Over the past two years, the government of Kenya has set out on an ambitious plan with regards to electrification of both households and public institutions through grid extension, resulting in astronomical jumps in connectivity of both schools and households. As of June 2016, the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum (MoEP) reported that 95 per […]
Call for Concept Notes for the Community Media Fund in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa The role of media and journalism is not confined to news organisations, broadcasting companies or governments—within Africa, a large and growing community media sector is linked to enterprises, civil society, educational institutions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that focus on issues […]
In the past couple of weeks, news about fraudulent tendering processes have been making headlines. The scourge of flawed procurement processes has unfortunately denied many Kenyans crucial services such as health, education, water and infrastructure amongst others. While discussions in public discourses lightly delve on proper mechanisms to fight corruption; billions of tax payers’ money […]
One of the biggest components of Hivos East Africa’s successes has been the integration of Research and Development (R&D) to inform the upscaling of proven models. The Renewable Energy programme has been keen to use R&D to inform interventions such as the development of markets for green energy services like biogas. On 3 March 2017, […]
From 3-5 April, Hivos is participating in the Sustainable Energy for All Forum (SEforAll forum) in New York. The Forum is the landmark gathering celebrating the global sustainable energy movement. It brings together over 1,000 high-level representatives from government, business, civil society and helps drive action towards achieving universal access to affordable, clean and reliable […]
Why civil society’s contribution is crucial in ensuring energy access for all To eradicate poverty and combat climate change we need universal access to clean and affordable energy. This is also included as one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG7). However, over the last years energy access has not speeded up but slowed down, especially […]
Call for Concept Notes for the Community Media Fund in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa The role of media and journalism is not confined to news organisations, broadcasting companies or governments—within Africa, a large and growing community media sector is linked to enterprises, civil society, educational institutions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that focus on issues […]
I was part of an inspiring half-day session named 100 Days of Learning, organised by the Age of Wonderland program on Valentine’s Day. An initiative to foster social innovation by facilitating co-creation between creatives in Africa, Latin America and Asia and the Netherlands. The event was organized by Guavay Tanzania, and held at Buni-COSTECH, Dar […]
The city of Valencia hosted the 3rd Internet Freedom Festival from 5-10 March 2017. The festival brought together a diverse group of over 1200 people from 114 countries to discuss issues related to privacy, anonymity, access to information and policy and advocacy for Internet freedom. Internet Freedom in Africa was widely discussed with the issues […]
‘’Farmers, too, have a voice in food security.’’ This comment represents some of the conversations during an open source seeds forum in Nakuru County on 15 to 17 March 2017 convened by Hivos East Africa, Bioversity International, Genetic Resources Research Institute and Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management – Africa. The forum drew participation from […]
Looking back on my overwhelming first time attending a Council of the Parties (COP) at COP22 in Marrakech last November, it was filled with so many meetings, side panels, negotiations and networking opportunities that it was easy to overlook the real people affected by lack of access to energy. Acronyms were flying all over the place, […]
You can almost see nothing inside the Manyatta (a home, often temporary of the Maasai/Samburu people). The window and only ventilation is the size of two adult hands. There is fire burning probably to keep the place lit up and warm given it is a rainy day. Even with the choking darkness one cannot fail […]