Both ENDS
On December 16th Jubilee Netherlands is organising a Political Café in collaboration with Both ENDS and Oxfam Novib. The purpose of the meeting is to connect the debt problems of developing countries to the current debt crisis in Europe. What lessons can be learned from past debt relief initiatives and in which way were they successful?
Regional governments in Asia will soon decide whether to proceed with the construction of Xayaburi Dam in northern Laos. This will be the first of eleven dams that are planned for the Lower Mekong Mainstream. Both ENDS asks your support in protecting The Mekong River and the millions of people who depend on it by signing the petition.
Click here to sign the petition
This year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is celebrating its 50th anniversary. On this occasion it published a book focusing on 50 years of export credits. Wiert Wiertsema (Both ENDS) writing on behalf of ECA Watch, however, thinks that this is a momentum that asks for reforms, rather than hurrays.
Replanting a watershed with trees made possible by a micro loan of € 1000: ten years later, this investment still ensures that an entire community has clean drinking water. This small success was further discussed last April at 'Small Grants', a two-day event organized by Both ENDS.
Dutch development bank FMO is considering investing in the controversial Ficohsa bank in Honduras. The bank has close ties with the elite in Honduras, which holds considerable power in politics, the (para)military and the business community. Last Wednesday, a number of Honduran organisations, including the indigenous organisation COPINH – whose leader Berta Cáceres was murdered in 2016 – sent a letter to the FMO management. The letter, signed by forty organisations including Both ENDS, calls on FMO not to do business with this bank.
Amsterdam, 3 February 2020 - A step forward, but oil and gas remain a blind spot in Dutch pension fund ABP's new investment policy published today. That's what environmental organisations Both ENDS, Fossielvrij NL, Greenpeace Netherlands and urgewald say in response to the new climate policy of the EU's largest pension fund, with assets over 442 billion euros. Although ABP is taking first steps to invest sustainably, more is needed to stop the climate crisis.
In times of ecosystem degradation, deforestation and climate change, rural communities often struggle to make a living in a healthy and autonomous way. One of the solutions to counter their problems is Analog Forestry, a sustainable practice promoted by many of Both ENDS's partners. We spoke to Carolina Sorzano Lopez*, Analog Forestry trainer from Colombia for the International Analog Forestry Network (IAFN), and Luz Marina Valle*, a local Analog Forestry promotora in her community of El Jocote in Northern Nicaragua, to explain to us the advantages of Analog Forestry.
At the beginning of this year, the Dutch government provided Dutch companies with export insurance worth 903 million euros to enable them to participate in a gigantic natural gas project in the north of Mozambique. Together with partners from Mozambique and the Netherlands, Both ENDS has been conducting a dialogue with export credit agency Atradius DSB and the responsible Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs on the possible financial, environmental and social risks of the gas project.
Oil Change International is mainly focused on research, communication, and advocacy. Charity Migwi helps with campaigning to get fossil fuel companies to face out their production of oil and gas. In Africa, for instance Nigeria and Senegal, she works together with communities, especially where the projects are happening to see how they can collaborate and strengthen each other. And they are under pressure of time. Where advocacy takes patience and time, climate change impacts are rising daily. A personal talk about the importance of things that are worth fighting for. At Both ENDS, our aim is to connect people for change.