Region: Southern Africa

  • Technology set to change agriculture practices post-COVID lockdowns

    Technology might change agricultural practices in Zimbabwe for good, once COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns have ended. This emerged when a women’s entrepreneurial training program was almost derailed because stakeholders couldn’t do required site visits on farms due to stringent lockdown rules. Drone technology came to the rescue, doing the work faster and more efficiently than otherwise…

  • Fifteen women farmers join Food for Export Masterclass 2020

    Fifteen women farmers have been selected to take part in the Food for Export Masterclass 2020 (FEM2020): a program that seeks to build the capacity of female entrepreneurs in various aspects of horticulture, dairy production, food processing and food export business with a view to turning them into successful exporters.

  • Involve marginalized groups to make food systems more climate-resilient

    Involve marginalized groups to make food systems more climate-resilient

    Written by Nout van der Vaart, Hivos Advocacy Officer Sustainable Food At last week’s 2020 High Level Political Forum (HLPF), UN member states discussed how to get back on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. They focused on a dire need for “accelerated action and transformative pathways…

  • Common cause with people in the food systems of the majority

    Common cause with people in the food systems of the majority

    Written by Bill Vorley, Research Associate, IIED, Shaping Sustainable Markets research group – June 22, 2020. Bill Vorley discusses why we need a much deeper understanding of and partnership with people in the food systems that feed and provide livelihoods for low-income women and men.  The food policy world has been abuzz with talk of transforming…

  • Green is Gold: Unleashing the potential of renewable energy in Zimbabwe

    Green is Gold: Unleashing the potential of renewable energy in Zimbabwe

    The 5th episode of Green is Gold an online series aired on the 16th of June on ZTN, exploring the full potential of renewable energy in Zimbabwe through investments.

  • 6,000 jobs on the line on horticulture farms

    More than 6,000 jobs are on the line in the horticulture sector amid calls for the government to intervene and support farming which, like other sectors of the economy, has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Collective bargaining circus continues

    A new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for the general agriculture sector has been signed even before the minimum wages of the last one have been implemented turning the whole process into a circus.

  • Gender-based violence risk spikes on farms

    Lockdown measures imposed as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic are putting women at heightened risk of gender-based violence (GBV) at home and cutting them off from essential protection services and social networks. This was revealed in a Hivos-commissioned survey by Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe (LEDRIZ) titled Impact of Covid-19 on the…

  • A new PERSPECTIVE

    PERSPECTIVE is a project that encourages artists to develop fresh content that highlights social issues. Umuntu, the digital production company behind the project, offers an alternative African narrative. It combines augmented reality and music to criticize the state of “our past, present and future” in Zimbabwe and beyond.

  • Scenes of change

    How can you fight discrimination against LGBTI people? In Zambia, the Umotto Centre of Culture decided to share stories. Their multimedia project Scenes of Change put exclusion and violations of human rights on the agenda.

  • Celebrating leading ladies in Zambian history

    With a grant from Hivos’ R.O.O.M. program, the Women’s History Museum in Zambia produced a thought-provoking documentary podcast series exploring the influence of women leaders on Zambia’s development.

  • Green Energy is the way

    Green Energy is the way

    With the cost of electricity becoming too steep for many in Southern Africa and the alternative of using firewood not being the best, what then is the solution? Green Energy is the way to go.

Support us

Help us build and strengthen social justice movements, support change-makers who confront systemic oppression, and throw a lifeline to activists in danger.