Region: Southern Africa

The Chipendeke Micro Hydro scheme is located approximately 80 kilometers south of Mutare, Zimbabwe’s fourth largest capital city. It provides a compelling example of how building the renewable energy value chain is essential to providing sustainable, renewable energy access to a remote, rural area. (A ‘value chain’ is the whole series of activities that create and…

The #HappyFlow campaign is lobbying for free sanitary wear to be distributed in public schools and public spaces in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The campaign is premised on the idea that sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) matter, therefore every human who experiences menstruation has a right to sanitary wear. Katswe Sistahood,…

The age of consent in terms of accessing sexual reproductive health (SRH) services such as contraceptives and HIV counselling and testing is not provided for in laws and policies in the majority of countries in Southern Africa. This has created barriers for young people to access SHR services. To address this critical barrier preventing youth…

Sanitary wear is considered a luxury item that is often sold at prohibitive prices for the majority of girls and women living in Southern Africa. As a result, girls who are menstruating are reluctant to go to school if they cannot afford sanitary pads or may engage in transactional sex to pay for them. Many…

Hivos Southern Africa in partnership with Practical Action and Zimbabwe Environmental Regional Organisation (ZERO) recently organised a learning tour to a community energy project in the Eastern Highlands, Zimbabwe. The community outreach exposed Hivos’ partners under the Green and Inclusive Energy (GIE) programme, journalists and creatives to the successes and challenges that face community-based renewable energy projects. The…

The Chitoro river – vital in supplying water that powers the Chipendeke Micro Hydro Scheme in this remote, rural village in eastern Zimbabwe – is in a sorry state, to put it bluntly. It is filled with sand, a deteriorating ecosystem and only a trickle of water seeping from its riverbed. For the past two…

Hivos Southern Africa is currently spearheading a regional advocacy campaign on safe abortion in partnership with Students and Youth Working on reproductive Health Action Team (SAYWHAT). SAYWHAT facilitates students and youth to discuss sexual and reproductive health challenges and further develop advocacy initiatives. Funding for the project is provided through the Hivos Southern Africa Sexual…

Zimbabwe adopted a new Constitution in 2013, putting an end to the post-war Lancaster House Constitution that had been used as the country’s supreme law since 1980. However, since 2013, very little progress has been made in aligning the country’s laws to the new constitution. The fact that the current constitution and the notion of…

The Regional Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights Fund, established by Hivos and the Ford Foundation, is a regional fund committed to supporting initiatives that establish, protect and advance Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for all people living in Southern Africa, especially women and children. The right to accessing a safe legal abortion is integral…

Yosef Banda, a Malawi smallholder farmer, like many farmers in Southern Africa, did not produce enough maize in the 2015-2016 farming season. Climatic changes have been wrecking havoc in the region resulting in farmers facing hunger due to worsening droughts. Approximately 70 percent of the people in Southern Africa live in rural areas and depend…