9-9:20AM – Welcome with Project Dandelion Co-Founders

​

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 – Closing Session

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

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 Dandelion Dialogue Feeding a Hotter World 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.