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.

After brutal attacks against African refugees in conjuncion with a demonstration at Tel Aviv's HaTikva, high-ranking politicans of the Israeli governement are demanding a tougher action against illegal immigrants. But there are also more and more voices that support more agreeable solutions.

“Sometimes it seems as if it was all part of a big plan”, says Sulayman Qardesh. He smiles at his band colleague Siddique Ahmad. Number three, drummer Mujtaba Habibi, couldn’t come for our interview. It was a perfect match when these three boys of different origin happened to meet and found Afghanistan’s first indie rock band, the “Kabul Dreams”.

Kristóf Szombati, program director at EcoPolis Foundation and co-founder of the Hungarian green party (LMP), looks at right-wing extremism through the lenses of the recent ethnic conflict in the village of Gyöngyöspata, which rocked the Hungarian political scene and also made international headlines.

The people of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) have held their 8th Peoples Forum (APF) /ASEAN Civil Society Conference (ACSC) in Cambodia from March 29-31, 2012 in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia where the ASEAN Summit took place beginning of April. 

The semi-civilian government of Myanmar has begun to initiate first democratic reforms. But the careful change raises major challenges to the country, especially well-trained professionals are a scarce commodity. Zeya Thu talked in an interview with the Heinrich Boell Stiftung about the recent changes in his country.

Onur Suzan Kömürcü Nobrega, observer of the thematic window "Cultural Policy Strategies and Funding Structures", critically reflects on the conference in the context of a globalizing art world. She also suggests a more general discussion about the effects of public and private funding.

Patricia Kistenmacher was invited to the conference as an observer for the Latin American Net on Art for Social Transformation and attended the thematic window "Art for Social Transformation". In her report she reflects on the event and her role in it.

The conference was designed to contribute to the international discussion around the effects art and culture have on socio-ecological transformation toward cultures of sustainability, in particular on democratisation processes and forms of political participation and social empowerment, political awareness-raising and the forming of public opinion. The dossier offers a summary of the results and suggestions of the conference.

Arts manager and a cultural activist Basma El Husseiny points out that art is one of the most essential assets during social change. Being creative enables people to feel and think beyond their immediate reality and outside their usual capacity.