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Welcome to the website of the Hivos Knowledge Programme. The platform for knowledge development on issues imperative to the global development sector. How to understand and innovate support for civil society building, how to promote pluralism in times of growing intolerance, how to adapt to rapid changes such as the globalisation of markets? The development sector needs new knowledge, and more specifically, appropriate knowledge to tackle specific knowledge gaps. This programme aims at developing knowledge on issues central to the work of civil society organisations and for the development sector at large. The main themes are: Civil Society Building, Promoting Pluralism, Civil Society in West Asia, Small Producer Agency in the Globalized Market and Digital Natives with a Cause?
New research: The LGBT movement in Peru
What are the dynamics of the Peruvian LGBT movement and what has been the influence of national and international actors in its functioning? This is the main question that Marten van den Berge, hosted by the Programme for Democracy and Global Transformation (PDGT) in Lima, will explore in the next 9 months.Civic Driven Change – emerging narrative, new practice?
Hivos has been part of the core group of Dutch private aid agencies that drive the emerging narrative of civic driven change. In October 2008, a first seminar explored the theoretical framework of CDC. Last week, ISS hosted a follow up seminar to explore the practice of CDC by examining a number of civic driven change case studies. In the words of Alan Fowler: ‘cdc needs to be bashed and questioned, in order to gain more robustness’ A lively series of debates followed. Civic Driven Change t...International Summer School on Pluralism and Development
Intensive course for civil society activists from India, Indonesia and Uganda. Application is closed.The weblog of the participants will soon be available on this website.› read more...
Tags: Indonesia, Knowledge programme
Date: 13 July until 7 August 2009 Location: Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Tags: Indonesia, Knowledge programme
Date: 13 July until 7 August 2009 Location: Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Who is afraid of Religion?
Religion is a vital source of inspiration in many societies. Development cooperation, however, mostly works through other channels than religion. This symposium investigated whether this should change. The event was held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the ISS Chair of Religion and Development, held by Prof. Gerrie ter Haar. Members of the panel were among others Islamic reformer Tariq Ramadan, liberal rabbi Awraham Soetendorp and Hivos' pluralism programme co-chair Ute Seela.
State must be secular so that society can be religious
In many parts of the world religion is on an upsurge. Religious revivalism and emergent forms of fundamentalisms challenge the capacity of the state to deal with religious diversity. The Hivos-Kosmopolis conference 'Rethinking secularism' (25-26 May, Utrecht, NL) brought together academics, activists, legal experts and policy makers from various parts of the world to debate the future of secularism. Among them: Sudanese thinker and activist Abdullahi An-Na'im and Justice Aftab Alam, sitting...
Homophobia in Uganda: Documentary screened at Hivos-conference in The Hague
LGBT’s in Uganda suffer from a coalition of religious leaders against homosexuality. The documentary 'Victor and Georgina' by Amakula shows the life and work of two transgender activists in that country. Their portrait demonstrates the difficulties for homosexuals in the Ugandan society, ranging from verbal and physical abuse to prosecution.
Iranian Civil Society Speaks-Elections turning into a Quiet Revolution
"Where is my vote?"; "I want my vote back" are slogans from Tehran streets with which we have been familiarised over the past few days. What is the role of the Iranian civil society in the current protests against election results? Read the report prepared within the framework of the Knowledge Programme Civil Society in West Asia.
Pressure-cooking for progress
Strengthening citizen agency through ICTs: an extrapolation for development organisations - in the North and in the South - need knowledge. Knowledge is needed to effectively serve poor and marginalised groups by making grounded choices for strategies and projects, and to timely adapt to change. How can development organisations acquire this knowledge? Hire more consultants? Go to the university? Development organisations need to build their own knowledge base and their own strategies to ma...
Report on 'Civil society dynamics under authoritarian rule'
Are there links between civil society activism and democratisation? To what extent is the 'traditional’ notion of civil society still workable? And is the authoritarian state simply a 'security state' acting on repression and staying in power or is it 'interdependent' on and even 'needs' civil society for its own survival? The report on 'civil society dynamics under authoritarian rule’ sheds lights on and provides insights about these topics.ICT & Citizens Agency
Since the late 1990s, the prospect of using ICT (Information Communication Technologies) to improve accountability, transparency, access to information, and monitoring authorities has attracted general optimism. However, early hopes that e-initiatives would be the panacea of all the problems have given way to more modest claims. An aspect that has not received much attention so far is the use of ICT in support to citizen agency; to involve and inform communities and interact with and influe...
Reconsidering Human Security
This workshop to be held on 28 and 29 May (UK) aims to ground discussion of human security in the lived experience of those who suffer insecurity. Since security tends to be unequally distributed, it will explicitly address questions of equality, rights and social justice. It will also ask how human security is framed in different cultural, regional and national contexts. It will consider whether human security is at risk of becoming a hegemonic discourse in the conceptual arsenal of the in...Community Login
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Hivos/ISS Repository
- Demographers do not see a ‘clash of civilizations’ (author(s): Gerd Junne, published: 16/02/2009)
- Civil society is dé oppositie van Afrika (in Dutch) (author(s): Jeroen Mimpen, published: 12/02/2009)
- Strengthening citizen agency through ICT: an extrapolation for Eastern Africa (author(s): Giacomo Zanello, Paul Maassen, published: 01/01/2009)
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- Linda Herrera in European symposium (03/07/2009)
- Vacancy for a Programme Administrator, for one year 80% of the time. (03/07/2009)
- 01-07: Debate with Kees Biekart as moderator (03/07/2009)
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- 'After 2015' MDG policy forum. Further reading: (03/07/2009)
- Low scores for the chair of G8 Africa (03/07/2009)
- Drilling for capacity (03/07/2009)