMEO BIOTROP conducted a focus group discussion with district officials of South and East Bogor and heads of five villages which would be the Centre’s new community outreach sites. To kick off the implementation of the MoU, the Centre will be inviting at least 15 schools from Bogor to participate in the Centre’s third offering of its training course on school garden for improving students’ literacy, nutrition and entrepreneurship.