This brochure offers decision-makers in the real estate and energy industries, as well as urban and municipal developers, a broad overview of the topics of decentralised energy generation and supply, and raises awareness of the goal of decarbonisation by 2050 at the latest. The advancing digitalization in the construction and …
The I st phase of a women's small loan project concluded in Deukhuri, Kathmandu recently. Implemented by a group of local NGOs and supervised by the ministry of local development with the Asian Development Bank's finaneial assistance, this phase of the project was geared to encourage women to be thrifty …
Nalaka Gunawardene Colombo & Leonissah Munjoma Harare IN a recent decision, the Sri Lanka government has decided to take over any ngo it finds guilty of malpractices. The cabinet of ministers has just approved the amending of existing laws to enable the take-over for an interim period "where a prima …
After 30 long years of blissful co-existence, the honeymoon is finally over between esso and Shell, the 2 uk oil giants, who had tied the knot in 1965 and taken solemn oaths of exploring the North Sea together. Greenpeace International, the environmental ngo, is responsible for the rift. Shell is …
About 50 Turkish environmental ngos, student associations and labour unions have started a nationwide anti-nuclear campaign, following the government's signing of a consultancy contract for the country's 1st nuclear power plant to be set up at Akkuyu on the Mediterranean coast. Numerous street demonstrations, walks, signature campaigns and an Anti-Nuclear …
THE Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Advancement (CAPART), an autonomous body funded by the Union ministry of rural development, is much acclaimed in official documents and reports as yet another example of the Indian government's commitment to "encouraging, promoting and assisting volunatary action for the enhancement of …
The choked trees on Delhi's pavements are being given a chance to once again breathe. Schoolchildren and activists of the Delhi-based NGO Kalpavriksh are pulling tiles off pavements to give space to the trees so that compost and water can reach the roots of the tree. The Delhi's Development Commissioner …
The government and the NGOs of Bangladesh are engaged in a war of words over the relevance of their respective roles in the nation's development programmes. Finance minister Saifur Rehman's diatribe against local NGOs, occasioned by a World Bank study that praises NGO programmes as being more relevant than government-sponsored …
Activists are pressing the 28-year old Asian Development Bank (ADB) for greater reform of its policies, saying it should do more to reduce poverty instead of just focusing on growth and luring the private sector into the region. NGOS and the ADB differ on issues ranging from indigenous peoples, policies …
The laying out of a golf course on Japan's Amami-Oshama island - the 2nd one there - may push the Amami black hare, the oldest species of hare in the world, to the brink of extinction. Environmental Network Amami, a local NGO, has thus made them coplaintiffs in the suit …
THE Independent Inspection Panel of the World Bank ( WB ) has inspired hope among many environmental activists and organisations. They expect it to provide the much-needed scrutiny of the Bank"s activities, many of which aid and abett the wasteful exploitation of natural resources, environmental degradation and consequent human suffering. …
WE CANNOT help being sceptical when the World Bank tells us that it is henceforth going to encourage and practice participatory decisionmaking. The move to have an Inspection Panel is the latest gimmick of the World Bank's (WB), resourceful public relations system. Apart from the fact that such gestures are …
THE World Summit for Social Development, held recently in Copenhagen, was convened to discuss 3 of the most critical issues facing humankind today--poverty, unemployment and social exclusion. Three UN official statements, prepared by NGOs prior to the Summit, were considered for the final NGO statement--the Oslofjord Declaration, the New Agenda …
PARCHED brown fields, often empty, dry paddy stalks - PanchanthangiPatti, a village 26 km from Madurai, is a mute victim of the chronic drought that afflicts the area. There are 30 other nearby villages cracking at the lips. But one more year and all their troubles should be over. There …
MAKAR Sankranti, January 14, is an auspicious day for Hindus. In Rajasthan, it is the day of reconciliation. This year, a motley group of 15-odd people set out that day on a 15,000 km walkathon through 18 sanctuaries and national parks (NPs) spread over 5 states. Their moving force was …
The Bhairu Lok Abhyaranya Dakav in Bhanwta, near Sariska, Rajasthan, is a sanctuary with a difference. It is a sanctuary declared, protected and managed by the people. "We call it the sonchidi, since it is as precious as a sone ki chidiya (the golden bird)," says Kanhaiyalal Gujjar, a member …
Our syllabi (for training forest officials) still have manuals written during the Raj S K Mukherjee Acting director, Wildlife Institute, Dehradun Why do you still train foresters in horseriding and shooting, 5 decades after the British have left? Surely, that's teaching them to charge against us. Nanakram Gujjar, a villager …
UPROOTED 4 times in 3 decades. Thirty thousand villagers of Madhya Pradesh were first displaced during the construction of the Rihand dam (late '50s); later, again, when coal was found in the mid-70s; a third time, to make room for industry; and finally, when the Singrauli mega thermal power station …
Democracy entails statutory safeguards against infringement of the inalienable rights of the people. But in the country today, the state of legislations protecting the people from wanton development is abysmal. Only Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Maharashtra have some kind of an act regarding resettlement and rehabilitation. In Karnataka, the Act …
What do you give to oustees who have been cleared away in the name of a developmental project? Take land, give land, says the government, without, however, seeming too eager to stick by its own cryptic formula. The Sardar Sarovar Project, for instance, guarantees every displaced adult (defined as a …
"We were thrown out in July 1974, during the rains. They didn't give us houses, or even money to build them. We took shelter under the trees," says Khudyan Singh Moravi, a Baiga tribal from Lonadhar, Balaghat district, Madhya Pradesh. Moravi's only fault was that he had been staying within …
