Region: Global
-
Would you like to help shape Africa’s cities?
Call for applications: Hivos announces second edition of African Crossroads Are you living or working in Africa and interested in exploring the continent’s cutting-edge trends in art, technology, design, and entrepreneurship? Would you like to join a community of Africans working to positively shape the future of African cities? Apply before June 23 to attend…
-
Botswana High Court decriminalizes homosexuality!
In a victory for the LGBT+ community in Botswana, the Gaborone High Court ruled on June 11, 2019, that the sections of Botswana’s Penal Code (Sec.164, 165 & 167) criminalizing same-sex sexual conduct are unconstitutional. The Botswana Penal Code, based on old English colonial law, describes homosexual acts as unnatural “acts against the order of…
-
Brazil’s Parliament urged to advance positive social and environmental agenda
On June 5, World Environment Day, the Collaborative Advocacy Network published an open letter signed by thirty-eight civil society organizations, including Hivos. The “Open Letter to the Brazilian Parliamentarians” urges the Brazilian Congress to advance a positive social and environmental agenda to promote sustainable development. At an event held in the Brazilian Congress on the…
-
Open up contracting, open up health
Choosing the life of an activist Oscar Guzman lives with HIV. This means he needs to take medication for the rest of his life. “I know the fear of not having access to these medicines,” he explains. Many people living with HIV don’t have access to treatment. In Guatemala, there are about 50,000 people living…
-
Open up contracting, open up water
Water is life “Water is life, and we cannot live without water.” Grenda Nyangaphiza from Chinkhwiri, Malawi, gets her water from a borehole that she shares with 1,250 people. But the borehole was only supposed to supply water to 250 people. Many boreholes in her region break and don’t get fixed, or worse, are not…
-
Tell me what you eat, and I’ll tell you who you are
The international discourse on food first shifted from “we must feed the world” to “we must nourish the world.” Now, it’s “we must nourish the world in a sustainable way for the planet.” But this way of framing the issue misses its mark because it leaves out what food really means to people. For most…
-
‘Aluta Continua’: the struggle for human rights continues
Today’s High Court ruling against the petitions seeking to decriminalize Section 162 (A, C) and 165 of the Kenyan Penal Code is a huge step backwards from the fulfilment of human rights for all. These sections – remnants of Kenya’s colonial-era laws – consider homosexual acts a felony punishable by up to 14 years of…
-
Hivos’ implementation “exceeds Global Fund’s expectations”
The Hivos program “Women, Human Rights and HIV,” implemented in collaboration with ICW Latina, was positively rated with an ‘A1 performance,’ which is the highest possible rating given by its donor, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. During a three-year period, the program succeeded in helping women draw up a regional agenda…
-
Religion: the unusual ally of LGBTI inclusion
Interview with Sheikh Ibrahim Washenga, an imam from Mombasa Kenya’s debate on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) people has been fueled by our historical penal code 162 that criminalizes homosexuality. While we could make history on May 24, 2019 by decriminalizing the penal code, justice towards LGBTI persons in Kenya still has a…
-
A grandmother’s revolution
Elena has worked for 65 of her 81 years. She moves swiftly, but calmly through the kitchen while preparing a picadillo*, making handmade tortillas and pouring coffee almost simultaneously. She explains she wants to have everything ready before her granddaughter Shi arrives. Another of her grandchildren walks through one of the kitchen’s many doors, and…
-
One step closer to equality
By Anthony Marten, Communication Officer Hivos Latin America Jess Marquez has become the first trans person in Costa Rica to legally have his gender recognized. “It’s not about me. It’s about guaranteeing rights for everyone,” Jess Márquez stated after becoming the first migrant trans person to have his chosen name and gender reflected on his…
-
Radical changes to the global food system needed to halt environmental destruction and prevent ecosystem collapse
By Nout van der Vaart, Advocacy Officer Sustainable Food One million. One million plant and animal species are potentially under threat of extinction because of human activities, especially thanks to our ever-expanding hunger for food and energy. This development is part of a wider trend. Since the 1900s, some 75 percent of plant genetic diversity…
