In October 2022, 150 women from 14 African Countries gathered in Port Harcourt, Nigeria for the first African Women's Climate Assembly. The aim of this Assembly was to strengthen and unify women-led struggles against dirty extractives and false solutions to the climate crisis in West and Central Africa, and propose the real development solutions that support women's interests in a good and decent life and livelihoods in a time of climate crisis.
Political Cafe in the Bank We Trust: Testing the water
How can the right to water and sanitation enhance the World Bank's policy and practice in the sector?
Thursday October 9th, 2008 / 5 pm to 6.45 pm
Overflow room for Preston Auditorium, World Bank, 1818 H Street NW Washington D.C
Recently, we visited food forest Ketelbroek with a group of colleagues. This project was initiated by food forest pioneer Wouter van Eck and our own Pieter Jansen. What a beautiful place! Located between monocrop fields of ryegrass, beetroot and potatoes, the food forest is a green oasis. Birdsong fills the air and there is a constant buzz and fluttering all around. Hares, badgers, foxes and wild boars are regular visitors. And let's not forget the beavers.
“I will not go!” Sena Alouka yells in the bus along the highway as we pass a desolate farm that is totally surrounded by bulldozers and soil that has been turned and ploughed. A familiar sight for most of the riders in the bus, which includes nine Africans, an Indonesian and a handful of Dutch people. Evictions and land expropriations are an almost daily occurrence in Africa and Indonesia. And then the whole group spontaneously chants: “I will not go! We will support you!”
A coalition of NGOs today launched the Financial Exclusions Tracker, a new website that tracks which companies are being excluded by investors and banks for sustainability reasons. Most excluded corporations are barred due to links to fossil fuels, weapons or tobacco.
The ocean emerged strengthened from the UN Ocean Conference in Nice. More countries are supporting a ban on deep-sea mining, more marine protected areas are being established, and more pledges are being made to fight pollution. The question now is whether countries will follow through on their commitments. Because the ocean movement faces a camp of powerful interests.
This article was originally posted in Dutch on MO*Magazine.
Several media outlets, including de Volkskrant, focused last week on the shift from “aid” to “trade,” partly in response to the state visit of the Dutch royal couple to Kenya. The idea is that it would be beneficial for Kenya to stand on its own two feet. A beautiful ideal—one I whole heartedly believe in. But this ideal can only become a reality if equality is at the heart of trade and international cooperation.