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NL Building walls? Forging partnerships
It was unmissable last week: in Brussels, the heads of government of the 27 EU member states gathered for a special European Council summit. Partly at the request of the Netherlands, migration, especially asylum migration, was high on the agenda. And one of the main questions: should fences and walls along the external borders of the [...]
Call on cabinet: stop fossil industry undermining international climate summits
450 civil society organisations worldwide including 35 Dutch organisations, such as Milieudefensie, Greenpeace, Oxfam Novib, FNV, Both Ends, CARE Netherlands, Simavi and Natuur & Milieu, are sounding the alarm. We are deeply concerned about the fossil industry undermining the effectiveness and credibility of international climate negotiations. For instance, the upcoming climate summit in November will be led by [...]
More than just development cooperation: the Great Coherence Debate
On 18 January, at Nieuwspoort, the Great Coherence Debate took place. This debate was co-organised by Building Change - the partnership consisting of the FMS, Partos and Woord & Daad. It was a great success, with the hall literally bulging with interested parties. Led by our director Kido and table host Danielle Hirsch (Both Ends), [...]
Interview Policy Coherence & Circular Economy: 'Companies aren't going to do it themselves'
On 18 January, Vice Versa, Building Change and the Fair, Partos and Green and Global Alliance are organising the Great Coherence Debate together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the run-up to it, Vice Versa is building a knowledge file with interviews and articles around the topic of policy coherence. Our colleague Anne sat down with Paul Roeland of the [...]
Will the Netherlands really take big steps towards fair policy soon?
For years, the Netherlands has been investing in developing countries through development cooperation, but this involves mopping the water up. Indeed, the Netherlands regularly makes policy choices that exacerbate or even cause situations and problems in these countries. For example, Dutch tax policy allows multinationals to reduce, or even completely [...]
Analysis COP27: A lost climate year despite historic breakthrough
"History was made today at #COP27" proudly reads the twitter account of the climate summit held in Sharm-El-Sheikh over the past three weeks. On the closing day of COP27, countries agreed to establish a fund for loss and damage (damage and loss caused by climate change), something that developing countries have been [...]
The African COP: is there still hope for climate solidarity?
A bummer just before the start of the 27th climate summit (COP27): implementation of climate goals in the Netherlands is going badly. That was the conclusion of PBL's Climate and Energy Outlook 2022. And not only is the Cabinet not implementing its plans well, the existing plans are not enough at all to meet the Dutch climate target [...]
A big step towards corporate responsibility?
Last week, Tuesday 1 November, just before the start of the budget debate on the Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation budget, the House took a big step towards corporate responsibility. ChristenUnie - together with PvdA, GroenLinks, D66, SP and Volt - tabled the initiative bill "Responsible and Sustainable International Business Act" that day. What [...]
Doing what is fair, or doing what is good for the Netherlands?
The note debate on the new Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation (BHOS) policy paper took place on 28 September. The public gallery was packed with people from civil society. There was also great interest in this debate from the Chamber; 11 parliamentary parties were represented (SP, PvdD, CDA, SGP, PVV, CU, D66, PvdA, VVD, Volt & GroenLinks). In [...]
Strong Chamber during debate on new development cooperation note
Yesterday, the Lower House held the debate - long-awaited because already postponed once - on the new development cooperation policy paper, "Doen waar Nederland goed in is". During the debate, we saw a strong House that brought in a lot of points that we as FMS and Building Change had raised, but also a weak minister who was on many [...]
