The Future of Citizenship

All over the world the spotlight is on the citizen. From Time magazine’s nomination of the protestor as person of the year to the enduring optimism around the ripples of the Arab spring: from Obama’s ‘yes we can’ to Cameron’s big society: citizenship seems to have become the new magic bullet. But will this new starring role for the citizen actually lead to solutions?

It's the Future Calling

What do you do when the phone rings? You pick up, or let people leave a message on your voicemail and check it soon after. The phone has been ringing for a long time now in the development sector. What do you do when a caller starts conversing? You talk back - if only to say you're going to hang up. We talk a lot in the sector. What do you do when the caller starts shouting? You hang up, even if the other person has a valid reason to shout. In the development sector, we don’t like shouters. W...

Bureaucracy kills democracy

"As long as states represent the highest form of political authority, it will be impossible to channel human self-interest toward common solutions." This is stated by Rob Annandale, a Vancouver-based journalist and contributor to the Guardian and a.o. to this debate at The Broker. I admire this statement as it  acknowledges  the bankruptcy of the state that is likely to follow the  failure of the  greed-based economic-growth model that it has attempted  to s...

Future Headlines

Since we do not own a Delorean to go to the future with and we do not know Nostradamus, Doctor Who or Madame Web, it is difficult to foresee the future. But what if we try to imagine what the headlines would be in the year 2028, the year Hivos will turn 60.

Thick Problems and Thin Solutions

Find here the Thick Piece by Michael Edwards: Thick problems and thin solutions: How NGOs can bridge the gap.

Short-sightedness

Gazing in the future becomes interesting when it provides you with inroads in another or different way forward. Especially the optimists, which most development workers are, long for new horizons. However, it is very difficult to look ahead when many things are blocking you’re sight. Short-sightedness, seeing close objects clearly whereas objects in the distance appear blurry, seems to become a larger and larger problem in our sector.