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, […]
Hivos Southern Africa welcomes a recent announcement made by Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland West Minister of State, Faber Chidarikire, that 300000 rural households are set to be solar powered under a $4 million facility aimed at eliminating use of non-renewable energy sources. The project, which is modelled around a prepaid system, will initially target 24000 households, and […]
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 […]
For the first time ever, a play about energy-related issues was put on in Zimbabwe at Harare’s Theatre in the Park, where some 100 spectators gathered to watch “Look No Further.” The play tells the story of an old woman who is reluctant to embrace new technology because it is against her tradition and culture. […]
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 […]
Man to woman the evening of March 8: “Your day is over, time to go back to the kitchen”. *laughter* It’s easy to assume that this type of sexist humour just comes out of typical male cafés in Lebanon. But this joke was used by seasoned Lebanese television host Marcel Ghanem in a tweet to […]
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 […]
The Zimbabwean government is currently finalizing the ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which it signed last year. The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) dealing with greenhouse gases emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020. At a Conference of the Parties (COP) 22 Feedback Meeting […]
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 […]
Hivos Southern Africa has urged civil society organizations (CSOs) to integrate social media into their communications matrix as this provides a valuable opportunity for them to reach their communications goals and new audiences more efficiently. While media polarisation in Zimbabwe has been a contentious issue over the years, so many gains have been brought by […]
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 […]