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 […]
About Community Media Fund 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 of transparency, accountability and governance. The Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa […]
Photo: Bert Kaufmann Calling all open contracting champions and innovators! March 14, 2017 #OCGlobal17, Amsterdam, 28 & 29 November 2017 Open contracting is one of the most exciting areas in modernizing government, fighting corruption, reforming markets and fostering business innovation and entrepreneurship. Better, smarter and fairer government contracting will have a huge impact on citizens’ […]
Just one day at the 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW61) showed me that this year’s theme, ‘Women’s Economic Empowerment in the changing world of work’, may finally bring some well-deserved attention to the feminization of migration and the plight of women in domestic work. But – will this attention […]
Ethiopia has built more than 15,000 bio-digesters since 2009. They have changed the lives of women not only by providing clean energy, but also by freeing up their income to invest in profitable businesses. Women and girls play critical roles in supplying household fuels in countries like Ethiopia, where 95 per cent of households depend […]
Last week, the world celebrated the International Women’s Day. While tremendous gains have been made economically, socially and politically in the last decade for women, a lot more still needs to be done. Take for example the role of women in food production. Over the weekend, The New Vision newspaper, Uganda, highlighted a story noting […]
Within the first week of assuming office, US President Donald Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy, also known as the Global Gag Rule. Simply, this policy prohibits any entity that receives US Government (USG) funding from carrying out any abortion-related activity, regardless of the source of funds. This Mexico City Policy is a partisan affair […]
Drought and the climate changing patterns cannot be separated from food security. These are some of the factors that have given rise to the open source seeds initiative globally. With the changing rainfall partners, farmers will need access to a wide variety of climate-resilient seeds which many times are not always ‘free’. The Open Source […]
On International Women’s Day 2017, Hivos celebrates the achievements of our programmes and partners in driving change for women and helping accelerate gender parity across the world. Together we are creating a gender inclusive green society, where women and men have equal access to – and control over – renewable energy and sufficient, nutritious and […]