The Demeter Project is organizing a High-Level Policy Dialog (HLPD) in partnership with the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) to discuss the implications of the research findings which have already been shared with stakeholders in Ghana, Cambodia, at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York and at research conferences in Europe, South East Asia and North America.

From the start, the Project aimed to involve regional stakeholders in our research and dissemination. The HLPD aims to promote research uptake in among regional policy makers. This is particularly important since the implications of regional and global institutions, policies and legal instruments for land and agricultural commercialisation, gendered agrarian transformation and the right to food are already analysed. Although the studies were conducted in Ghana and Cambodia, different models of agricultural commercialisation offer important lessons to African countries. Moreover, the design of the study, which provided three entry points- rural livelihoods, policy and power constellations and legal and human rights institutions, provides insights that studies using one entry point are not likely to have.  

The half day event will take place on Wednesday 6^th June from 9.00am to 2pm at the UNECA, and will consist of several presentations from researchers from Ghana, Lesotho and Cambodia and discussions of lessons learned. The event aims to:

• Disseminate and reflect on research findings of the Demeter Project in the three main areas of research- gendered livelihoods and food security; policies and politics; and legal institutions and the right to food; as well as comparable research on Lesotho on these issues.
• Dialogue on the policy recommendations from the Research and possible future actions to promote policy change
• Identify and establish or strengthen linkages with other relevant regional institutions and events for future dissemination and policy dialogue.

Participants would sharpen their knowledge about land and agricultural commercialisation and its livelihoods outcomes; relevant regional and global policy frameworks and legal and human rights instruments from a gender equality and women’s empowerment and a right to food perspective. They will also discuss promising policy directions for strengthening gender equitable livelihood outcomes and the right to food in contexts of land and agricultural commercialisation.