On 26 January 2017, Lebanese LGBT activists celebrated a significant victory. For the fourth time in the past eight years, a Lebanese judge ruled that homosexuality was not illegal, applying a liberal interpretation of the Lebanese penal code. The abolition of the legal article in question, no. 534, which criminalizes sexual acts contradictory to the […]
Co-authored with Ferdinand Francken, LEAD programme Coordinator, Ministry of Foreign Affairs The economic perspectives of young people in many developing countries are extremely poor, and unemployment rates staggering high. Even when jobs are available, there is often a mismatch between the skills young people can offer and those required by employers. In some of these countries, […]
Action 24, a Hivos Southern Africa partner under the Green and Inclusive Energy (GIE) programme, launched the Green Discussions Forum in Harare, Zimbabwe. The Green Discussions Forum is targeted at stimulating young people in Zimbabwe to actively take part in promoting the green agenda in Zimbabwe. Action 24 seeks to empower young people on issues […]
As Hivos, we fully believe that freedom of expression and the media is a basic requirement for citizens to stay informed, express an opinion and become civically involved in society. Across the globe, the internet has been growing as a medium of communication, facilitating freedom of expression and economic development. In countries where the internet […]
Maize – Zambia’s most favoured crop – is under attack from alien armyworms. The pest has already invaded more than 10 percent of farms in the country. The army worms are caterpillars that “march” across the landscape in large groups feasting on young plants, leaving devastation in their wake. In Zambia, maize is the primary […]
Alpha Media Holdings Conversation: Women's Empowerment and the Quota System in Zimbabwe January 19, 2017 The issue of women’s representation in Zimbabwe’s eighth Parliament came under the spotlight at the Alpha Media Holdings conversation titled: “Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality Progress in Zimbabwe: New Constitution and the Women’s Quota,” held December in Harare. The discussion […]
Open Contracting offers the government of Malawi the biggest hope in winning its war against corruption according to a new report by Hivos Southern Africa and Article 19. The report indicates that governments worldwide spend an estimated USD 9.5 trillion annually on public contracting and calls for the need to commit to open contracting standards […]
As part of the Human Rights Day 2016 commemoration in Zimbabwe, the Dutch Royal Embassy and Hivos Southern Africa invited innovators and human rights practitioners to participate in an Internet and Human Rights Innovation Challenge (IHRC). We asked innovators to share ideas on how to effectively use the internet to advance human rights in Zimbabwe. […]
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can.” Peter-Derrek Hof, Dutch Ambassador for Central America, repeated these words by Martin Luther King to officially launch Nexos, a Human Rights Program in Central America implemented by Hivos for the Embassy of the Netherlands. The initiative aims at raising awareness, strengthening the rule of law, increasing general […]
Behar Ali is a woman with a mission. As a young woman, she lived through the infamous poison gas attack on Halabja in the late eighties in Iraq. When Saddam Hussein started another campaign of violence against the Kurds in the mid-nineties, Behar fled to the Netherlands where she specialised in women’s rights. After the […]
Munya (23) works as a street vendor, selling perfumes and deodorant in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. After his first-ever relationship broke up, he found out he was HIV-positive. It was thanks to Hivos that Munya was able to access testing and treatment. On World Aids Day, he overcomes his somewhat shy nature to tell us his personal […]
The Bridges project (formerly known as Shelter Me) is a unique initiative in the Gulf region, in which Migrant-Rights.org and Hivos collaborate to improve the employment relationship between employers and their domestic workers. Part of our approach is to work with international businesses to develop a Code of Conduct to support and guide their staff […]