The African Biodiversity Network (ABN) is a regional network of individuals and organisations seeking African solutions to the ecological and socio-economic challenges that face the continent. The ABN was first conceived in 1996 in response to growing concern in the region over threats to biodiversity in Africa and the need to develop strong African positions and legal instruments at the national, regional and international level. Currently, ABN has 36 partners drawn from 12 African countries: Benin, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
ABN strives to ignite and nurture a growing network of change agents working passionately at all levels, in the face of injustices and destruction arising from the current industrial development model, to enable resilient local communities to govern their lives and livelihoods rooted in their own social, cultural and ecological diversity. We focus on indigenous knowledge, ecological agriculture and biodiversity related rights, policy and legislation. We pioneer culturally-centred approaches to social and ecological problems in Africa through sharing experiences, co-developing methodologies and creating a united African voice on the continent on these issues.
Africa is at a crossroads, trying to reconcile the conservation and recuperation of its vast cultural and natural heritage and meet the many needs of a growing population. Powerful external forces continue to divert us from solutions that come from within Africa as they push for the privatisation and industrialisation of land, knowledge and biodiversity in the name of poverty alleviation. Together, the African Biodiversity Network is finding innovative and pioneering pathways and solutions to the challenges which face the continent. We thank you for supporting this journey.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system, and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.
Our mission is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.
Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, we work through our divisions as well as our regional, liaison and out-posted offices and a growing network of collaborating centres of excellence. We also host several environmental conventions, secretariats and inter-agency coordinating bodies. UN Environment is led by our Executive Director.
We categorize our work into seven broad thematic areas: climate change, disasters and conflicts, ecosystem management, environmental governance, chemicals and waste, resource efficiency, and environment under review. In all of our work, we maintain our overarching commitment to sustainability.
Our work is made possible by partners who fund and champion our mission. We depend on voluntary contributions for 95 per cent of our income.
Every year, we honour and celebrate individuals and institutions that are doing outstanding work on behalf of the environment.
We also host the secretariats of many critical multilateral environmental agreements and research bodies, bringing together nations and the environmental community to tackle the greatest challenges of our time. These include the following:
The Convention on Biological Diversity
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
The Minamata Convention on Mercury
The Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions
The Vienna Convention for the Protection of Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol
The Convention on Migratory Species
The Carpathian Convention
The Bamako Convention
The Tehran Convention
African Parks is a non-profit conservation organisation that takes on the complete responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of national parks in partnership with governments and local communities. We currently manage 16 national parks and protected areas in 10 countries covering almost 11 million hectares: Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Uganda Water and Sanitation NGO Network (UWASNET) is the national umbrella organisation for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the Water and Environment sector. UWASNET is crucial in helping government realise its targets of alleviating poverty and achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through universal access to safe, sustainable water and improved sanitation. UWASNET plays this vital role in partnership with other key sector players such as the Government of Uganda, Development Partners (DP’s) and the private sector.
Creeds Energy is a professional renewable energy services and solutions provider addressing electricity and energy challenges by improving access to and promoting adoption of clean and energy efficient technologies.
Our company is setting the pace to realize the development of a green economy with low emissions, resource efficiency and social inclusivity.
This is being achieved through the efforts of our knowledge driven team and network of internationally qualified experts within the fields of renewable energy technologies sustainable development and engineering.
We are dedicated to creating sustainable solutions and enriching lives by reducing energy poverty, providing long lasting and consistent solutions for households, businesses and communities.
The Kibale Chimpanzee Project, established by Dr. Richard Wrangham in 1987, is a long-term field study of the behavior, ecology, and physiology of wild chimpanzees. Our researchers and field staff conduct daily behavioral observations on a group of approximately 60 chimpanzees in the Kanyawara region of Kibale National Park, southwestern Uganda. This research contributes to our understanding of primate behavioral diversity, human evolutionary ecology, and chimpanzee conservation. Please see our publications page for information about this research. On a daily basis, KCP field staff and researchers collect data on chimpanzee social behavior, party composition, ranging, feeding, and health. These observations are supplemented by collection of specialized data, including detailed records of play, tool use, hunting, aggression, and forest phenology. We also conduct non-invasive urine sampling, for hormonal analysis, and fecal sampling, for genetic studies.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
We are working to contribute towards creating an enabling environment for the effective advancement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Post 2015 Development Agenda. UNA Tanzania has been involved in MDGs Awareness for the past eight years and with the MDGs edging closer to expiration in 2015 (as well as MKUKUTA II and FYDP in Tanzania), this experience will help in contributing towards accelerating the achievement of the remaining milestones for Tanzania and taking stock of lessons in implementing the MDGs on how we can do better in the future through the expected SDGs as they are localized in our national development framework.
DEMOCRACY, GOOD GOVERNANCE & HUMAN RIGHTS
Under this area, we are working to promote positive civic and media engagement in the electoral process and advocate for the inclusion and visibility of human rights in the development process and new constitution for Tanzania. Throughout its existence, UNA Tanzania has endeavored to contribute towards strengthening democracy, good governance and human rights; and the establishment of the Tanzania Human Rights Commission, promoting press freedom, conducting national media monitoring in 2000 and 2005 elections as well as civic voter education in 2010 elections have been key program successes for the organization.
PEACE AND SECURITY
UNA Tanzania has been and continues to actively engage in the ICGLR (International Conference on the Great Lakes Regions) peace process. As such, this is a maintained program area where we aim to enhance youth and CSOs engagement in the process. Specifically, UNA Tanzania will be working towards establishment of the national Peace and Security Chapter for the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region peace process; increased representation of marginalized voices – youth, women and children – in the process, and enhanced representation on and intervention against Sexual and Gender Based Violence.
The Greater Virunga Landscape (GVL) is the richest part of the African Continent in terms of vertebrate species, it is home of 292 species of mamals; 890 species of birds; 135 species of reptiles; 91 species of amphibians; 177 species of butterflies; 366 species of fish and 3755 species of plants.
GVL is important for endemic, threatened and migratory species, including lions, hippotamus, chimpanzes, golden monkey, leopards, Okapi, golden cats, crown eagles, buffaloes, lesser flamingooes, vultures, Rwenzori dukers, sitatunga, mountain gorillas, and elephants.
The Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration (GVTC), establishedunder the GVTC treaty 2015 between the DemocraticRepublic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda, is a framework of programmes, plans and activities to conserve a network of transboundary protected Areas in Greater Virunga Landscape (GVL).
GVTC was established as a transboundary collaborative framework for harmonious wildlife conservation and tourism development within the Greater Virunga Landscape among the Partner States without ceding and or affecting the respective sovereign rights over the protected areas under their respective territorial jurisdiction.
SABIC is composed of four strategic business units – Petrochemicals, Specialties, Agri-Nutrients, and Metals – each headed by an Executive Vice President. They support customers by identifying and developing opportunities in key end markets such as construction, medical devices, packaging, agri-nutrients, electrical and electronics, transportation and clean energy.
Welcome to the Buckminster Fuller Challenge (BFC) archive! Here you will find a comprehensive history of the BFC program and a curated archive of the ‘best of’ entries reviewed by the program from 2007-2017 making visible the vibrancy and dedication of an emerging field of comprehensive, whole-systems designers. This searchable archive is offered as a resource and tool for educators, the design community, and the general public to use to discover the remarkable ideas and successful projects at work in the world today.
ORIGINS AND HISTORIES
In 2010 Fuller Challenge juror David Orr – the esteemed sustainability educator and author – remarked that human civilization has entered the historical equivalent of shooting the dangerous rapids of a treacherous white-water river. With a broken paddle. Blindfolded.
Buckminster Fuller put it in stark relief with this famous question: Are we heading toward Utopia or Oblivion? He challenged his contemporaries to creatively respond to the urgency of this moment by re-framing the crisis as an opportunity pointing to humanity’s “option to make it – to live successfully without compromising the ability for all of life to thrive.”
Fuller demonstrated through his research and design practice that the resources needed for all forms of life on the planet to live in relative peace and prosperity exist. Creatively deployed, these resources are more than enough to raise the standard of living for everybody.
He called for a revolution by design –not political or military – but a revolution driven by the problem-solving creativity of design combined with the empirical demands of science.
Fuller’s practice took a comprehensive approach, starting with the whole; anticipating future trends and needs; employing the scientific method; and aligned with nature’s operating principles. He saw that this way of thinking and doing was to be the future of design. He called his practice design science. And in the 1960’s he launched the Design Science Revolution with an open call to the world’s creative communities “to make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.”
In 2007 The Buckminster Fuller Challenge Prize program reintroduced Bucky’s vision. After extensive research we determined that the development of a competitive prize – an open call to anyone creatively addressing any of the world’s most urgent problems – would enable us to accomplish several goals:
1. honor the legacy of Fuller and create a prestigious program that would encourage innovation and recognize integrity;
2. draw attention and support to the thinkers and doers applying a comprehensive, whole-systems approach to designing solutions to the
great challenges we face today;
3. leverage the power of a prestigious innovation prize to demonstrate the importance of whole systems-thinking and its integral function in design-
thinking;
4. educate a new generation of designers to take up Fuller’s Challenge to transform our world through design, by showcasing world class projects
and celebrating the people behind them”,
Over the program’s ten-year history (2007-2017) the Fuller Challenge attracted thousands of initiatives from across the globe, tackling every conceivable issue facing humanity and the planet today. Each team submitted an application that was subject to a rigorous vetting process in which our esteemed review team and juries invested hundreds of hours of investigation, research, and debate to select our honored entries.
First recognized in 2011 by Metropolis Magazine as “socially responsible design’s highest award”, the program conferred an annual grand prize of
$100,000 to a project that best fulfilled the entrance criteria and embodied what we have called the ‘spirit of the Challenge’. Winning projects are visionary initiatives that address multiple problems simultaneously, and evoke inspiration for others to study and replicate.
The winning team also received with The Omnioculi, a commissioned sculpture created by artist Tom Shannon in collaboration with geodesics expert Joseph Clinton.
While one project was selected as the winner, each year the Fuller Challenge program awarded resources and support to an additional 40-60 projects through our Catalyst Program. These projects typically represented the top 20% of the entry pool and received opportunities for additional funding and investment, pro-bono legal services, fast-track access to accelerator programs, mentorship opportunities, and international press coverage.
The projects included in the archive demonstrate that design can and must be applied to every aspect of the global system, and reveal a groundswell of successful solutions to our most complex and urgent problems.
With an expanded view of design’s scope, we were able to recognize design innovation in places and projects that were unusual and new. And in the process we discovered an extraordinary group of passionate people with an unusual capacity to feel a deep sense of generosity for the future. It is our hope that
history will look back on their sacrifice, commitment and creativity to recognize that these were the trimtabs of our time who navigated us to safer shores, calmer waters, a world that works for all.
On behalf of the Fuller Challenge staff, review team and our generous supporters we thank you for your interest in this project and hope you will enjoy this archive!
-Elizabeth Thompson, Founding Director
Our Vision:We envision a world where people show compassion, protection, and care for all animals.
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Our Mission:
To work with communities, governments, partners and other stakeholders across Africa to promote humane treatment of all animals.
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Notable Achievements :
We have spearheaded:The drafting of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act, 2013 and review of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, CAP 360. |
The amendments to the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act, 2013 to effectively address animal welfare issues arising from wildlife crime. |
The formation of a platform that brings together law enforcement institutions and animal welfare practitioners to look into wildlife and environmental crimes. |
The establishment of animal welfare clubs in schools. |
Our Core Values : Partnership – Moral Integrity – Effectiveness & Efficiency
Our Strategic Focus Areas:
- Capacity Building, Education, and Awareness: the objective is to increase knowledge and skills, and influence attitudes and improve behaviors about animal welfare; of citizens, policy makers and practitioners by 2020.
- Better Animal Care: the objective is to advocate and campaign against all forms of cruelty and persecution of animals in society by 2020.
- Human-Animal Co-existence: the objective is to promote harmonious coexistence of humans and animals by 2020.
ACT Alliance is the largest coalition of Protestant and Orthodox churches and church-related organisations engaged in humanitarian, development and advocacy work in the world, consisting of 155 members working together in over 140 countries to create positive and sustainable change in the lives of poor and marginalised people regardless of their religion, politics, gender, sexual orientation, race or nationality in keeping with the highest international codes and standards.
ACT Alliance is supported by 30,000 staff from member organisations and mobilises about $3 billion for its work each year in three targeted areas:
- humanitarian aid
- development
- advocacy
ACT Alliance is deeply rooted in the communities it serves. It has earned the trust and respect of local people long before large international interventions scale up, and remains steadfast in its grassroots commitments for many years after world attention has shifted elsewhere.
This means that every day, ACT Alliance is on the frontlines:
- addressing systemic poverty
- supporting survivors of disasters, wars and conflicts
- training rural communities in sustainable agricultural techniques
- helping people adapt to environmental change,
- and influencing governments and other key decision makers to safeguard citizens’ human rights.
Members are associated with the World Council of Churches or the Lutheran World Federation.
The global secretariat of ACT Alliance is based within Switzerland, Jordan, Thailand, El Salvador, Kenya, Canada and New York. In addition, the ACT Alliance Advocacy office to the EU is based in Brussels, Belgium.
Founding Documents, Statutes and By-Laws
ACT Alliance Statutes here
ACT By-Laws here
ACT Founding Documents here
International codes and standards
ACT Alliance is a signatory to the highest humanitarian codes and standards, including the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief.
ACT Alliance is a member of the International Council for Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response (SCHR) and a member of the CHS Alliance.
ACT is committed to the Sphere Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response and has a seat on the Sphere Board.
ACT is also a member of Reuters AlertNet.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a non-governmental, science-based conservation organization that works in over 50 countries around the world. Founded in 1896 as the New York Zoological Society, its mission is to conserve wildlife and ecosystems by generating and applying innovative scientific and field-based solutions to critical problems.
The WCS approach to conservation is rooted in our belief that good conservation requires a sound understanding of the ecology and threats to conservation targets. Our credibility is established through scientific work, which acts as a basis for the development of conservation plans that will work in the real world.
ENDA-Ethiopia is the Ethiopian branch of ENDA TW (Environmental Development Action in the Third World) based in Dakar, Senegal.
Its present activities center on urban popular economy and ecology, environmental education, sustainable farming and communication.
Enda-Ethiopia’s approach is to help the local people to seek appropriate solutions to their problems, make the most of local resources, negotiate and identify means of action, organize their activities and assess their own methods and results.
Cotton made in Africa (CmiA), an Aid by Trade Foundation initiative, improves the social, economic and ecological living conditions of African smallholder cotton farmers and their families by building up an alliance of international textile retailers who demand for the sustainably produced CmiA cotton.
To successfully create social and ecological value, CmiA partners with actors along the textile value chain from farm to fashion, non-governmental as well as governmental partners. Last but not least, CmiA relies on consumers worldwide who can make a valuable contribution to Africa’s long-term future through the purchase of a CmiA-labeled product.
The National Environment Management Council (NEMC) came into being in 1983 when the Government of Tanzania enacted the National Environment Management Act No. 19 of 1983. NEMC was established with a broad mandate in response to the national need for such an institution to oversee environmental management issues and also implement the resolutions of the Stockholm conference (1972), which called upon all nations to establish and strengthen national environmental Councils to advise governments and the international community on environmental issues.
The enactment of Environmental Management Act No. 20 of 2004 (EMA, 2004) by Parliament in October 2004, repealed the National Environmental Management Act No.19 of 1983 and re-established NEMC. EMA 2004 provides for a legal and institutional framework for sustainable management of the environment, prevention and control pollution, waste management, environmental quality standards, public participation, environmental compliance and enforcement. Furthermore, it gives NEMC mandates to undertake enforcement, compliance , review and monitoring of environmental impacts assessments, research, facilitate public participation in environmental decision-making, raise environmental awareness and collect and disseminate environmental information.
The challenge of integrating Environmental concerns into development processes for sustenance was first realized in the late 1960s and this culminated in the Stockholm Conference on Environment and Development in 1972.
Tanzania responded to this global Environmental Processes by enactment of the NEM- Act 1983, creating an Environmental Council [known as National Environmental Management Council-NEMC] which became operational in 1986; the formulation and approval of the National Environment Policy 1997 and the recent Environmental Management Act (EMA), 2004. Further Tanzania has ratified several of the Multilateral Environmental Agreements
The object and purpose for which NEMC is established is to undertake environmental enforcement, compliance, review and monitor environmental impact statements, research and awareness raising.
The Foundation is a vehicle through which KTDA Holdings and its subsidiaries carry out corporate social investments (CSI). The Key objective of the Foundation is to initiate interventions that improve the welfare of small holders’ tea farmers in Kenya through strategic partnerships in areas of education, health, economic empowerment and environmental conservation.
To be able to bring about socio economic transformation for the small holder tea farmers, the Foundation has a focus on four key programme pillars. The Foundation’s programmes are aligned to Vision 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals since the tea sector is a major contributor to the socio economic development of the country.
The KTDA CSI business model is driven by sustainability anchored on 3 components:
- The need to address environmental sustainability and climate change challenges for our tea business depends on the environment.
- The need for KTDA Foundation to address social welfare issues that affect our farmers primarily driven by shared value and collaborative partnerships.
- The need to enhance KTDA brand and reputation as an entity that engages its stakeholders holistically.
Zoï Environment Network is a non-profit organization that helps build sustainable societies through informed analysis, visual communication, design and action.
What do we do?
We provide specialised support services and expertise aimed at adding value and filling gaps in existing capacity. Specialising enables us to keep abreast with emerging international best practice, and to continually build our hands-on skills and practical experience. We are continually striving to introduce new approaches and methodologies that respond to rapidly changing realities, and we are always keen to work with our customers to explore new opportunities and directions. Our four main current areas of expertise are outlined below.
Conservation planning
Planning for conservation – whether for an ecosystem or natural landscape, a national park or a community wildlife area – is a vital yet underutilised tool for achieving the delicate balance between preservation and use of an area’s natural resources. We believe that planning provides the means to build stakeholder consensus around the conservation and development goals of an area, and to overcome sometimes divergent and conflicting needs. We also believe that management plans not only provide a vital framework for the long-term management of a conservation area, but can also be used by stakeholders as a yardstick to measure progress. All our plans are developed using participatory planning techniques which allow stakeholders to contribute fully to their development. They have a simple logical structure which keeps technical language to the minimum to ensure the plans are easy to understand and straightforward to implement.
Programme and project design and evaluation
Good programme and project design is the cornerstone for achieving tangible and lasting conservation impacts. Crucially, this requires developing an understanding of the underlying processes that lead to the unsustainable use of natural resources, and how these processes can be influenced and reversed. This provides the basis for developing a “Theory of Change” of how the programme or project can best achieve tangible outcomes and ultimately realise conservation and sustainable development impacts, by identifying and addressing the necessary drivers of change, including factors such as financial sustainability, institutional capacity, socio-economic conditions, and legal and governance systems.
Impactful project design also relies on a good understanding of what can be practically achieved on the ground, not just in theory on paper. To strengthen our understanding of the factors that enable a realistic project intervention, we have also built up strong skills in the evaluation of a wide range of conservation and development projects, both as evaluation team leaders as well as in specialist capacities.
Wildlife law enforcement and trafficking
Illegal killing and trade in African wildlife, especially of iconic species such as elephants and rhinos, has now reached crisis proportions. Illicit wildlife trafficking is now the fourth largest illegal trade internationally after arms and drugs trafficking, and trafficking in human beings. In recent years, tens of thousands of elephants have been killed every year for their tusks. Faced with this unprecedented level of poaching and organised wildlife crime, many conservationists now fear that species such as elephants and rhinos may disappear in the wild within our lifetime.
CDC is assisting international, national and site-level efforts to address this crisis in several ways. Firstly, we are working with key agencies to develop new project initiatives designed to bolster efforts to combat wildlife crime and to strengthen law enforcement efforts at both site and national levels. Secondly, we are assisting in the identification and promotion of wildlife law enforcement best practices, in order to ensure that interventions are based on the best available knowledge of what works and what doesn’t. And thirdly, we are helping to understand the status of law enforcement and wildlife trafficking prevention measures, so that national governments, conservation organisations and donors know how best to focus their resources to stem the tide in wildlife losses.
Conservation and sustainable development governance
Across Africa, there is a growing disparity between the livelihood needs of a rapidly expanding human population and the conservation needs of Africa’s outstanding but increasingly vulnerable biodiversity and habitats. From our experience over the years, we believe that natural resource governance systems are especially important for reconciling conservation and human development needs. This includes aspects such as natural resource institutions and legal frameworks, resource ownership and use rights and responsibilities, and mechanisms for equitably distributing the costs and benefits of conservation. CDC’s work in this area has focussed on developing an understanding of the socio-economic factors at play in unsustainable resource use and biodiversity loss, as a basis for designing more effective natural resource governance mechanisms. We have also provided practical support for the development of natural resource governance approaches that respond to changing socio-economic and environmental circumstances and increasing human development expectations.
We the SACDEP Board, Staff and Development partner communities are sincerely delighted to have you as our most valued guest.
We are glad to take you with us as we share with you our thoughts, beliefs, philosophy and experiences with regard to developmental achievements and challenges in people’s livelihoods.
On this site we strive to give an overview of who we are and a brief of what SACDEP has achieved in the last 20 years of operation in Kenya. We appreciate the fact that our work continues to focus on smallholder farming communities, “those at the BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID” in facilitating them to unlock their existing potential towards achieving tangible economic benefits that ensure improved livelihoods.
Our main activities are geared towards filling the existing technological gaps through building the skills of communities on the principles and practices of Sustainable Agriculture.
Founded in 1977 by the Late Professor Wangari Maathai, the Green Belt Movement (GBM) is a grassroots non-governmental organization that has worked, primarily with women in environmental conservation and community empowerment in Kenya for over 30 years. GBM employs a holistic approach to development that addresses basic needs and challenges that communities identify as priority. GBM’s work has focused on conserving the environment by empowering grassroots communities and building their capacity to restore the environment, promote good governance, and develop climate resilience and sustainable livelihoods. To date, over 51 million trees have been planted and hundreds of thousands of women empowered.
Underpinning GBM’s Theory of Change has been a fundamental understanding that when people understand the linkages between their actions and their livelihood situations (poverty, water scarcity, soil loss and food insecurity) they are more likely to muster their energies and take action for change. GBM engages communities through its unique watershed-based 10-step tree planting procedure, and mobilizes individuals to take action and improve their livelihoods and watershed management. GBM takes community through a process of Civic, Empowerment and Environmental Education (CEE) that provides a strong sense of self-knowledge and realization which has enabled them to embrace conscious pursuit for peaceful co-existence and a people driven socio-political-economic development. Through this process, they learn to make linkages between the challenges they face and environmental degradation. This leads to community-led action and a commitment to safeguard natural resources.