The 2017 Human Rights Tulip has been awarded to Mexican human rights defender Graciela Pérez Rodriguez. Dutch foreign minister Halbe Zijlstra presented her with the prize this afternoon in The Hague, two days ahead of Human Rights Day (10 December). Between January and August this year alone, over 2,400 people were reported missing in Mexico. […]
Through the Women @ Work programme, Hivos and our local partners work together to improve the labour conditions for women working at international farms in Sub-Saharan Africa. Within this programme, we pay special attention to preventing gender-based violence and HIV and AIDS at the workplace as a means to increase women’s socioeconomic empowerment and wellbeing […]
Day 4: Hivos caught up with Sixolile Mbalo; a survivor, author and GBV champion, at a conference in South Africa. Sixolile shares how she took back her life and made the best out of her situation. She shares how sharing her story has freed her from its negativity and her work helping others reclaim their lives after […]
The COP23 in Bonn ended nearly two weeks ago, and during the event a number of commitments were made and initiatives sparked. Among them was the launch of the People-Centered Accelerator on the 14th of November, announced by Rachel Kyte of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) alongside ENERGIA’s Sheila Oparaocha and Frontier Markets’ Ajaita Shah. […]
Hivos Southern Africa in collaboration with Gateway Health Institute and the AIDS Foundation South Africa hosted a Networking Learning Discussion on Early and Forced Marriage. The dialogue titled: Child Marriage and Sugar Daddies held on Thursday 9 November 2017 featured youths from different institutions in South Africa. The main aim of the dialogue session was to […]
Culture and religion play a big role in how society reacts towards Gender Based Violence (GBV). Patriarchal systems stem mainly from cultural and religious values and as such in their observance and practice make it difficult for members of society that experience GBV to seek punishment for perpetrators. Women often are the ones to justify domestic violence […]
On 28 November 2017, Edwin Huizing, executive director of Hivos, opened the Open Contracting Global Summit together with Gavin Hayman, director of the Open Contracting Partnership, María Zuleta, vice chair of the Open Contracting Partnership’s advisory board, and Hans Docter, director of Sustainable Economic Development at the Dutch foreign ministry. He welcomed the attendees with […]
In a digital society, friends and enemies are made all over the world via social sites and relationships are solidified or broken by ‘hashtags’ or ‘selfies’. While online media has served many well, there has been a tragic global increase of its misuse through online victimization and gender targeted attacks. Perpetrators no longer need to look in the […]
Update 30 November 2017: At the end of the Open Contracting Global Summit on 29 November, Transparency International and its partners Hivos, CoST – the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative, Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) and Article19, launched the Clean Contracting Manifesto. The aim is to implement the whole lifecycle of public procurement in keeping with the highest possible standards of transparency, accountability and efficiency to safeguard […]
Defending the rights of journalists, enabling freedom of the press and protecting freedom of expression are crucial building blocks of democracy. However, press freedom is increasingly under siege around the world, with ever more journalists facing threats of violence or imprisonment for carrying out their duties. In Kenya, the situation is not any different. The […]
By Fauzia Mohammed The question as to whether it is a permissive society, a blind eye by the community, an ill-bred culture or weak policies at institution level that has prompted sexual harassment incidences to sky rocketing numbers remains unanswered. Regrettably, sexually inappropriate remarks towards women at work places, educational centers and society at large […]
Kenya’s creative sector has often been referred to as a sleeping giant. While the country’s economy is the biggest in Eastern Africa, its growing fashion and creative industry continues to face serious challenges in regional and global expansion. The Kenya fashion sector is currently disjointed with different value chain players participating in their own silos […]