In December 2021, the students of the Climate and Sustainable Development Actions Club (CSDAC) were awarded another grant by Plan International West and Central Africa. The new project plans to build human capacities in advocacy and digital campaigning: Seventeen Nigerien girl-leaders will receive training on how to best disseminate and promote the 17 SDGs on social media …

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 6 targets: “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. But what are the challenges on the ground in rural West Africa? Lémonla Armel Otekpo, a master student in the DAAD-funded and ZEF-run project «West African Center for Sustainable Rural Transformation» (WAC-SRT) and Segbedji …

This blog post was written by Sara Velander and Niklas Wagner, both doctoral researchers at ZEF’s doctoral program BIGS-DR. They spent nearly two weeks at the COP26 in Glasgow, UK (Oct. 31- Nov. 12, 2021) and observed six negotiations sessions, attended 14 side events, and conducted 19 semi-structured interviews there. Read about their impressions, observations …

In this blog post, ZEF- and Right Livelihood College (RLC) junior researcher Irene Awino Ojuok from Kenya relates about her impressions, experiences and insights of her participation in the COP 26 in Glasgow, United Kingdom (October 31-November 13, 2021). She was invited by the Global EverGreening Alliance (GEA) whom she represented as an Ambassador. Irene …

ZEF researcher Arslan Waheed (from Pakistan) wrote his doctoral thesis on ‘Development Discourses and Urban Poor: A Comparative Study of Slums of Islamabad and Brasilia’. He defended his thesis successfully on  August 27, 2021 and obtained his doctoral degree from Bonn University’s Faculty of Arts. His research was funded by the German Exchange Service DAAD). …

By Alejandro Mora Motta, Carolina Tobón Ramírez, Emilia Schmidt, & Estefanía Montoya Domínguez *) The peace agreement signed in Colombia in 2016 between the government of former president Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP) was celebrated worldwide. However, five years later, Colombia is still experiencing social crises, …

In 2021, the need to engage and deepen our understanding of ‘the city’ increased due to the repercussions brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic. Two junior researchers of ZEF’s Department for Political and Cultural Change, Amit Kumar and Maryoriet Rosales, decided to organize a virtual meeting on April 6, 2021 with researchers engaged in conducting …

By Madiha Hussain, junior researchers at ZEF During the COVID-19 pandemic, political priorities have been shifted immensely in Germany. The situation offers a good opportunity to explore how the post-pandemic political participation could look like during elections. Moreover, the case of elections 2020 highlights the future of democracy, where politicians and citizens cannot have direct …

Looking back a bit… The “Waterfront Metropolis Abidjan” project [see project website here] ended in November 2019 after 24 months of intensive research. Thinking about the economic capital of the Côte d´Ivoire and the relevance of informal urbanization have continued, though. My book manuscript on Abidjan has advanced, but is not ready for publishing yet. …