Supported projects

BRUSSELS/AMSTERDAM - Half of the sustainability claims on company websites are unproven, vague, unclear or downright deceptive, according to the European Commission. Clothing companies in particular jump on terms like ‘sustainable’ above average without explaining themselves in more detail. Since 2021, both Dutch and Belgian government agencies have therefore been scouring the internet for misleading sustainability claims.

PUGLIA / AMSTERDAM – With climate change, diseases that previously wouldn't thrive in Europe have a greater chance of survival, making the peril for agriculture greater than ever. A system with very open borders for plant imports is threatening agriculture in the southern part of the European Union.

AMSTERDAM - Shell knows the ways to the highest circles as well as the shortcuts through the political swamps. The oil and gas giant operates in 70 countries. Most are not democratic constitutional states. Shell - until recently Royal Dutch Shell - has to deal daily with weak or autocratic governments, corruption, unrest, war and terrorism. How does it navigate through these?

LALIBELA - The rock churches of Lalibela in northern Ethiopia are world heritage sites. But during the civil war, the village was occupied by civilian militias of the Tigray Army (TPLF) fighting the government army. The soldiers left Lalibela as a ghost village.

BAGDAD - Climate change is causing an exodus in Iraq of farmers whose land is drying up. They are moving with their water buffaloes or selling their livestock. The government does not know how to deal with climate migration, environmentalists are threatened and even kidnapped.

ACCRA - ABUJA - The Dark Side of European Used Cars and Parts Trade in West Africa (Ghana and Nigeria)

OYO - The Danish government's Danida Market Development Partnerships (DMDP) disbursed DKK 9 million to its Canadian partner Mennonite Economic Development Association (MEDA) in 2019 for a 4-year project to support Nigerian women shea collectors, but the project was terminated before the predetermined four years. The team looked into the project's effects and the reasons behind its abrupt termination in 2020.

BRUSSELS - You never wear one third of the clothes in your wardrobe. Another third you rarely ever put on. You have not touched nine out of ten outfits for a whole year. You throw away more clothes than any other European. And yet you keep buying new clothes. Because you feel that you need them. Because every morning you wake up and think you have nothing to wear.

ABUJA- This story demonstrates that although it is illegal to import used clothes into Nigeria, UK exporters continue to contravene the law by doing the contrary which is now polluting the country's ecology. It demonstrates how UK exporters provided Nigerian vendors with low-quality, deteriorating clothing, forcing them to burn unsold items in public.

LUSAKA - Zambia is blessed with abundant natural resources, coupled with its strategic geographical location as a land locked nation in the southern part of Africa. From the inception, Zambia has largely depended on copper and other minerals. Copper production has contributed highly to Zambia's economic growth, though not up to the expectation of many citizens.