United Disabled Persons of Kenya (UDPK) is a federation of organizations for persons with disabilities in Kenya. Its mandate is to advocate for the rights of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in all spheres of life. It is committed to ensure that Persons with Disabilities share an equal platform and enjoy their rights across all sectors of development.
The Climate Action Network (CAN) is a worldwide network of over 1300 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in more than 120 countries, working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels.
CAN members work to achieve this goal through information exchange and the coordinated development of NGO strategy on international, regional, and national climate issues. CAN has regional network hubs that coordinate these efforts around the world.
CAN members place a high priority on both a healthy environment and development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland Commission). CAN’s vision is to protect the atmosphere while allowing for sustainable and equitable development worldwide.
Our Vision
We envision a people-centered globalization that values the rights of workers and the health of the planet; that prioritizes international collaboration as central to ensuring peace; and that aims to create a local, green economy designed to embrace the diversity of our communities.
In a world where the economics of quantity fuels corporate power and political greed, the elite are reaping profits while working people and the planet are left to pay the price. In response to worldwide degradation caused by this system of elite globalization, Global Exchange envisions an alternative economics of quality centered upon protecting international human rights to ensure that the cost of globalization does not come at the expense of us all.
Our Mission
Global Exchange is an international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world. We take a holistic approach to creating change and as an education and action resource center, we advance our vision by working to ensure our members and constituents are empowered locally and connected globally to create a just and sustainable world.
We realize that in order to advance social, environmental and economic justice we must transform the global economy from profit-centered to people-centered, from currency to community.
Our Work
Global Exchange is tackling some of the most critical issues of our time— from limiting corporate power and greed to oil addiction and global climate change, from the exploitation of the current global economy to the creation of the local green economy. Our campaigns inspire people across the U.S. and around the world to resist injustice, envision alternatives, and take action. Click here to learn more.
Global Exchange was founded 30 years ago to promote human rights, justice and sustainability around the world. We envisioned building a robust U.S. movement capable of creating change from the grassroots, powered by people-to-people ties. To change the world, we started making change at home.
Our Successes
Over the last 30 years, we have won victories big and small on behalf of workers, small farmers, the environment and vulnerable communities around the world. We helped build a thriving Fair Trade movement. We championed campaigns to stop and end wars, challenge corporate power and bring attention to the exploitation of the current global economy. We monitored elections in Colombia, Mexico, and in the U.S. We built the largest sustainability event (Green Festival) in the country from the ground up and trained young adults in green careers. We have organized social conscious travel around the globe on our Reality Tours. See more from our 30 years. And we are still going strong!
Join us
By joining Global Exchange today, you will support an unstoppable movement for change.
In 1983, both black rhinos and northern white rhinos declared extinct throughout Uganda. Therefore, our purpose is to return rhinos, a vital aspect of both environmental and cultural heritage, back into Uganda, through our breeding and release program.
Located in Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, the 7 000 hectares of savannah and woodlands has provided us with land for the rhinos. Owned by Captain Joe Roy, a Ugandan citizen, a land usage license has been agreed to give us sole usage rights for thirty (renewable) years.
From this, the first six southern white rhinos were translocated in 2005/6, with four from Kenya, and two from Disney Animal Kingdom (USA). As it was northern white rhinos that once populated Uganda’s national parks, our rhinos are technically considered an exotic breed!
It was four years before the first rhino was born in March 2008. Unfortunately, Bella’s baby was a still born.
The next year – 24th June 2009 – we had a healthy male calf, making history by being the first rhino born in Uganda in approximately 30 years! He was named Obama, making history, with his mother from the United States and his father from Kenya.
Our Liaison Offices in New York, New Delhi, Tokyo and Vienna continue to serve as contact points for ACUNS members traveling to those locations and interested in making connections to the United Nations based organizations in those cities, and to the local scholarly communities there.
The individual lead Liaison Officers at these locations are ACUNS members, either in the academic or practitioner communities, who have volunteered their services to help support members of our global network.
In some cases, the Liaison Offices also organize functions – lectures, seminars, workshops, and conferences – in cooperation with local UN bodies, other international organizations, NGOs, and academic institutions. The Vienna Liaison Office has been especially active in arranging or participating in such programming, supported by an energetic group of young volunteer interns.
In the basalt mountains around Lalibela, stay in local communities. See their ancient world, their churches and their way of life.
Walk through the age-old agrarian landscape of the Ethiopian Highlands following escarpments with birds of prey soaring in the thermals and Gelada baboon scrambling up and down the cliff face. Local shepherd boys keep an eye on their flocks, while their fathers plough the fields, and their sisters collect water in clay pots.
An experience you will never forget!
Please use the links on this site to find out more about these stunning sites and learn how a visit to them could be easily integrated into your holiday in Ethiopia.
See how easy it is to fit a trip to these mountains around your visit to Lalibela, perhaps stopping off en-route from Lalibela to Bahir Dar or Gondar. Let TESFA help you plan one that fits in with your preferences.
TESFA’s Mission Statement (extract)
TESFA seeks to work in partnership with local communities to enable them to generate sustainable improvements in their livelihood through the development of their own tourism related enterprises, while also contributing to the protection of their physical and cultural environments.
ADEC Innovations advances sustainable practices around the world, and helps organizations grow and operate responsibly. Seamlessly delivering fully integrated, cost-effective consulting, data management and software solutions, ADEC Innovations helps clients save time, reduce costs, optimize resource use, and drive operational efficiencies in a world where sustainability matters.
We have over 30 years of group experience in data management, software solutions, professional services and workforce solutions. Our products and services cover various industry sectors such as education, health information, environmental services and compliance.
ATE’s research arm, the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, has made many important contributions to elephant research over the years. The knowledge gained from the AERP team has profoundly altered the way we think about, conserve and manage elephant populations. Our research has highlighted the ethical implications of dealing with sentient, long-lived, intelligent and social complex animals and our knowledge base provides powerful and authoritative support to elephant conservation and advocacy campaigns worldwide. For more than four decades AERP’s presence has helped ensure the survival of the elephants as well as the Amboseli ecosystem.
AERP research covers many areas including: social organization, behavior, demography, ecological dynamics, spatial analyses and mapping, communication, genetics, human-elephant interactions and cognition. Our long-term datasets underpin all these research topics.
CORE RESEARCH
Our team of Kenyan research assistants and visiting scientists are in the field at least six days a week. We record all demographic events in the population; births and deaths, musth, oestrus and mating. Our routine daily observations note associations between family units and independent males, geographic location, group size, composition, activity and habitat type. Within families we monitor female affiliation and the dispersal of young males from their family to analyze family dynamics. We have systematically monitored the size and growth of over 600 individuals from 1976 to the present. Since 1999 we have collected dung samples for genetic analyses of population origins, paternity and within- and between-family relatedness. We are constantly maintaining and updating our individual records, and we also carry out basic ecological monitoring through vegetation plots, water table measurements and rainfall.
COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH
ATE hosts visiting researchers who contribute to the growing understanding of African elephants in general, and the knowledge base for the sustained future of the Amboseli population in particular.
Researchers interested in collaborating with ATE should address their enquiries to our Director of Science, Prof. Phyllis Lee (phyllis.lee@stir.ac.uk). ATE has always enjoyed a dynamic collaboration network and we welcome the opportunity for new partnerships to continue that tradition. Our collaborations extend across many subject areas:
Communication
Communication is the glue that binds the social network of an intelligent species. Joyce Poole and Petter Granli recorded and analyzed Amboseli elephant vocalizations as part of the work of their NGO ElephantVoices. Their aim is to build our scientific understanding of the intelligence and social complexity of elephants and enhance the toolbox for their conservation and management. At the same time they act as a voice for elephants in a strong advocacy component. You can follow some of their work and activities on the ElephantVoices Facebook page. Other communication studies have focused on elephants’ capacity for individual recognition: Karen McComb pioneered the playback approach and demonstrated that each female elephant recognizes around 100 other females from voice alone.
Elephant Life Histories and Reproduction
Ongoing studies provide vital information on how elephants grow, mature and learn to cope with their physical and social environments. This work, guided by Phyllis Lee asks how longevity and developmental processes contribute to fitness and reproductive success. The four-decade-long Amboseli dataset is now yielding exciting insights into these questions; Phyllis’ work has recently demonstrated that early life experiences have survival and fitness consequences across individual lifetimes. The role of old, experienced females in guiding family decisions has become apparent: families with older matriarchs have improved calf survival and shorter inter-birth intervals for all females in the family. An extreme drought event in 2009 caused the death of many of these important leaders. Vicki Fishlock’s work, supported by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, aims to assess the social and reproductive effects of these losses. As a result of Vicki’s work, we are developing further studies into what leadership and negotiation means for elephant families.
Human-elephant conflict and co-existence
ATE is bringing its specialized knowledge of elephant behavior and society to bear on developing conflict-reduction strategies that are consistent with rural agriculture and Maasai livestock husbandry (see also Community Outreach). Work by Kadzo Kangwana, Christy Browne-Nunez, Patrick Chiyo and Winnie Kiiru has guided and developed our approach to conflict and coexistence.
Genetic analysis
Scientists from Duke University have mapped DNA profiles in order to define family relationships and origins of the Amboseli population. Cross-referenced to behavioral observations, the DNA analysis by Beth Archie examined survival strategies based on relatedness. Beth’s student Patrick Chiyo studied the socio-ecology of crop-raiding elephants using genetic techniques. Patrick’s work expanded to examine male association patterns and the impact of these on high risk activities such a crop-raiding.
Cognition
Dick Byrne and Lucy Bates have examined elephants’ formidable reputation for memory and intelligence by investigating specific cognitive skills designed to probe elephants’ ability to manipulate and respond to their world and each other. Karen McComb and Graeme Shannon have expanded Karen’s early work on elephant communication and vocal recognition into the cognitive sphere by presenting elephants with a series of acoustic “threats” via playback experiments. Their studies show that elephants and discriminate and appropriately respond to varying levels of threats from lions and from humans, and that these abilities are strongest amongst experienced (older) elephants.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
The long-term survival of elephants can only be assured by creating a niche for free-living elephants that is compatible with the needs and aspirations of the surrounding human communities. Elephants and humans have shared the Amboseli landscape for approximately 500 years. With the expansion of settlement, agriculture and livestock numbers inevitably encounters between people and elephants are increasing. ATE’s approach is aimed at maintaining the conservation ethos which has been part of Maasai tradition, but which is increasingly threatened by the pressures of 21st century human society.
Community Relations
Our field staff maintains daily contact with the surrounding Maasai community. This friendly interaction is essential to ensure that landowners maintain a tolerant attitude to the presence and passage of elephants on their group ranch land. We estimate that at any one time 80% of the wildlife in Amboseli is using community lands; without community participation there is simply no future for wildlife. Our approach is to allow a two-way exchange of understanding with communities. Concerns are aired in constructive dialogue, not in retaliatory killing of wildlife. We had proof of the value of this approach in 2012, when a local Maasai man waited for five hours beside an elephant calf trapped in a well. He patiently protected the little calf until he could reach ATE staff via an unreliable mobile phone network, and we then rescued the calf with the help of DSWT staff. Without this man’s care and respect, the calf, who we called Lemoyian, would certainly have died.
Consolation
ATE has an innovative and successful consolation scheme to assist members of the community who lose livestock to elephants. Started in 1997 the program pays an owner of a cow, sheep or goat a set amount when an elephant kills any livestock on community lands. Previously, Maasai custom dictated an elephant had to be speared and killed in retribution for livestock deaths. The number of elephants speared dropped by more than half after the initiation of the consolation scheme. This scheme has since become a model in other areas and for other species.
Maasai Elephant Scouts
ATE operations outside the park include employing fifteen Maasai elephant scouts who patrol the ecosystem on foot, reporting elephant presence and signs, injured elephants and conflicts, as well as signs of poaching and the bushmeat trade. Their work is coordinated with that of the Amboseli-Tsavo Game Scouts Association (ATGSA) and the Big Life Foundation. The ATE scouts support our monitoring work by augmenting our elephant sightings data, especially during the wet season when elephants range widely. Scouts also assist in verification of consolation claims. Support to the scouts contributes to improved community participation and understanding of human-wildlife interaction as well as providing employment in a depressed rural area. We are also beginning a collaboration with the Lion Guardians programme to fund the work of two conflict mitigation scouts, at the request of the Kaputei community.
Protecting waterbird populations has been part of Audubon’s mission even before the official establishment of the National Audubon Society. Outrage over the slaughter of millions of waterbirds, particularly egrets and other waders, for the millinery trade led to the foundation, by Harriet Hemenway and Minna B. Hall, of the Massachusetts Audubon Society in 1896. By 1898, state-level Audubon Societies had been established in Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire, Illinois, Maine, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Minnesota, Texas, and California. In 1900, Audubon member Frank M. Chapman launched the first Christmas Bird Count – Audubon’s all-volunteer holiday census of early-winter bird populations – as an alternative to the traditional Christmas “Side Hunt,” in which hunters competed to kill as many birds (and mammals) as possible.
In 1901, state-level Audubon groups joined together in a loose national organization, which helped to establish the first National Wildlife Refuge in the U.S. – Pelican Island, in Florida, in 1903 – and facilitated the hiring of wardens to protect waterbird breeding areas in several states. In 1905, the National Audubon Society was founded, with the protection of gulls, terns, egrets, herons, and other waterbirds high on its conservation priority list.
In 1918, President Wilson signed the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), which remains to this day one of the strongest laws protecting wild North American birds. Shortly after the passage of the MBTA, Audubon established its first system of waterbird sanctuaries in seven states along the eastern coast of the U.S., and thus initiated the implementation of large-scale, scientifically-based bird conservation efforts.
Netlink Environmental Conservation Organisation (NECOR) is an environmental NGO in Nigeria that is born out of the need to ensure optimum participation and involvement of all the stakeholders including the local communities in sustainable management of natural resources. Netlink Environmental Conservation Organisation is the umbrella body for Environmental Conservation Club (ECC). ECC strives to inculcate Environmental Conservation consciousness into the youth as a way to gather much needed support and efforts targeted at tackling numerous environmental challenges confronting humanity. The idea, passion, enthusiasm, talent and strength of the communities toward achieving sustainable management of our natural resources and fragile environment can therefore not be ignored thus a collective multidisciplinary approach is urgently require
“The Nature – Culture – Historic and Technology destination”
The Abune Yoseph Massif is one of the country’s Most Important Bird Areas. It measures 4284 masl the country’s third highest point, Abune yoseph, Zigit and Abohoy massifs are endowed with afro alpine floras and fauna. Cordial community; historic rock hewn churches of St. Lalibela; one of country’s satellite technology site, therefore it will be a place where you attentions can find various.
Envirocare is non-profit making, non partisan, non governmental registered organization founded in 1993.Our primary target groups as well as main stakeholders are the communities in which we work.Below are our core functions as an organization. Below are our core functions as an organization:
Syngenta is a leading agriculture company helping to improve global food security by enabling millions of farmers to make better use of available resources. Through world class science and innovative crop solutions, our 28,000 people in over 90 countries are working to transform how crops are grown. We are committed to rescuing land from degradation, enhancing biodiversity and revitalizing rural communities.
WHO works worldwide to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable.
Our goal is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and well-being.
For universal health coverage, we:
- focus on primary health care to improve access to quality essential services
- work towards sustainable financing and financial protection
- improve access to essential medicines and health products
- train the health workforce and advise on labour policies
- support people’s participation in national health policies
- improve monitoring, data and information.
For health emergencies, we:
- prepare for emergencies by identifying, mitigating and managing risks
- prevent emergencies and support development of tools necessary during outbreaks
- detect and respond to acute health emergencies
- support delivery of essential health services in fragile settings.
For health and well-being we:
- address social determinants
- promote intersectoral approaches for health
- prioritize health in all policies and healthy settings.
Through our work, we address:
- human capital across the life-course
- noncommunicable diseases prevention
- mental health promotion
- climate change in small island developing states
- antimicrobial resistance
- elimination and eradication of high-impact communicable diseases.
The Ministry of Environment & Forestry is a ministry of the Government of South Sudan. The incumbent minister is Mrs. Josephine NAPWON, while Mr.Joseph Africano Bartel serves as the Under Secretary
Vision
“Clean, healthy and safe environment for the people of South Sudan”
Mission
“To provide policy guidance, direction and coordination of all stakeholders for protection, conservation and sustainable management of the environment”
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.
Birds of Eden is home to about 220 different types of birds, and more than 3500 birds live in the sanctuary.
Our award winning bird sanctuary provides a forever home where previously caged birds can live a life of free-flight in a habitat as large and natural as is possible.
The feathered inhabitants of the aviary are comprised of a mixture of exotic, as well as African birds. This includes previously caged pets, hand reared and imprinted individuals, which in turn explains why some of our inhabitants, mainly being the parrots, (of which we have 60 different species) are unafraid of human beings and seemingly tame. All new arrivals at Birds of Eden go through a process of rehabilitation before their final release into the main aviary. Most of the birds that arrive at Birds of Eden have a history of being caged in small environments.
Many of the birds we home have never encountered other birds. Therefor the main rehabilitation process involves socialization with other birds in large outdoor pre-release aviaries. Here they are given the chance to build up flight muscles, flight control, i.e. practicing landings, change of direction etc. The rest of the release process is based on instinct and it is rather remarkable – all the birds instinctively know which area of the aviary suits their needs, how and where to look for, and find food, water and shelter from the weather. Species recognition is generally immediate, for e.g. when a new Ringneck is released into the aviary, all the other Ringnecks gather to have a look at the newcomer! Releasing new birds into the main aviary immediately without them going through rehabilitation would be tantamount to running a marathon without any training.
Sadly, we cannot always accept birds which have been pinioned. A pinioned bird is maimed for life, and will never be able to fly in its lifetime again. We are however able to accept a few species such as the cranes, flamingos and even some ducks and geese.
The heartless practice of pinioning is used to ensure that birds cannot fly away. Pinioning is when a section of the wing (the tip) is removed while they are still young. It is an incredibly cruel practice.
The winning factor of Birds of Eden has to be its sheer size. The volume particularly allows for the creation of habitat niches for the large variety of species that find sanctuary here.
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.
The Global Environment Facility was established on the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to help tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems. Since then, the GEF has provided over $19.2 billion in grants and mobilized an additional $101.4 billion in co-financing for more than 4,700 projects in 170 countries. In addition, under the Small Grants Programme, the GEF has financed 23,991 projects in 128 countries.
The GEF Partnership recently agreed to a new direction in its work to achieve greater results and help to meet rising challenges. This agreement is set out in the Summary of the Negotiations of the Seventh Replenishment of the GEF. In combination with its traditional investments under the Conventions, the GEF is:
- Strategically focusing its investments to catalyze transformational change in key systems that are driving major environmental loss, in particular energy, cities and food;
- Prioritizing integrated projects and programs that address more than one global environmental problem at a time, building on the GEF’s unique position and mandate to act on a wide range of global environmental issues; and
- Implementing new strategies and policies to enhance results, including stronger engagement with the private sector, indigenous peoples, and civil society, and an increased focus on gender equality.
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.
Women Environmental Programme (WEP) is a non-governmental, non-profit, non-political, non-religious and voluntary organization formed in April 1997 by a group of women in Kaduna State. WEP envisions a world where the lives of women and youth are positively transformed.
Although WEP emerged in response to the environmental pollution by industries in Kaduna State, over the years she has expanded her interventions to conflict transformation, climate change and governance issues.
WEP has United Nations Economic and Social Council of the United Nations(UN) (ECOSOC) special status, Observer Status to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum, and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). With the Observer Status, WEP participate as a major group organization in contributing to the intergovernmental decision-making process in the UN-System. WEP is one of the Organizing Partners (OPs) of Women’s Major Groups and serves as the National Coordinator for Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) in Nigeria. WEP is also the Focal Point for Global Environment Facility (GEF) CSOs in West and Central Africa.
Since 1997 WEP has impacted over 20,000,000 lives positively across the globe through her interventions in Environment, Governance, Climate Change, Women and Youth Empowerment, Peace and Conflict Transformation.
Who We Are
Our Vision
Knowledge for better livelihoods.
Our Mission
To strengthen the capacity and policies of African countries and institutions to harness science, technology and innovation for sustainable development.
Our Value Proposition
- To conduct high quality research, policy analysis, capacity strengthening and outreach on applications of science, technology and innovation policies to sustainable development in Africa
- To facilitate and convene evidence based policy dialogue and debate
- To inform development policy and practice
- To put critical issues of science, technology innovation on the Development Agenda
- To provide independent and objective policy advice to African governments and agencies, regional economic communities and institutions, private sector, civil society and community actors and agencies.
A Brief History
The African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) is a pioneering development research think tank on harnessing applications of science, technology and innovation policies for sustainable development in Africa. ACTS is an Intergovernmental organization founded in 1988 to pursue policy oriented research towards strengthening the capacity of African countries and institutions to harness science and technology for sustainable development. ACTS envisions a sustainable economic, social and environmental future for Africa, through science, technology and innovation.
Article 3 of the Charter of ACTS, empowers the Organization to undertake capacity building, conduct research, provide advisory services and disseminate information on the policy aspects of the application of science and technology to sustainable development in Africa. It also requires ACTS to:
- Promote capacity building in the developing countries in the field of policy analysis related to sustainable development.
- Monitor international trends in science and technology, undertake technology assessment and forecasting and analyze the impacts of new technologies for purposes of providing policy options to African and other developing country governments.
- Promote, enhance, inspire, study and conduct the building of the institutional framework requisite for the management, assessment, sustainable utilization and conservation of natural resources.
- Foster the exchange of information and networking between the Centre and other governmental and private institutions and individuals that have similar or related interests at the local, national, regional and international levels, with particular emphasis on policy matters.
- Promote, encourage, inspire and undertake technical cooperation activities between and within nations.
Since its founding, ACTS has been instrumental in enlarging the range of policy choices for sustainable development in Africa. Over the last quarter century, ACTS’ work has influenced patent (i.e. industrial property) legislation and policy (Kenya); environmental impact assessment standards (Eastern and Southern Africa); bio-energy and biofuels policy (Kenya, Eastern Africa, West Africa); agricultural policy, bio-diplomacy, biotechnology and biosafety (Africa-wide); climate change adaptation and mitigation (Africa-wide).
ACTS remains among the leading institutions working on sustainable development in Africa. In 2013, it was rated amongst the top Environment Think Tanks in Africa and the world. ACTS is also a past winner (1991) of the Justinian Rweyemamu Prize from CODESRIA (Africa’s Social Science Research Council) for its work in expanding the knowledge base for Africa’s development