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In March 2020, the OECD Global Forum on Environment focused on "Mainstreaming Gender and Empowering Women for Environmental Sustainability". This summary report on the OECD-Forum highlights selected environment-related sectors and policies, and how they should be discussed from a gender-responsive perspective.

To deal with the dramatic consequences of the global environmental and climate crises, international attention is also growing for civil society environmental movements and their louder feminist demands.

Gender justice, democracy and socio-ecological sustainability are politically and economically inextricably linked. Barbara Unmüßig, President of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, gives an insight into her own experiences and develops recommendations for action for politicians.

Hopes were high for a progressive turnaround after the populist previous government of Andrej Babiš. What is the balance sheet of the first steps of the new Czech government?

Increase in domestic violence, lay-offs, care responsibilities, restrictions on domestic and international movement, economic insecurities, psychological burdens - these are just a few of the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in Asia in the last two years. The gendered nature of COVID-19 impacts is obvious and has sparked large feminist responses in the region.

How will the world’s biggest developing country bring down the world’s highest greenhouse gases emissions to net-zero in the shortest period of time? (How) is China’s decarbonisation different from the rest of the world?

We declare our full solidarity with Ukraine. We stand by the side of our Ukrainian partners and colleagues and, at the same time, by the side of our partners in Russian civil society who are beset by harsh repression.

CLARA pursues climate solutions that work for people - at community, landscape, and national levels.

We are experiencing two very different pandemic realities between low-income and high-income countries. Unfortunately, instead of seeking a solidarity-based response, the international community has once again demonstrated its disunity in this health crisis. The task now is to regain credibility and rebuild trust.

This article weaves together an in-depth interview of a journalist and his family’s tribulations of urban flooding in the city of Karachi in Pakistan analysing various dynamics that merge erratic changing climate to faulty urban management. The article further explores the intergenerational loss due to climate change by retelling the protagonist’s experiences with family history and flooding. Socio-political elements are also discussed to shed light on the more sinister and systemic bottlenecks to urban planning and management that is more climate resilient and responsive. Finally, it merges Karachi’s most popular urban myth with climate change projections to show how people use storytelling to either fight against climate change or become complacent to its eventual disasters.

The travel restrictions imposed by the European Union on people traveling from southern Africa after the discovery of the Omicron variant, will potentially have a long-term impact on the EU-AU relations.

At the age of 18, Natthapan Saengtab crashed her motorcycle into a stranger's car. It set off a chain of events that would see her parents lose their land, sending the family on a downward spiral. But against all odds, the fateful accident set Natthapan on the path to becoming a prominent land rights defender in southern Thailand. 

Alisa, who goes by the nickname Fon, went to a high school located right at the beach, prompting her to develop a deep interest in the coastal communities of her hometown. She then became inspired to pursue a career in law, hoping to bring the voices of local communities into the country's environmental laws and regulations. Today, the young activist is one of the pioneers of encouraging young people in Thailand's South to raise their voices for change. She became one of the few youth representatives in national politics dedicated to community struggles in the country’s coastal areas. 

Until the second grade, Songseang Supanya did not see a problem with commuting to school in a saleng, a three-wheeled cart her parents used for scavenging in the streets of Bangkok. Then, in third grade, she switched to a school van, supervised every morning by teachers. "One day, I overheard a teacher talk about picking me up from home. 'She lives in a slum!' she said. I felt terrible. I questioned whether living in a slum meant I was not a [good] student," Songeang recalls.

Indonesia, like its neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia, has a long history of student activism; from the participation of indigenous and Islamic students to end Dutch colonial rule and a wave of protests in the 1970s against corruption, student movements became a strong force in Indonesia’s democracy. With the changing landscape of technology has also come a shift in how students and youth in Indonesia become politically engaged.

Yureesa Sama was a high-school student when the police officers showed up at her doorstep for the first time in 2010. Her family lived in a small house surrounded by rice paddies in a Malay-Muslim community in Pattani province in Thailand's Deep South. The officers questioned her parents, family members and neighbours. Then they left, only to return the following week, the one after that and so on. Sometimes they just hung around the house for hours watching who came and went. Yureesa sensed her parents' concern and knew something was wrong, but she didn't quite understand what was going on. Finally, she was told not to worry and focus on her studies. In most other places in Thailand, the officers' conduct would have raised eyebrows, but the Deep South has been ruled by martial law since 2005. Growing up in a region affected by a prolonged separatist insurgency, Yureesa was taught not to ask too many questions. 

Afghan women political representatives want to establish a parliament in exile in Greece: reason enough for me to pay them a visit and show my support.

Left-wing identity politics must be more about foregrounding people’s common concerns and not their common characteristics, says Dr. Julia Ehrt, Executive Director at ILGA World.

At the third session of the 22nd Heinrich Boell Foundation Foreign Policy Conference, the penultimate panel will focus on the German-Indian relationship - and the blurred lines between environmental and climate issues.

An example of misunderstood identity and representation politics on the part of the UN: the international intervention to include Syrian women in the negotiation process was not a success.

As environmental activists are silenced around them, a group of Kuy grandfathers have taken matters into their own hands and are reversing a global trend in a bid to keep their ancient culture alive.

As environmental activists are silenced around them, a group of Kuy grandfathers have taken matters into their own hands and are reversing a global trend in a bid to keep their ancient culture alive.

Only Sajat, a successful entrepreneur and social media influencer in Malaysia, has been targeted by the government and the public for years - mostly because of her gender identity.

The year 2022 brings in not just one or two but a handful of hot button issues to deal with for ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Between economic recovery from the pandemic through to internal civil war within Myanmar and external disputes and alliances, Cambodia assumes Chair of ASEAN with plenty to consider. ASEAN’s culture and intergovernmental model value cooperation but a different kind of multilateralism may be changing the stakes and strategies in negotiation across the ten member states.

A different policy mix of climate protection in the U.S. and EU creates tensions that make a close alliance very difficult. The deep political divide in the U.S. also raises doubts about the durability of climate policy cooperation.