Supported projects

NAIROBI - European media regularly report on human rights violations by multinational companies 'from here'. Various Flemish media reported that a Flemish construction company would engage in forced labour in Qatar in preparation for the World Cup. Swedish journalists Tobias Åkerblom and Moa Kärnstrand revealed that a Swedish clothing brand would employ children aged 14 in Myanmar. However, multinationals born and raised in emerging economies are often forgotten.

FALTECINI - Belgian police and army uniforms are made in Romanian factories with Belgian owners, by seamstresses who can barely make a living from their wages. What is wrong with our public tenders? "As long as price remains the most important award criterion, someone always pays the price.

LAGOS - This series of investigations exposes the consequences of yearlong corruption in the construction and oil sectors on Nigerian life conditions, and the dodgy relationship between oil businessmen and corrupt politicians in the country.

GHENT - The measures that Flemish universities have taken to lower the threshold for reporting transgressive behaviour are effective at first sight. The number of reports has increased, among others at the University of Ghent, because victims (dare to) report faster. However, that does not mean that all problems are solved.

ANTANANARIVO - When the news from Beijing reached Madagascar on September 6th, 2018, that a deal of 2.7 billion USD was signed on the country’s “blue economy” with China, people in the second largest island country panicked. Rightfully so. Nobody, including the fishing ministry, had heard of such a deal beforehand. 

DILOVASI - The Toxic Valley project looks into the environmental consequences of industrialisation in Turkey, and reveals a pattern of chemical dumping and polluting that has led to a widespread health crisis in the Kocaeli region, the most heavily industrialised area of the country.

SPAIN - Some 500 street vendors from Senegal, India and Pakistan work in the streets of Barcelona. Arkasha Keysers talked to them about fake sneakers, bad beer and the fear of a criminal record.

SOFIA - The story focuses on the plight of cash-strapped Bulgarian women who come to Belgium and the Netherlands as posted workers to care for elderly people who want to spend the last months or years of their life in their own home, instead of in a retirement home. The investigation focuses on one of the main players on the market offering such services, Seniorcare24.

Do we know where the carpet that decorates our living room comes from? In most cases we don't. Let alone that we know what price the carpet weavers are paid for it.

One Belt One Road an economic project?

In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping decided it was time to 'go out'. He launched the One Belt One Road (OBOR) project and wants to develop a train connection across the Eurasian continent and a maritime route into Europe.