FacebookXYouTubeLinkedIn
communication@well-grounded.org

From our partners

How to set good indicators for your projects

2022-03-11T13:45:10+00:00September 14th, 2018|

More and more, our donors, beneficiaries and the general public are requesting rigorous and objective evidence of the efficiency of our action. Beyond accountability requirements, good indicators also help us to assess the quality of our programmes, and correct them if necessary. In this article, you’ll find a few tips to define and use indicators in the conception and follow-up of your projects, while avoiding the most common mistakes! But to start with… What is an indicator? An indicator is a factor or a variable that can be measured objectively. It is, used to reliably assess the changes obtained or the [...]

Complaint abandoned, but systematic human rights violations continue for indigenous Baka communities in Cameroon

2022-03-11T13:45:10+00:00March 15th, 2018|

In September 2017, Survival International announced that it had withdrawn from OECD mediation with WWF, following its 2016 complaint lodged against them in relation to (inter alia) mistreatment of the Baka in Cameroon connected with its conservation activities. While Survival International's formal complaint might be at an end, the serious abuses of indigenous peoples’ human rights associated with conservation activities in Cameroon (and elsewhere) are persistent, real and ongoing, and reflect fundamental problems with the approach of many large conservation actors. At an international level, there has been a longstanding engagement by leading conservationists in support of human rights (often provoked [...]

Diversity and Inclusion: Human rights in the community forestry process in the DRC

2022-03-11T13:45:09+00:00March 2nd, 2018|

Securing local communities and indigenous peoples’ rights is a major challenge in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The situation of Human Rights is among the most critical in the world. The rule of law is applied erratically and the goods, including land, are regularly stolen. Laws that favour a potential recognition of traditional practices and rights of rural populations often remain hollow. However, Community forestry, a set of procedures, modalities and practices relative to forest management by local communities in view of their socio-economic development, has been adopted as one of the forest management modes in the DRC. Thanks to [...]

How to involve women in forest management: Interview with a community organiser in DRC

2022-03-11T13:45:09+00:00December 5th, 2017|

“Women, and indigenous women in particular, need to be included in decision-making on ecosystem use at all levels, as essential players in preserving our planet.” –UN Women Ruth Badubaye has been working with rainforest communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for several years. Formerly a GIS (geographic information systems) technician with Congolese organisation GASHE (Group d’Action pour Sauver l’Homme et son Environnement), Ruth is now part of Rainforest UK’s Community Forests project in DRC’s Equateur province. Part of a small team of legal, scientific and technical community fieldworkers, she works directly with local communities to support them in sustainably [...]

Increasing community’s right to land through participatory mapping

2022-03-11T13:45:02+00:00September 16th, 2016|

The Congo Basin forest is the second largest tropical forest and the third largest forest in the world. This forest is considered as one of the most important ecological zones in the world with over 10,000 species of  plants, 1000 species of birds, 500 species of fishes and over 500 variety of mammals. Hence, it produces substantial financial resources for states in the region including Cameroon. In Cameroon, the government launched ‘Vision 2035’ which aims at bringing development to the country via the industrialization of Cameroon’s economy. Within this context, there exists a combination of several factors that place additional pressure [...]

Revitalizing civil society support in the face of crisis and opportunity

2022-03-11T13:45:00+00:00December 14th, 2015|

By Cath Long Civil society organisations are under assault around the world. As recently described in The Guardian and by networks such as CIVICUS, the past several years have witnessed a surge in government efforts to restrict local organizations’ ability to operate or access external funds. At the same time, development aid often exacerbates constraints placed on civil society organizations by favouring short-term, restricted funding, curtailing investment in salaries and overheads, and imposing onerous reporting requirements. The 2015 CIVCUS annual report on the state of global civil society rightly observes that, “It is not surprising that domestic civil society does not [...]

The need to rethink collaboration between Cameroonian CSOs in order to increase their impacts on human and environmental wellbeing

2022-03-11T13:45:00+00:00November 19th, 2015|

Most of the civil society organisations (CSOs) that are involved in nature conservation and development activities in Cameroon are associations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). They often try to work in synergy and to complement one another in their implementation of projects, but often fall short of their own expectations or those of donors and beneficiary communities. Collaboration is often seen as being the cause of setbacks and bad experiences, but it is worth noting that many agencies collaborate with each other in order to access funding, comply with donor-led action strategies or respond to security conditions, etc. It is important to [...]

What makes a strong organisation? Six insights from African CSOs

2022-03-11T13:44:58+00:00May 19th, 2015|

“One thing I’ve learned from our discussion, is that for an African organisation to survive, they need to either cope with having nothing or with having too much.” – Representative from an African CSO Over the last year Maliasili Initiatives and Well Grounded have worked together in trying to better understand key issues, challenges, and opportunities related to strengthening African civil society organisations working to improve natural resource governance. As part of this we carried out research, which included interviewing 75 leading African CSOs, international organisations, funders and organisational experts (more on this research very soon). But for the first time [...]

Go to Top