Asia

In 2012 the head office Berlin decided to shift the Lahore office to Islamabad because of the shift in its worldwide policy to move the HBS offices to the capital cities in order to be close to the political arena. Therefore we had an official opening in Islamabad on the 6th of February 2013.

The “Everything but Arms” trade initiative should bring benefit to the poeple of Cambodia, but the opposite is the case. Illegal methods were established to make profits out of the duty-free export of sugar. Even though there is a EU resolution emphasizing the critical escalation of human rights abuses and land grabbing due to the export of agricultural products, the resulting efforts of the EU are poor.

Two days officially of – this was the kind of weekend many governmental employees had long been looking forward to. Now it has been decided that for Kabul citizens it will become a reality – to protect the environment. Less work means less pollution says the Afghan government.

During the informal talks in Bangkok in last August, animosities between developed and emerging countries rose to the surface once more. While negotiations happened mostly behind closed doors, Asian farmers and fishermen are already reporting how climate change has impacted on their harvests and livelihoods. A reports on the meeting, which was supposed to pave the way for the COP 18. 

In Afghanistan, natural resources and conflict have a intimate and complex relationship. In conflict assessment surveys, access to natural resources have been consistently reported as the cause for more than half of local level conflict incidents in Afghanistan. In particular, access to land and access to water are regularly cited by communities across Afghanistan as two top two causes of conflict.

In July 2011, ISAF officially handed over seven areas to Afghan National Security Forces, beginning a process to gradually transition all security responsibility from international to Afghan leadership. Drawing on The Liaison Office’s experience in the region Loya Paktia, this paper examines the shortcomings of a transition strategy that focuses on security, while ignoring important social and political factors that could undermine the strategy. 

At present, Afghanistan has turned into a focal point of agreements between Western and Eastern countries. These Strategic Partnership Agreements (SPAs) that Afghanistan has signed with many countries of the world, including Germany are deemed as vital achievement for the country.

The Kabul Documenta 13 has opened its gates on June 20th, to the Afghan public, preceded by an official opening ceremony that was attended by the Goethe Institute Afghanistan, donors, diplomats, a delegation of the Documenta 13 and, last not least, the artists themselves.

6th June 2012, youth policy in the biggest province of Pakistan is launched officially-- Thanks to Bargad Organization for the youth development, a long time of Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung.

The National Consultation aimed not only at reviewing the global discourse on green economy and ongoing negotiations on the outcome of the Rio+20 Summit but also examining the relevance of this concept to Pakistan. Moreover, the objective of the National Consultation was to review the potential roles and contributions of key stakeholders to promote Green economy in Pakistan.