A team of Graduate Institute researchers has just returned from Cambodia, where they joined local partners to implement the first phase of a major research project on Gender, Land and the Right to Food. The DEMETER project team, which in addition to Cambodian researchers includes researchers from University of Ghana, engaged in an iterative process to develop data collection tools, and Graduate Institute faculty, delivered practical qualitative methodology training. In addition to visiting a field site in Kampong Thom, the team held a workshop with NGO and civil society stakeholders in Phnom Penh and, on the occasion of World Food Day, co-organised a large rally in Kandal province attended by the Minister of Agriculture, which stressed the importance of social protection and agriculture in eradicating hunger and poverty.

The trip was led by Elisabeth Prügl, Director of the Graduate Institute’s Programme on Gender and Global Change.  Professor Prügl said “Women have been at the forefront of protesting rights violations associated with large-scale land acquisitions in Cambodia. The DEMETER project is unique in that it draws attention to the gendered effects of accelerated land commercialization.”