Background

Contract farming is increasingly viewed as a promising alternative business model, particularly as the negative impacts of large-scale, land-based investments become more widely known. It allows farmers to retain control over their land while offering a predictable income and improved access to inputs.

However, these schemes often favour better-off male farmers and tend to negatively affect women. Research shows that women frequently perform most of the labour but are excluded from both decision making and the contracts themselves. In many cases, their subsistence farming activities are displaced by contracted crops.

About the Event

This session at the 2025 Global Land Forum in Bogotá, Colombia, will present innovative legislative and contractual solutions, including model legal drafting, that can be adopted and adapted to address the challenges posed by contract farming for women and local food security.

Participants will learn from the speakers and each other and share their own experiences, best practices, challenges, and lessons learned.

Speakers

• Nyaguthii Maina, Associate and International Law Advisor, Agriculture and Investment, IISD
• Teemu Viinikainen, International Legal Consultant, Development Law Service, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Dr. Priscila Pereira de Andrade, Legal Officer, UNIDROIT - International Institute for the Unification of Private Law
• James Mulbah Yarsiah, Executive Director, Facilitator, National Land Coalition Liberia

The rules-based multilateral trading system has underpinned international economic cooperation for over 3 decades. But in an era defined by geostrategic competition, climate urgency, and widening inequality, the system is under intense scrutiny. Can it still deliver for development?

Alongside the Fourteenth WTO Ministerial Conference (MC14), IISD’s Trade + Sustainability (T+S) Hub 2026 convened thought leaders from governments, international organizations, business, and civil society to tackle this question head-on. Set in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the Hub was a space for open dialogue on how trade policy can evolve to meet today’s global challenges—and how to forge a more inclusive, sustainable system.

Delivering for development: What is possible and how do we get there?

As the global community grapples with development setbacks, geopolitical shifts, and climate pressures, the T+S Hub explored how international trade policy can serve as a constructive force. Sessions covered topics on the official WTO agenda, including key MC14 decisions, while also looking beyond to the fast-evolving trade landscape of coalitions, regional deals, and unilateral action.

Discussions unfolded across three key thematic streams:

What did the Hub look like

The T+S Hub took place from Thursday, March 26 to Saturday, March 28, 2026, in parallel with MC14, and featured the following:

• plenary conversations with high-profile speakers,
• boardroom-style sessions curated by expert organizations in three parallel streams, and
• networking breaks and receptions to build relationships and spark collaboration.

When and where?

The T+S Hub took place at the Hilton Yaoundé Hotel in Yaoundé, Cameroon from March 26 to 28, 2026.

Learn more about the Hub here.

To address the need for more responsible and sustainable investment in food, agriculture, and forestry in Southeast Asia, the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministers adopted the ASEAN Guidelines on Promoting Responsible Investment in Food, Agriculture and Forestry (ASEAN RAI) in 2018. 

IISD has been working with the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to raise awareness of the ASEAN RAI among ASEAN’s parliamentarians and equip them with the knowledge they need to promote and lead in the application of the guidelines in their countries. 

This collaboration involved workshops held in April and July 2024, which informed the development of an ASEAN RAI Parliamentary Implementation Framework and set out specific activities that AIPA member parliaments can undertake to support the application of the guidelines.
 
In October 2024, the 45th AIPA General Assembly adopted a resolution, co-sponsored by Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam, formally endorsing the Implementation Framework. This action underscored the crucial role of parliamentary leadership in promoting the ASEAN RAI. The AIPA General Assembly then called on AIPA member parliaments to champion responsible investment and sustainable practices. 

About the Event

Building on this momentum, this event brings AIPA member parliaments, other stakeholders, and potential partners together to explore and promote collaboration on implementing the ASEAN RAI Parliamentary Implementation Framework.

The primary objectives of this event are to (i) lay the groundwork for the application of the ASEAN RAI Parliamentary Implementation Framework by identifying AIPA member parliaments keen to champion specific activities under the framework and (ii) deepen engagement with interested partners on opportunities to support the implementation of these activities. 

Europe’s demand for gas is contributing to a wave of liquid natural gas (LNG) projects in Mozambique, Nigeria, and Senegal. This favours the interests of European oil and gas companies over those of African countries, research shows. Experts will set out the risks of banking on LNG for development and call on European leaders to support a more sustainable model.

Speakers

Denis Gyeyir, Africa Senior Program Officer, Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI)

Karabo Mokgonyana, Power Shift Africa

Vance Culbert, Senior Policy Advisor & Secretariat Manager, COFFIS, IISD

Media Contacts

Megan Darby, Senior Communications Officer, Energy (Baku) – [email protected]
 

Having a robust system for monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) that deepens understanding of what is working, how, and for whom, offers a critical foundation for building effective and equitable NAP processes.

This session aims to increase the knowledge and capacity of country governments, as well as actors supporting them, in developing and strengthening MEL systems for NAP processes. This session features the recent collaborative publication of the NAP Global Network and the UNFCCC Adaptation Committee that aims to build capacity and enhance the knowledge of countries’ teams in strengthening MEL systems.

This event will be held at the 6th Capacity-building Hub | PCCB.

Get the full list of NAP Global Network events at COP 29 here.

To respond to climate change risks, Kiribati is scaling up the implementation of its second Joint Implementation Plan on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management (KJIP) 2019–2028. The KJIP consolidates existing national and sectoral policies and strategies developed for climate change and disaster risk management, articulating 12 strategies and associated priority actions for climate change and disaster risk management.   

This event will share Kiribati’s stories of progress and challenges in navigating the transition from planning to implementation of its KJIP. It also aims to share lessons from Kiribati’s engagement with technical partners and peer countries on the NAP process and highlight the country’s additional support needs for adaptation planning and implementation.

This event will be held at the Moana Pacific Blue Pavilion.

Get the full list of NAP Global Network events at COP 29 here.

Almost all developing countries have a national adaptation plan (NAP) process underway. This event will highlight significant milestones achieved in national adaptation planning globally, and the opportunity to reflect this progress—alongside gaps and needs—in the adaptation chapter of updated nationally determined contributions (NDCs).  

This event will

• profile stories of progress on adaptation planning, implementation, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning; 
• share how countries are navigating the transition from planning to implementation of adaptation priorities articulated in NAPs and NDCs, including mobilizing finance; 
• enhance overall understanding of the relationship between the NAP and the adaptation components of the NDC as well as opportunities and benefits of linking related adaptation planning processes;
• highlight country support needs on adaptation planning.

This event will be held at the NDC Partnership Pavilion.

Get the full list of NAP Global Network events at COP 29 here.

Since the launch of the process to formulate and implement NAPs at COP 16, countries have made significant progress, but challenges and gaps remain. This event will celebrate progress and share lessons learned from the past decade of work on NAPs and galvanize further cooperation to strengthen and accelerate NAP processes. A high-level panel of governments, UN agencies, and technical assistance partners will discuss challenges and opportunities related to the NAP process with a view to increasing political attention to support the achievement of the global stocktake (GST) call for Parties that have not yet done so to have in place their national adaptation plans, policies, and planning processes by 2025 and to have progressed in implementing them by 2030.

Responding to the GST, Azerbaijan, as the COP 29 Presidency, calls on all Parties to commit to producing NAPs by 2025. The COP 29 Presidency is aware of the significant challenges that developing countries face in accessing finance for implementing their NAPs; thus, the Presidency is ready to enable greater action on NAPs.

This event will be held at the Hirkan Room.

Get the full list of NAP Global Network events at COP 29 here.

Countries are expected to submit their updated NDCs in early 2025. For countries that include or expand the adaptation information in their NDCs, this update is an opportunity to communicate enhanced ambition on adaptation in line with the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience, as well as to strengthen alignment between NDCs and NAPs. NDCs and NAPs are complementary—NDCs present the country’s higher-level vision, objectives, and priorities for adaptation, while the NAP process allows countries to identify, address, and review their adaptation needs while advancing the implementation of adaptation measures. 

Representatives from Belize, Burundi, and Suriname will share their perspectives on the way forward to strengthen alignment and coherence between the NDC and NAP, the challenges they have encountered, and how they are moving forward.

This event will be held at the Canadian Pavilion.

Get the full list of NAP Global Network events at COP 29 here.

Since the launch of the process to formulate and implement NAPs at COP 16 in 2010, countries have made significant progress on adaptation planning and implementation. The NAP process remains critical for identifying adaptation priorities, driving action across governments, sectors and ministries, engaging non-state actors, and unlocking and mobilizing desperately needed adaptation finance. Parties, including CARICOM countries, continue to work toward completion of the assessment of progress in the NAP process at COP 29.   

The NAP Global Network was established in 2014 at COP 20 in Lima, Peru, initiated by adaptation practitioners from 11 developing and developed countries. COP 29 represents a decade of action by the Network and CARICOM countries on strengthening climate resilience through the NAP process. Two thirds of the Network’s support has been for Small Island Developing States and least developed countries.   

The event will also celebrate new partnerships in accelerating and strengthening NAP processes in the Caribbean region and around the world as well as advocating for and influencing the global conversation on NAP processes.

This event will be held at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Pavilion.

Get the full list of NAP Global Network events at COP 29 here.