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Three Afghan Civil Society Development Conferences i.e. 2003, 2006 and 2008 was implemented in Kabul. There was a keen interest to conduct a fourth Afghan civil society development conference in order to review the situation and revisit the findings. It was also deemed necessary to check the mile stone and achievements set in the previous meetings and conferences.

The six major coordinating bodies of civil society and NGO groups in Afghanistan call on the participants of the London Conference to ensure that the needs of the Afghan people remain forefront on the international community’s agenda. The statement highlights priorities in three areas—security, governance, and economic and social development—and includes the call to immediately cease any attempt to utilise civil society and NGO actors to pursue a military objective.

A group of Afghan women activists from politics, media and civil society in Afghanistan met in the office of the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation in Kabul. Now they adress an open letter to the Members of Parliament.

The destruction of tropical forests contributes between percent of the greenhouse gases generated by human activity. Donor governments consider Congo Basin countries to be prime candidates for REDD (UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries), and national governments in the region are eager to seize the opportunity.

In addition to the official delegations civil society organizations have participated as observers in climate negotiations for many years. We will give an overview on the most important networks and NGOs, which participate at the negotiations.

The Foundation is deep-seated in civil society, and because of its foreign offices and several partner networks it has excellent access to political decision-makers. For many years, the foundation has participated in the UN climate change negotiations in manifold ways.

Analysis and papers on the UN climate change negotiations.

In a recent lecture for the United States Institute for Peace, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the world cannot afford to continue to rely on recycling ideas from the Cold War era. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Czech politicians and media think in Cold War terms, and as a result Czech society does as well.

On the 24th of October, 2009 Punjab University students in collaboration with Rotaract Club Lahore, Pakistan Youth Climate Network, and Heinrich Böll Stiftung organized an event, which had two fold agenda.

Europe should recognize the U.S. coming on board finally with relatively ambitious 2020 targets (compared to the status quo), but has to push for further acceleration on efforts of the U.S.

Despite the current financial "crisis" investors are pouring money into mining companies and projects, with potentially negative consequences for thousands of communities around the world. Launched in 2008, and now available as a regularly-updated data base, "From Money to Metals" is a vital resource to discover who is funding what, and where, in one of the most potentially destructive of all global industries. By Nostromo Research, 2009. more»

With his story "Teeth", Gareth McNamara, a 16-year old student of Scoil Damhnait Secondary School on Achill Island, Co Mayo, was the overall winner of the 2009 Heinrich Böll Essay Competition in 2009.

Over the past years the Heinrich Böll Foundation has developed a large number of EU-funded projects in over 60 different countries worldwide, both as a project co-ordinator and a project partner. The foci of our EU projects are ecology, democratisation, international understanding and gender democracy.

Promoting women's equality and gender democracy is a central theme of the Heinrich Böll Foundation's work in the Middle East. Through its feminist programmes, the Foundation supports women's organisations with organisational and content-related development and strategy, and also fosters the networking of social and political initiatives.

Western leaders across the political spectrum need to understand how complicated and intertwined Iran and the region have become. When dealing with the crisis in Iran they will need to rally around a policy of moderation and caution.

Article on the Russian-Ukrainian gas struggle by Roderick Kefferpütz.

Transparency, Transparency, Transparency: Three proposals for strengthening international financial and fiscal regulatory cooperation.

Calling on Asia to boost its consumption to pull the rest of the world out of the financial crisis is wrongheaded and could lead to an environmental disaster. In the end the West’s influence on the world’s economy will dissipate as the future of capitalism and the environment will center on decisions made in Asia.

At an event organised by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Prof. Lawrence Lessig spoke on "Copyright Wars. Enjoyment and Discomfort in a Digital Culture". Listen to the questions & answers session.

The dossier "Tibet Background" was arranged by the sinologist Tanja Plötz. From March 2002 to February 2008 she was working on the subject of environmental education as part of the German-Chinese development cooperation in Beijing. During that time, she was also conducting a series of projects in cooperation with the office China (Beijing) of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. Tanja Plötz has worked freelance since March 2008.Contact: tangjia[at]gmx.net

The bulk of the media and parts of the intelligentsia, after first coming to terms with the Congress Party system, now prefer the two multiparty coalition systems: the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) or the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), even when the UPA is only going in for post-poll alliances with its erstwhile colleagues. The one thing that worries the media is a Third Front.

Despite the hopes of a bi-nodal party system since 1998, a secular alternative, reduced from being the second option in 1977 to the Third Front within a decade, has not ceased to linger in the background. It remains a parking space for satraps in search of greater role in national politics than their regional space would afford them.