Asia

“Women nominated on quotas are usually party-bound and they have to follow party-line first and if they disagree with the party, they stay aloof,” said an MNA Nafeesa Khattak during the hbs workshop on “Strategizing Women’s Substantive Political Representation”, held in Islamabad on July 13, 2016.

The recent and resounding electoral victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Assam, the largest of India’s North-Eastern States, carries particular importance. The journalist Ash Narain Roy, director of the Institute for Social Sciences gives a comprehensive report on the BJP victory in Assam.

In Bulgaria, public opinion approves the patriotic vigilante mobs, which trap refugees crossing Bulgaria’s border.

Before the Spanish reelections on 26. June 2016 the democratisation of the European institutions and the solution of the refugee crisis became relevant issues of the political debate.

Pakistan is facing a severe energy crisis. Most of the rural areas of Pakistan are not connected to the national grid because of the geographical distance and the scattered population. In absence of the required energy supply, the socio-economic life of people is disrupted and they are forced to use alternative means of producing energy such as tree cutting for fire-wood, use of kerosene, cattle dung and crop residue. These alternative means are a threat to the environment especially in the wake of climate change

Within the framework of the project “Regional Civil Society Engagement in Green Dialogs. Promoting Peace and Stability through Equitable Resource Management”, the offices of Heinrich Böll Stiftung in Pakistan and Afghanistan successfully conducted a Vision Workshop for a seed group of the Regional Green Dialogs Network. The workshop aimed at increasing mutual understanding and developing a joint vision and a plan for future action. Intellectuals, experts and activits from both countries (Pakistan and Afghanistan) participated in the event and reflected on how to promote peace and stability in the region through equitable natural resource management, especially looking into water and energy.

Within the framework of the project “Regional Civil Society Engagement in Green Dialogs. Promoting Peace and Stability through Equitable Resource Management”, the offices of Heinrich Böll Stiftung in Pakistan and Afghanistan successfully conducted a Vision Workshop for a seed group of the Regional Green Dialogs Network. The workshop aimed at increasing mutual understanding and developing a joint vision and a plan for future action. Intellectuals, experts, and activists from both countries (Pakistan and Afghanistan) participated in the event and reflected on how to promote peace and stability in the region through equitable natural resource management, especially looking into water and energy.

Responsible Democracy: The richness of Afghanistan in natural resources has great potential for conflict. Since 2012, the Heinrich Böll Foundation therefore moved deliberately in this politically sensitive terrain.

The relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan is still fragile. Our project “Regional civil society engagement in green dialogs” seeks to shift the discussion from its primer focus on security aspects to shared interests by managing natural resources equitably.

Since its formation in 2014, the National Unity Government of Afghanistan has in different occasions, expressed its commitment to share the benefits of Afghanistan’s geographic centrality through regional cooperation - particularly economic integration - with its neighbors and countries beyond the immediate neighborhood.