A Word from our Board and Director
CONNECTING PEOPLE
“Both ENDS is proud to engage with a wide and diverse group of partners and allies – from NGOs to community-based organisations, from small grants funds to social movements, from water experts to women’s rights activists. Each and every day, we learn from our partners and channel that learning back into the work we do and the way we do it.
This year was an important moment for reflection as we initiated the development of a new five-year strategy to take us beyond 2020. To start the process, we turned to our partners. We asked for honest feedback about our record until now. We asked what they expect and need from us. We asked what themes we should be working on, with whom and how.
What we heard was quite consistent. Partners told us they value the link Both ENDS makes between the local and the global, particularly our expertise in connecting key elements of the global economic system to local impacts. Partners affirmed the critical role Both ENDS plays for them in generating both access to funding and access to key policy spaces.
- Danielle Hirsch, Director
- Paul Engel, Chair of the Board
The year 2019 at a glance
To achieve our vision of a sustainable, fair and inclusive world, Both ENDS works to empower civil society, to change the system so it prioritises people and the planet, and to support transformative practices. This report features some of our best stories from 2019, which together show the broad variety of our achievements along these three pathways.
A strong civil society
Our Indonesian partners strengthened women in a palm oil community;
We were invited to a workshop in El Salvador about International Financial Institutions;
Our partner network in Brazil trained local community leaders to protect their rivers from hydropower dams.
System change
Nepalese women influenced their municipality’s climate adaptation budget;
A partner in Senegal experienced the effect of filing complaints with development banks;
We made some mayor achievements in our aims towards fossil free investments.
Tranformative practices
Our partners in Senegal, Niger and Burkina Faso built broad support for the regreening of the Sahel;
Our partner in Bangladesh’s delta promoted a traditional and inclusive way of water management.
Our vision, mission and strategy
In 2019, Both ENDS has worked on a new vision, mission and strategy for the coming five years. This will be published on our website soon. In 2019 the current vision, mission and strategy were still in place:
OUR VISION AND MISSION
The vision of Both ENDS is a world where long-term environmental sustainability and social equity take priority over short-term profits.
In order to make our vision reality, Both ENDS strengthens global civil society to gain decisive influence on the use of nature and the environment, thus contributing to societies that stay within our planetary boundaries and respect all human rights, including the rights to water, food and a safe living environment.
Civil society actors should have a free, independent, active and influential voice about the use of the natural resources that determine the quality of their daily lives and the future of their children. Respecting the planetary boundaries is a precondition for sustainable development. We should minimalise climate change, loss of biodiversity, pollution and ozone depletion, and use land and water in a responsible way, in order to keep our planet livable. At the same time, sustainable societies should respect all human rights. Not only the rights to water, food and a safe living environment, but also gender equity, indigenous rights and space for civil society.
visit our website to read how we achieve our vision and mission
Our pathways to change
To achieve our vision of a sustainable, fair and inclusive world, Both ENDS works to empower civil society, to change the system so it prioritises people and the planet, and to support transformative practices. This report features some of our best stories from 2019, which together show the broad variety of our achievements along these three pathways.
Our stories: a strong civil society
A civil society that is a strong player at all levels – locally, nationally and internationally – is essential for the work of Both ENDS. Strengthening and empowering civil society organisations in mainly Asia, Africa and Latin America that work towards creating a more equitable and sustainable world is critical to all that Both ENDS does:
Women and water in the shadow of oil palm plantations
Women’s rights, water quality and oil palm plantations. They may seem like unlikely topics to bring together, but for women […]
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Connecting women's rights and IFI experts
Women’s right to a healthy and safe environment has as much to do with the flow of money as it […]
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Faith and life in a wetland without borders
The world’s largest freshwater wetland connects the lives of no less than 160 million people in five countries. The wetland, […]
Read More ›Our stories: systems that prioritize people and the planet
Both ENDS works to ensure that civil society has a free, independent, active and influential voice over nature and the environment. Much of our lobbying and advocacy is aimed at improving policies, rules and regulations to ensure that people’s voices – especially women’s voices – are heard and that sustainability is taken into account:
Nepalese women lead local advocacy on climate change
In Both ENDS’s experience, one plus one often makes more than two. Connecting people and issues accelerates positive change, and […]
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A Senegal community beats back coal
About 15 kilometres east of Dakar, in Senegal, lies the small hamlet of Bargny. With its ocean waters, sandy beaches […]
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Engaging investors for a fossil-free future
In order to achieve the scale of decarbonisation needed to prevent temperatures from rising beyond 1.5 degrees, a major transition […]
Read More ›Our stories: transformative practices
Local communities around the world are engaged in sustainable and inclusive practices for using and managing land, water and forests. Because of their close relationship with their living environment, they know best what works. Over the course of many years, Both ENDS has encountered many inspiring examples of transformative practices. We work to make them known and supported more widely:
The social practice of regreening the Sahel
Open a satellite map of the African continent and you’ll see the Sahel front and centre, a large, brown band […]
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Community-based governance for free-flowing tidal rivers
In Bangla, the word for transition is ‘uttaran’. It is a fitting name for a social and environmental organisation whose […]
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A full list of all our projects, financiers and project partners can be found here.
About Both ENDS
Download
Want to read our full Annual Report 2019 or print it? You can download the PDF, including the annual accounts and the auditors statement, from our website:
