Perspectives is a publication series of the Africa offices of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. With this series, we intend to let experts from Africa express their views about current political issues in their region. Perspectives focuses on Southern- , East- and West Africa where the foundation has established offices.
This edition of Perspectives tackles questions of state capture, and how the concept can contribute to understanding and strengthening democracies across Africa. Our contributors also open the possibilities that emerge when “state capture” is released from particular institutional settings and national boundaries.
Keeping the Faith: Working at the Crossroads of Religion and Sexual and Gender Rights is a project of the HBF that seeks to explore and support faith as a site for strengthening human rights and justice for LGBTIQ people. This publication provides a snapshot of current issues, initiatives and central actors in the field and a conceptual framework to advance sexual and gender rights, as well as potential strategies to inform such work.
This publication is the last in a series of provincial studies on shelters for abused women undertaken by the HBF and the NSM and supported by the EU. This study focuses on women's experiences of having accessed shelters and those who render such services. It does so in an attempt to better understand what is required to meet the long-term needs of those seeking reprieve and an end to violence.
This publication is the fifth in a series of provincial studies on women's uses of shelters undertaken by the HBF and the National Shelter Movement of SA's EU-supported 'Enhancing State Responsiveness to GBV: Paying the True Costs' project. The publication describes women's uses of domestic violence shelters paying particular attention to women's mental health needs as well as government policy and budgets in relation to the provision of sheltering services in the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape.
This research paper explores responses by the police to victims of domestic violence, specifically, in their capacity to refer women to shelter services as required by legislation. The paper is associated to the Enhancing State Responsiveness to GBV: Paying the True Costs, a project of the HBF and the NSM.
In S v Baloyi the Constitutional Court placed a clear duty on the state to address domestic violence. Shelters disrupt this violence in significant ways but are significantly under-funded. This brief examines existing policy around shelters for abused women and recommends how this can be expanded and costed to more effectively uphold women’s rights and needs.
The main purpose of this report is to highlight the different funding models for nuclear power across the globe and to show that no matter what model the SA government chooses, the bottom line is that nuclear is unaffordable, takes too long to build and comes with too many risks.
Municipalities need support to build their capacity, to provide them with detailed technical information, and to prioritise from the range of management. This practical guide serves to promote the development of an equitable low carbon, clean energy economy throughout Southern Africa.
On 25 September 2015, the member states of the United Nations agreed on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will be the cornerstone of the Post-2015 Development Agenda[1]. The SDGs are acknowledged as a great achievement that amalgamates the sustainability agenda with the development agenda.[2] The South African government has unreservedly endorsed the SDGs, noting that the triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequality that they address is also the primary focus of the country. As such, the SDGs are conceptually aligned to South Africa's National Development Plan.
This report presents an update on the current state of energy poverty in South African cities. It explores the energy poverty-gender nexus in the urban environment, an aspect that is largely overlooked.
This booklet briefly examines alternative energy technologies and associated energy sources available in the market that are cleaner, appropriate, applicable and sustainable relative to those that are currently available and used by informal households for their domestic energy requirements.
With the assistance of our project partner, the Centre for Natural Resource Governance, communities affected by gold mining in eastern Zimbabwe came together to formulate a Community Protocol taking a stand against destructive mining impacts.
Community Protocols are living documents and the revised version incorporates references to legislation that substantiates the Kukula’s position, their evolving priorities and a renewed call for dialogue.
Civil society is under pressure worldwide. This e-paper focuses on dynamics and patterns of shrinking spaces and repressions on civil society with regard to natural resource struggles and takes a closer look into consultation processes and the role of the economy.
This paper discusses the ways in which community protocols can be an effective tool for communities to respond to extractive industry projects in their area. It provides an overview of what has taken place over the last three years in four pilot community protocol processes and captures lessons that can be applied to future processes.
This Joint Submission encourages governments to voice their concerns in order to reorient the Guidance toward a more internally consistent and balanced document that clearly sets its objective as sustainable development of the host country with fair and equitable allocations of risks and rewards, rights and responsibilities between the contract parties.
This edition of Perspectives contributes to the ongoing debate on infrastructure development in Africa by sharing snapshots of experience from around the continent, exploring questions about democratic participation, the role of human and environmental rights, and economic transformation.
Informed by the discussions at an international conference jointly organised by the German Development Institute, the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Stanford University on “Emerging Power or Fading Star? South Africa’s Role on the Continent and Beyond”, held 12–14 July 2016 in Cape Town, the articles gathered in this edition of Perspectives shed light on some of the nuances and challenges that define South Africa’s place in the world today.
For decades, the world of development banking was dominated by a few multilateral actors, foremost the World Bank Group as well as regional development banks. In recent years, some established banks have much expanded their scope of operation, while new actors and interests are moving in. A number of national development banks, for example from China and Brazil, have entered the international arena in a big way, often operating far outside of their respective home countries and becoming truly global actors.
