Region: Global
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‘Bio-slurry is the life line of my farm’
James Namara is a retired public servant living in Ntungamo district. James constructed his biogas plant in 2010. Since that time, he has been using bio-slurry to fertilize his farm. He developed a lot of interest in the bio-slurry use and production that he has now become a model farmer in his district. He emphasizes…
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Open contracting at the Africa Open Data Conference
The second Africa Open Data Conference is being held in Accra, Ghana from 17 to 21 July 2017 at the Accra International Conference Centre. This year, various African countries will be represented through government leaders, industry executives, civil society, telecommunications organisations, researchers, data journalists, students, innovators, entrepreneurs, donors, investors, farmers, health care workers and others. The core…
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Hivos East Africa condemns extrajudicial killing of Ugandan human rights activist
Hivos East Africa has received reports about the extra judicial killing of Mr. Erasmus Irumba, Coordinator of the Twerwaneho Listeners Club (TLC). TLC is an NGO based in the Rwenzori region of western Uganda. It promotes human rights advocacy through weekly radio programmes on human rights education and social accountability. Erasmus’ day to day work at…
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Human rights defenders arrested in Turkey are innocent. Take action!
On the evening of 5 July, we received the news that all the participants of a digital security training organised by Hivos in Turkey had been arrested and placed in incommunicado detention. This is the first time such a thing has happened to Hivos. The detainees include a trainer from Germany, a trainer from Sweden,…
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Workplace diversity and inclusion in the 21st Century
What is workplace diversity? This is the question we sought to answer on 5 July 2017 when we congregated in Nairobi with various stakeholders across sectors during the launch of the colorful workplaces programme. I must say I was quite nervous when we were putting this event together. I wondered how it would be received…
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Hivos condemns arrests of human rights defenders in Istanbul
On 6 July in the middle of the night, we received the news that all the participants of a digital security training organised by Hivos in Turkey had been arrested and placed in incommunicado detention. The arrestees include a trainer from Germany, a trainer from Sweden, the director of Amnesty International in Turkey, and individual…
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First Sustainable Food Systems conference held in Pretoria
From 21 to 23 June, over 150 representatives from governments, private sector and civil society gathered in Pretoria, South Africa, for the first global conference of the 10 Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Food Systems (SFS). Hivos, together with the other co-leads of the programme (WWF, and the governments of Switzerland and South Africa),…
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Malawi: Freedom of information and public contracting
Malawi’s new Access to Information Act signifies a new dawn particularly on the road to enabling increased disclosure in public contracts. Assented in February 2017 by President Peter Mutharika, many Malawians welcomed the move and this signalled a shift in opening up public access to government information. This means, citizens can now access information from…
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Stop Child Labour signs gold chain agreement with government, companies and CSOs
Edward Huizing, executive director of Hivos, which coordinates the Stop Child Labour coalition, signed the International Responsible Business Conduct (IRBC) Agreement for a responsible gold value chain on June 19, together with Philips, Fairphone, IUCN NL, FNV and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. By signing the agreement, facilitated by the Social and Economic Council of…
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Raising our voice
Read this interview in Spanish here. I am Angélica Choc, a Maya-Q’eqchi ‘ native1 human rights defender and defender of El Estor community of the Izabal Department in Guatemala. I am a woman who calls out and defends the land because I do not want to leave this place, as I was born here, this is…
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Open Source Seed Systems improve farmers’ access to diverse seeds
Agriculture forms the backbone of Tanzania’s economy, providing employment to about 80 percent of the population and contributing to 24.5 percent of the country’s GDP. Despite its contribution to food security and livelihoods, the sector faces a number of challenges related to productivity, among them farmers’ access to seeds. This is one of the reasons…
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Ethiopia projected as the fastest growing economy in Africa but lacks a minimum wage
The World Bank on June 7, 2017 projected Ethiopia as the fastest growing economy in Africa. In a report, Global Economic Prospects: Sub-Saharan Africa, the bank predicted Ethiopia to be at 8.3 per cent followed by Ghana and Tanzania at 7.2 and 7.8 respectively. Does this forecasted growth, however, mean better living standards for its…
