With great pride, Both ENDS launches today it’s new strategy for the coming 5 years: “Connecting people for an environmentally just world”. This strategy was developed in close collaboration with our partner network, which has always been, and still is, the foundation of our work. Together, we strive for an environmentally just world in which people and ecosystems thrive and all people can live a life of dignity.
The network of international trade and investment treaties is large and complex. The Netherlands alone has signed more than 70 bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and is party to the trade and investment agreements concluded by the EU, like the EU-Mercosur and EU-Indonesia trade deals.
Because of the close relationship with their living environment, local communities often have the best ideas for the sustainable and equitable use and governance of land, water and forests. These environmentally just practices and processes successfully protect and restore ecosystems and address climate change. They are essential in the light of the multiple crises the world faces, but are in dire need of financial and policy support.
By Fernando Hernández Espino and Bart-Jaap Verbeek
Almost a year after African civil society gathered in Uganda to adopt the Entebbe Declaration, the call to transform international investment governance continues to gain strength. From the 6th to the 9th of October, over 50 civil society organisations from across West Africa, including from Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Gambia, Sierra Leone, as well as from Kenya and Latin America, are convening in Accra to deepen and operationalise the Declaration’s vision.