Archives: Opinions
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Decriminalization: a new dawn for human rights in Kenya
Update: Today, May 24 2019, is a sad day indeed. The Kenyan High Court missed a golden opportunity to protect the human rights of all its citizens by failing to repeal section 162 of the penal code that criminalizes consensual sexual conduct between two adults of the same sex. So the struggle for human rights…
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Climate and development journalism
How reporting on climate and development can influence agendas At a time when deniers of climate change call it fake news, climate activists call for more rigorous action, and high-level policymakers battle over “who pays”, it is journalists who try to make sense of it all. Their difficult mission is instrumental in our understanding of…
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All Eyes on the Amazon: the future of protecting forests in Brazil
“We are protecting nature,” explained André Karipuna, a young charismatic leader of an Indigenous community in the Brazilian Amazon when he recently visited Amsterdam, after his participation at a UN meeting in Geneva, where he reported about the dramatic situation his people face through deforestation. “But we’re afraid of not being alive tomorrow anymore.” The…
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Six ways to halt the Central American crisis
Opinion by Myrtille Danse, director of Hivos Latin America Amongst this week’s pictures of the migrant caravan entering Mexico, we saw a young man carrying a baby while crossing the Suchiate River, a natural border between Guatemala and Mexico. This image of a future life being carried across a strong current trying to stop its…
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No podemos apartar la mirada de la crisis en Nicaragua
Opinión de Edwin Huizing. El conflicto en Nicaragua se está saliendo de control. Se necesita urgentemente una acción política internacional para evitar una mayor escalada, sostiene el director de Hivos, Edwin Huizing. Los Países Bajos deben tomar la iniciativa. Tan sólo 40 años después de que Daniel Ortega liderara a los sandinistas para derrocar la…
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The fallacy of recent “solutions” for African youth employment
Program development manager for social entrepreneurship at Hivos Southern Africa I’ve been to many conferences around the world to discuss youth unemployment in Africa. Ironically, I’ve seen very few African youth in attendance, let alone voicing their opinions and concerns on stage. Instead, migration and (Western) best-case models for job creation have been high on…
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No podemos apartar la mirada de la crisis en Nicaragua
Opinión de Edwin Huizing. El conflicto en Nicaragua se está saliendo de control. Se necesita urgentemente una acción política internacional para evitar una mayor escalada, sostiene el director de Hivos, Edwin Huizing. Los Países Bajos deben tomar la iniciativa. Tan sólo 40 años después de que Daniel Ortega liderara a los sandinistas para derrocar la…
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We cannot look away from the crisis in Nicaragua
The conflict in Nicaragua is spiraling out of control. International political action is urgently needed to prevent further escalation, argues Hivos Director Edwin Huizing. And the Netherlands must take the lead. Just 40 years after the Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza dictatorship, a severe crisis grips Nicaragua. Most Nicaraguans want nothing more than to see President…
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Por qué necesitamos energía renovable descentralizada para impulsar al mundo
Por qué necesitamos energía renovable descentralizada para impulsar al mundo A medida que el sector energético se transforma, crece el consenso de que la energía sostenible es un catalizador para lograr la mayoría de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS): es crucial para mejorar la salud, la educación, los empleos, la producción y la conservación…
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Why we need decentralized renewable energy to power the world
As the energy sector is transforming, there is a growing consensus that sustainable energy is a catalyst for achieving most Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): it is crucial for better health, education, jobs, food production and conservation, as well as water use and quality. This transformation involves decentralized solutions that are changing how people interact with each other and…
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Authenticity: Bringing Your ‘Full’ Self to Work
While on a flight from Washington DC to Copenhagen, I sat next to a charming middle aged African American lady who just started working as an event planner for a large tech company in San Francisco. During the conversation, I mentioned I was coming back from a conference where I presented a report on Lesbian…
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Green Entrepreneurship: helping end youth unemployment
(Photo by Tamara Kaunda for our partner IIED.) Entrepreneurs in the ‘green’ sector, by definition, provide environmentally-friendly products and services. But sometimes what defines ‘green entrepreneurs’ is the fact that they provide their products or services through an environmentally-friendly process or with the help of clean technologies – as in eco-tourism, for example. Because of…