Major Publication Concludes a Multi-Year Project on Agricultural Commercialisation, Gender Equality and the Right to Food

11 October 2022

The publication of the book Agricultural Commercialisation, Gender Equality and the Right to Food. Insights from Cambodia and Ghana is the culmination of a multi-year research project carried out by the Geneva Academy in partnership with the Gender Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute, the University of Ghana, the Multiangles Centre and the Centre for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the Royal University of Law and Economics in Cambodia.

Edited by our Senior Research Fellow Dr Christophe Golay and by our Associate Research Fellow Dr Joanna Bourke Martignoni, the various chapters in the book analyse processes of agricultural commercialization and their impact on gender inequalities and the enjoyment of the human rights to food, land and social security in two countries, Cambodia and Ghana.

’Profoundly different in terms of their history and location, they provide the basis for fruitful comparisons because they both transitioned to democracy in the early 1990s, made agricultural development a priority, and adopted orthodox policies of commercialization to develop the sector‘ underlines Dr Bourke Martignoni.

Chapters illustrate how commercialization processes are gendered, highlighting distinctive gender, ethnic and class dynamics in rural Ghana and Cambodia and the different outcomes these generate. They also show the ways in which food cultures are changing and the often-problematic impact of these changes on the safety and quality of food.

Specific policies and legal norms are examined, with chapters addressing the development and implementation of frameworks on the right to food and land administration. Overall, the volume brings into relief multiple dimensions shaping the outcomes of processes of commercialization, including gender orders, food cultures, policy translation, national and sub-national policies, corporate investments and programmes, and formal and informal legal norms.

’In doing so, the book offers insight into these two case countries, but also provides proposals to advance rights-based research on food security‘ explains Dr Golay.

An online launch on Friday 14 October 2022 (13:00–14:00) will discuss the major themes covered in this edited volume, in the presence of the authors and Professor Emerita Carolyn Sachs from Penn State College.

As well as this edited collection, the project has produced two short films, organised numerous policy dialogues at different levels of governance, developed four policy briefs, contributed to a Forum in the Journal of Peasant Studies as well as numerous other publications directed at policy makers, civil society, states, and international organisations.