CONFERENCE AGENDA

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International Arrivals

Have you shared your arrival time with us? If not, please navigate to START HERE and do so. Attendees that are attending the May 25 Feeding a Hotter World Dandelion Dialogue are invited to arrive on the evening of May 24.
Have you shared your plans for May 25 with us yet? If not, please navigate to START HERE and do so.

9-9:20AM – Welcome with Mary Robinson

Stage setting with Mary Robinson, Project Dandelion Co-Founder

9:20-12PM – Dandelion Dialogue

Facilitated by Laura Cook

Meza — Swahili for "the table" — is a Dandelion Dialogue designed for this convening on food sovereignty, land, and the women at the centre of the world's food systems. It grounds futures thinking in something immediate and visceral: a meal. Participants are guided into a specific imagined moment in 2050 — not an abstract future but a real table, in a place they know, with people they can see — and moved through prompts that hold the sensory and the political together: what grows in the landscape surrounding this table, who cultivated it and what knowledge they carried, what is present that a mother or grandmother could not access, who is absent and why, and what it took — politically, economically, ecologically — for this meal to exist at all. Drawing on African traditions of collective gathering and using futures methodologies to move participants beyond the pressures of the immediate, Meza creates the conditions for shared imagination, unexpected connection, and honest reckoning about the moral, institutional, and economic shifts that food sovereignty demands. A detailed breakdown of the session is intentionally not provided in advance: arriving without knowing exactly what comes next is, as with all Dandelion Dialogues, helps keep the mind (and heart) open to new ways of thinking.

12-1:30PM – Lunch

Provided by Project Dandelion at The Tribe Hotel

1:45-2:45PM – Deep Dive Dialogues

Six working tables, each lightly facilitated by a participant with expertise in the table’s topic area. Each table is tasked with producing outcomes, Field Notes, that share insights, barriers, and opportunities that will be shared following the deep dives.

CHG convening participants that are present for the pre-conference are invited to choose the table whose topic is most relevant to their work / they’d like to learn more about.

Table 1: Seeds, Soil & Regeneration

What innovations in seeds, soil health, and land restoration are proving resilient under climate stress?

Table 2: Technology & Innovation for Farmers

How are precision tools & digital platforms reaching women farmers, and what barriers still exist?

Table 3: Nutrition, Health & Climate

How is climate stress shaping nutrition outcomes, and what community-led solutions are working?

Table 4: Livelihoods & Micro-Enterprise

How are women micro-entrepreneurs adapting in real time, and what would help them do it faster?

Table 5: Insurance, Risk & Policy Systems; Cooling

Where is policy failing food systems and what would more responsive / proactive frameworks look like?

Table 6: Water & Community Infrastructure

What infrastructure does a climate-resilient food system require and who builds it?

3-4PM – Table Sharebacks/Field Notes

Each table shares 5 minutes of their sharpest insights, tensions, and opportunities. The wider group will then have 5 minutes to pressure test, ask questions, give suggestions. Notes will be captured in real time by Kinaura as the foundation of the overall outcomes from the pre-conference and will be integrated into the broader strategy from the week.

4-4:30PM – Short Break

4:30 - 5:15PM – Virtual Session

Key ideas from the day's listening circle are shared back with virtual participants who are invited to react and contribute learnings. Particular focus on:

Harvest innovation and food surplus/waste reduction

Nutrition solutions that are climate resilient

Clean cooking (what’s working, what needs to change)

5:30-6PM – Travel from Tribe Hotel to Dinner Location

At 5:30PM, participants are invited to take the transportation provided by Project Dandelion to Karura Forest for a special dinner at the River Cafe.

6-9PM – Dinner Celebration at River Cafe / Afrika House

The Food/Agriculture Day cohort and the CHG Convening participants come together for a shared dinner — the first gathering of the full community.

9PM – Travel from Dinner Location to Tribe Hotel

Project Dandelion provides transport back to Tribe Hotel from the dinner location.
8:30-9AM – Coffee & Arrivals

9-9:10AM – Founders Welcome

9:10AM-12PM – Dandelion Dialogue: Climate, Health, & Gender

The day opens with a full Dandelion Dialogue. “Kaa na Moto,” Swahili for "sit with the fire," opens the convening as a collectively held space for imagination, connection, and honest reckoning. The session draws on African traditions of gathering in circle to speak truth and find a way forward together — among them Fambul Tok from Sierra Leone, the East African Baraza, the Southern African Indaba, and the Shona tradition of Dare — and uses futures methodologies to move participants beyond the pressures of the immediate and into shared thinking about what the world must become for women working at the intersection of health and climate. It is designed to surface values, build unexpected connections across capital, policy, health systems, and frontline practice, and to map honestly the moral, cultural, and institutional shifts that the next decade requires. A detailed breakdown of what participants will be asked to do is not provided in advance: the unfolding of the session is part of its design, and arriving without knowing exactly what comes next is the first thing we ask of everyone (uncomfortable though that may feel!).

12-1PM – Facilitated Lunch at Tribe Hotel

1-1:30PM – Setting the Stage

1:30-2:30PM – Where We Are: Project Dandelion Compact with Kinaura

Facilitated by Kinaura Partners, the Project Dandelion Compact will be shared to bring all attendees up to speed on progress so far, what needs pressure testing, and where we’re going from here.

2:30-3PM – Break

3-4PM – In Conversation with Jacqueline Novogratz

In conversation with Meagan Fallone and Jacqueline Novogratz: Theme on finance & moral leadership. Jacqueline Novogratz joins for a focused conversation at the intersection of capital, systems change, and what a just transition really requires.

4-4:30PM – Q&A

5-6PM – End of Day Outputs

Shared vision and framing statement agreed by the room; 3–5 high-leverage opportunity zones identified and prioritized; full-room synthesis clarifying bold and realistic pathways.

6-7PM – Break

7-9PM – Facilitated Dinner at Tribe Hotel
8:30-9AM – Coffee & Arrivals

9-9:20AM – Welcome and Regrounding

9:20AM-12PM – Pathway Architecture: From Vision to Initiative

Facilitated working session with Kinaura. Participants translate the Day 1 vision and opportunity zones into defined initiatives, identifying what is ready to move within 12–24 months and what needs to be sequenced over a 3–5 year arc. Working questions: What demonstrates readiness? What has implementation strength and scale? What enables scale and how do existing commitments align?

12-1PM – Facilitated Lunch at Tribe Hotel

1-4PM – Commitment, Sequencing, & the Road Beyond

The afternoon hardens the pathway document into owned, actionable commitments: confirmed ownership per initiative; 30/60/90-day roadmap with named accountabilities; policy insertion pathway (which processes, when, and who leads); narrative amplification plan (what travels from Nairobi and how). Particular focus on how the Compact shows up at LCAW in London and COP31.

4-4:30PM – Break

4:30-5:30PM – Virtual & In-Person Breakout Sessions

A final virtual window: participants pressure-test the pathway document and emerging commitments, with particular focus on LCAW and COP31. Is there appetite? What moments and places should be prioritized? How do we show up?

6-7PM – Break

7-9PM – Final Dinner

Closing Dinner at Tribe Hotel. A celebratory close to the main convening, each participant shares one thing they are taking with them and one commitment they are
Have you indicated which learning journey you would like to participate in and paid the participation fee? If not, please navigate to START HERE and do so.

The main conference concludes the evening of May 27. May 28 is a fully optional extension for those who wish to experience implementation on the ground in Nairobi. Participants self-select based on interest and expertise.

A curated menu of place-based journeys, each hosted by a member of the convening community:

Soils & Insect Research Lab, hosted by Wanjiru Kamau Rutenberg. Tour of a world-class research complex, including insect protein research.

The Green Belt Movement, hosted by Nyaguthii Chege. A visit to the Karura Forest with the opportunity to plant trees together, grounding climate justice in place and practice.

International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), hosted by Alessandra Galiè. ILRI is headquartered in Nairobi and conducts substantive work on climate adaptation, food systems, and gender in East Africa. A visit here connects directly to the heat and care framing at the heart of the convening.

Aga Khan University School of Nursing & Midwifery, hosted by Dr. Eunice Ndirangu, Dean. A visit to one of East Africa's leading institutions for nursing and midwifery education, grounding the convening's access-to-care thread in the realities of frontline health workforce training and women's health practice.

Participants indicate their preferred place-based trip ahead of arrivals.