Justice and Peace Netherlands is launching a new call for applications for at risk Human Rights Defenders to participate in Shelter City. The deadline for applications is 10 December 2020. Please be aware that special conditions apply because of the COVID-19 situation (see conditions below).
Shelter City provides temporary safe and inspiring spaces for human rights defenders (HRDs) at risk where they re-energise, receive tailormade support and engage with allies. The term HRD is intended to refer to the broad range of activists, journalists, scholars, writers, artists, political figures, lawyers, civil rights defenders, independent media professionals, civil society members, and others working to advance human rights and democracy around the world in a peaceful manner. Shelter City offers the HRD a shelter for three months, during which they will rest, re-energize, gain new skills, extend their network and raise awareness about the situation in their country. At the end of the programme, participants are expected to return with new tools and energy to carry out their work at home.
From March 2021 onwards, several cities in the Netherlands will receive HRDs for a period of three months.
Shelter City and COVID-19
Please note that the current situation of the coronavirus (COVID-19) may pose certain challenges to the stay of HRDs in the Netherlands in 2021. These challenges can include:
- Limitations and/or changes in the programme that we can offer HRDs during their stay in the Netherlands;
- New measures and restrictions (including a lockdown) taken by the Dutch government;
- Cancellation of flights to the Netherlands;
- Postponement of return to the home country after 3 months because of travel restrictions;
- Participants might be requested to self-quarantine for 10 days upon arrival in the Netherlands (Shelter City programme will be adapted accordingly) and to take other preventive measures due to COVID-19 (including a COVID-19 test before travelling to the Netherlands.
Please consider these potential challenges carefully before applying to the programme.
Applicants must fulfil the following conditions in order to be elegible for Shelter City:
- They implement a non-violent approach in their work;
- They are threatened or otherwise under pressure due to their work;
- They should be able to be relocated for a period of maximum 3 months. Limited spots are available for people who are not able to stay for the full 3 months;
- They are willing and able to return to their country of origin after 3 months;
- They are willing to speak publicly about their experience or about human rights in their country to the extent that their security situation allows;
- They have a conversational level* of English (limited spots are available for French or Spanish speaking HRDs);
- They are willing and able to come to The Netherlands without accompaniment of family members;
- They have a valid passport (with no less than six months of validity) or be willing to carry out the procedures for its issuance. Justice and Peace covers the costs of issuing a passport and / or visa (if applicable);
- They are not subjected to any measure or judicial prohibition of leaving the country;
- They are willing to begin their stay in The Netherlands around March 2021.
*By conversational English we mean that participants’ level of English allows them to actively participate in a training, speak about their work, communicate with the host city, etc.
Note that additional factors will be taken into consideration in the final round of selection, such as the added value of a stay in The Netherlands as well as gender, geographic, and thematic balance. Please note that we can only accept HRDs currently residing in a third country under exceptional circumstances.
To apply or submit the application of a human rights defender, kindly find the online application form here. Application forms must be submitted by 10 December 2020, at 23:59 CET (Central European Time). An independent commission will select the participants.
Note that the selected HRDs will not automatically participate in the Shelter City programme as Justice and Peace is not in control of issuing the required visas to enter the Netherlands.
For more information, please contact us at sheltercity@justiceandpeace.nl.
Posted: 11th December 2020 by Coordinator
Delft University of Technology | Assistant and Associate Professor of Urban Studies
Deadline: 8 January 2021
The Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment has two NEW positions available:
Assistant Professor of Urban Studies (part time/full time) and an Associate Professor of Urban Studies (part time/full time)
The successful candidates will join the Urban Studies section at the department of Urbanism in the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment. This section studies the interactions between people and their social and built environments, and the effects of urban design on their behaviour. In the context of growing spatial inequalities in urban regions, Urban Studies focusses on better understanding the patterns, causes and consequences, and remedies regarding these growing inequalities in an interdisciplinary and international setting. They investigate both the effects of spatial inequalities on the behaviour, well-being, and interactions of (individual) people, and how people influence the socio-spatial structures and the built environment around them.
These new academic posts are an exciting opportunity to co-develop and contribute to the teaching and research program in Urban Studies. The expected balance between teaching-research-management is 40%-40%-20%. The candidates are expected to set up independent research within the research programme of Urban Studies and to establish links with urban design and urban planning. The candidates are also expected to supervise PhD students, and publish research in high-impact peer reviewed journals. The successful candidates will actively seek to acquire funding (from national and European Research Councils, Horizon 2020, or comparable) for research projects and will lead and carry out collaborative projects with colleagues. The candidates will contribute to the faculty teaching programme (particularly courses in the Urbanism department), develop their own teaching materials, supervise students on all levels of university education, and acquire a University Teaching Qualification (if needed) within an agreed period.
For the overall balance in the section, we especially welcome applications from female academics and academics from minority groups.
Further job information and online application at:
https://www.tudelft.nl/over-tu-delft/werken-bij-tu-delft/vacatures/details/?jobId=1634&jobTitle=Assistant%20Professor%20in%20Urban%20Studies (Assistant Professor)
https://www.tudelft.nl/over-tu-delft/werken-bij-tu-delft/vacatures/details/?jobId=1631&jobTitle=Associate%20Professor%20in%20Urban%20Studies (Associate Professor)
Posted: 8th December 2020 by Coordinator
Follow the Food Research Project Kenya | Inclusive Agribusiness Contribution to Local Food and Nutrition Security
Follow the Food Research Project Kenya | Inclusive Agribusiness Contribution to Local Food and Nutrition Security (Policy Brief)
Author: James Wangu (Utrecht University)
Date: March 2020
Like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya grapples with the problem of food and nutrition insecurity. In light of these circumstances, several smallholders’ targeted inclusive business (IB) initiatives by the Kenyan government and development agencies have been implemented, and others are underway across the country.
The rationale behind inclusive agribusiness is that smallholders are unable to participate in and benefit from commercial value chains owing primarily to production means inadequacies and low productivity. Inclusive businesses promise to foster a win-win outcome for both smallholder and businesses. Despite the increased popularity among governments, donors and other development stakeholders, little is known about the impact of inclusive business on local communities. The studies in this brief highlight a discrepancy between the aim of the agribusiness and the local needs.
Inclusive agribusiness initiatives that aim to enhance smallholder food security through increased income should be accompanied by policies that targets the poor social services, particularly health, education and skills training, which tend to compete with food security. Moreover, land use and access to land resources such as irrigation are critical for smallholder food security. Business actors should ensure that where farmers are operating with small portions of farm plots, it is important that they are able to keep a proportion of their plots for own consumption next to the cash crop.
Read the policy brief here!
Last Updated: 8th December 2020 by Coordinator
CCSI | Executive Training on Sustainable Investments in Agriculture
Executive Training on Sustainable Investments in Agriculture
Next Training: June 15-25, 2021
Location: Online
Deadline for application: March 31, 2021 (acceptance on rolling basis!)
Fee: USD $500, freely available to participants from Non-profit organizations and Government officials from low- and middle-income countries. Please check carefully on the website if you fall in one of these categories.
The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment’s Executive Training on Sustainable Investments in Agriculture provides an interdisciplinary approach to addressing the challenges and opportunities of agricultural investments. The program is designed to equip participants with the necessary knowledge and skills to address some of the key challenges posed by international investments in agriculture, and to encourage a rich dialogue about practices from around the globe.
Last Updated: 8th December 2020 by Coordinator
Mekong Region Land Governance Project – Chinese Investment into Tissue-Culture Banana Plantations in Kachin State, Myanmar
Chinese Investment into Tissue-Culture Banana Plantations in Kachin State, Myanmar
Authors: Daniel Hayward, U Ko Lwin, Yang Bin, and U Htet Kyu
Date: 30 November 2020
[summary]
In the last decade, Myanmar’s Kachin State has seen a boom in tissue-culture banana plantations driven by cross-border Chinese investors. This Case Study compiles field research and publicly available knowledge about the scale of the production and its economic, social and environmental consequences. The study provides a detailed snapshot of the investment model and key actors in Kachin State, the methods of land access, landscape outcomes, and experiences of plantation workers.
Land conversion to banana plantations has dramatically increased in recent years, covering an estimated 170,000 ha across Kachin State in 2019 according to civil society and local government sources. In the same year, official export figures to China reached almost 734,000 tons. The high potential return of banana over a short period of time explains the rapid expansion of the crop and the related rush to acquire land. For this purpose, Chinese investors have established intricate business networks, including links to the State government, military, and militia groups to access land. Banana plantations are commonly set up in places with contested land rights, including conflict areas and lands vacated by Internally Displaced People. Although a range of formal and informal fees are applied, it is likely that many exporters find ways to avoid official tax payments under the cover of the opaque investment environment in which they operate. In response to widening concerns and debate over the social, environmental, and land rights issues surrounding banana plantations, the Kachin State government has begun to draft legislation to manage more effectively banana plantation investments and negative outcomes. The report provides recommendations to better regulate the business in the short and medium term.
Posted: 3rd December 2020 by Coordinator
LAND at lunch: The conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia, from a land governance perspective
LAND at lunch
The conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia, from a land governance perspective
On December 9, from 12.00 – 13.00 CEST (14.00 – 15.00 EAT) LANDac organizes a lunch seminar to discuss the ongoing events in northern Ethiopia. Since early November, tensions escalated between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (the TLPF) and the national government led by prime minister Abiy Ahmed. Accusations of human rights violations and even genocide have been made from both sides, but are difficult to verify because of a communications blockage in the region. The conflict displaced tens of thousands of people. Latest reports claim a victory for the federal government, that regained control over Tigray’s capital Mekelle.
The events taking place this November are not happening in isolation – but are a result of longstanding historic tensions between national groups often backed by international parties. For many years, they have been contesting power; political power, but even more so struggling for power over Ethiopia’s economy and land, a controversial subject in Ethiopia for many years – known to many within the national and international land governance community.
You are warmly invited to join LANDac during this one-hour open discussion, organized in collaboration with LANDac fellows from Ethiopia. We will discuss this month’s events and put them into perspective: what do we know about what is happening? What events led to the current conflict? We will also reflect upon the link with land governance: what does the war in Tigray has to do with reports of the many landgrabs in the country and the government’s policy to stimulate land-based investments?
Please use the ZOOM-link below to join us
Topic: LAND at Lunch – On the conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia from a land governance perspective
Time: Dec 9, 2020 12:00 PM Amsterdam
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://zoom.us/j/94213104092?pwd=NnhuWC9kMnhSZXJaVFFxYjRwMndQZz09
Meeting ID: 942 1310 4092
Passcode: v2sDfF
Join by Skype for Business
https://zoom.us/skype/94213104092
Last Updated: 24th November 2020 by Coordinator
VLIR-UOS | 2021 Master Scholarships Now Open at a Flemish University
Are you interested in studying a master program on a topic relevant to sustainable development at a Flemish university (Belgium)?
VLIR-UOS provides scholarships to follow one of the 15 selected international master programs (ICP). The programs are all taught in English and are organised at one of the Flemish universities, ranking among the best in Europe.
The new call for candidates is now open!
Interested candidates from 31 eligible countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America can apply for a full scholarship. All information on the scholarships, eligibility criteria, available programs, deadlines etc. can be found here.
We hope to welcome you in our ever-growing VLIR-UOS network of ‘agents of change’ and connect you with other students, alumni, experts involved in projects etc.
Deadline: Between 16 January and 1 March 2021 (depending on the programme)
Available Master programmes include: Master of Human Settlements (KU Leuven), Master of Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies (KU Leuven), Master of Development Evaluation and Management (University of Antwerp), Master of Governance and Development (University of Antwerp), Master of Globalization and Development (University of Antwerp), Master in Sustainable Development (KU Leuven), Master of Rural Development(Ghent University).
Read more here!
Last Updated: 24th November 2020 by Coordinator
Special Issue Politics and Power in Land Administration Reform (PPLA)
The research initiative PPLA is seeking interested scholars to join a “research cluster”, whose objective will be to publish a special issue on politics and power in land administration reform in a reputable academic journal.
Despite a number of welcome developments in recent years, including the emergence of “continuum of land rights” approaches, significant gaps remain between the findings of an increasingly critical scientific literature on land administration reform, and land administration as a public policy domain.
In order to address some of these gaps, we are keen to hear from anyone whose research relates to the broad themes outlined below. The research cluster will be strongly interdisciplinary, and seek to cover a diverse array of geographical settings.
The diversity of ways in which “legalisation” and “formalisation” processes are mediated by political and social relationships that exist within often extreme asymmetries of power.
The opportunities such processes provide for facilitating rather than preventing disenfranchisement and dispossession through processes like land grabbing.
Modalities by which such processes intersect with and impact upon disparities based on gender, ethnicity and religious minority status.
Tensions between local, customary notions of land rights and State-led formalisation processes, including conflicting conceptions of legitimacy and justice.
How the political-administrative compartmentalisation of “land administration” relates to the oft-stated aspirations of such processes to achieve equitable and pro-poor outcomes, for example national inheritance legislation and the relationship of natural resources like forests and water bodies to “land administration”.
The impact of state foreign and security policy on land acquisitions, for example as part of the establishment and expansion of military and naval infrastructure.
How the European Union’s Global Strategy and development policy relate to these issues.
Anyone can register their interest for further updates by sending an email to oliver.scanlan@ulab.edu.bd.
Potential participants are asked to submit abstracts of no more than 500 words to the same email address by the 31st January 2021.
On the basis of submitted abstracts, participants will be invited to join a “working group”, that will convene remotely by the last week of February 2021.
Working / background papers will be circulated among the group by early May 2021.
These papers will form the basis of a two-day working session, in principle to be held as a physical conference in Dhaka in late September / early October, and there will be a modest budget available to support travel and accommodation expenses. If continuing Covid prevalence makes this option unworkable, remote arrangements will be organised, potentially involving more flexible timings to take time differences into account.
The aim will be to have an agreed framework for the special issue by the end of the working session, as well as an agreed target journal.
While all are welcome to engage with this initiative, it may be of particular interest to early career researchers.
For further information, please contact Dr Oliver Scanlan at the Center for Sustainable Development, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, at oliver.scanlan@ulab.edu.bd.
Read more about the initiative here.
Last Updated: 24th November 2020 by Coordinator
Ecology and Society Special Feature | Call for submissions on Land Acquisition, well-being and environment
Last Updated: 24th November 2020 by Coordinator
Shelter City Netherlands – New Call
Justice and Peace Netherlands is launching a new call for applications for at risk Human Rights Defenders to participate in Shelter City. The deadline for applications is 10 December 2020. Please be aware that special conditions apply because of the COVID-19 situation (see conditions below).
Shelter City provides temporary safe and inspiring spaces for human rights defenders (HRDs) at risk where they re-energise, receive tailormade support and engage with allies. The term HRD is intended to refer to the broad range of activists, journalists, scholars, writers, artists, political figures, lawyers, civil rights defenders, independent media professionals, civil society members, and others working to advance human rights and democracy around the world in a peaceful manner. Shelter City offers the HRD a shelter for three months, during which they will rest, re-energize, gain new skills, extend their network and raise awareness about the situation in their country. At the end of the programme, participants are expected to return with new tools and energy to carry out their work at home.
From March 2021 onwards, several cities in the Netherlands will receive HRDs for a period of three months.
Shelter City and COVID-19
Please note that the current situation of the coronavirus (COVID-19) may pose certain challenges to the stay of HRDs in the Netherlands in 2021. These challenges can include:
Please consider these potential challenges carefully before applying to the programme.
Applicants must fulfil the following conditions in order to be elegible for Shelter City:
*By conversational English we mean that participants’ level of English allows them to actively participate in a training, speak about their work, communicate with the host city, etc.
Note that additional factors will be taken into consideration in the final round of selection, such as the added value of a stay in The Netherlands as well as gender, geographic, and thematic balance. Please note that we can only accept HRDs currently residing in a third country under exceptional circumstances.
To apply or submit the application of a human rights defender, kindly find the online application form here. Application forms must be submitted by 10 December 2020, at 23:59 CET (Central European Time). An independent commission will select the participants.
Note that the selected HRDs will not automatically participate in the Shelter City programme as Justice and Peace is not in control of issuing the required visas to enter the Netherlands.
For more information, please contact us at sheltercity@justiceandpeace.nl.
Last Updated: 23rd November 2020 by Coordinator
ITC | Vacancy Assistant Professor Spatial and Land Economics
ITC University of Twente: Vacancy Assistant Professor Spatial and Land Economics
Deadline: 8th January 2021
ITC University of Twente is looking for an assistant professor in Spatial and Land Economics. Within the ITC’s mission, the claims for sufficient and secure food, water, energy, health, land and housing are important elements. As these resources are desired by all but not always sufficient for all demands, there is scarcity (globally and certainly at national or local scales). In most societies today, (scarce) resources are traded through markets which assign them a monetary value. Economics deals with the value, trade and distribution of such scarce resources. Because the world is increasingly realizing that there are important non-monetary values to (esp. natural) resources, the economic dimension is critical to understanding resource management issues, the related plans and decisions and their costs and benefits.
To ensure a full pallet of relevant disciplines linked to PGM’s focus areas of urban and regional planning and land administration, we are seeking to appoint a new colleague who will bring an economic perspective to the understanding of urban and land development processes, considering their social and ecological values and impacts. This perspective will also contribute to other fields at ITC, for instance, payments for ecological services (mainly with the department of Natural Resources) and disaster risk assessment (mainly with the department of Earth Systems Analysis).
You will conduct high quality interdisciplinary research in (a part of) spatial and land economics and contribute to research networks addressing economic issues with a geo-spatial perspective, particularly in the global South. You will teach Master’s level courses, supervise MSc research and contribute to the development of courses and new educational products (e.g. through blended learning or distance learning packages). You will supervise PhD students in combination with a departmental professor. You will initiate, acquire and implement new research, education and consulting projects for the department, adding an economic perspective that will contribute to a broader and more successful project portfolio. You will undertake management and administration tasks within the ITC faculty.
Your profile
You should:
Our offer
We offer an inspiring and challenging international environment. You will be initially employed for two years. Prolongation of the contract after this period is a possibility.
Information and application
Additional information about this position can be obtained from Prof. Dr. Richard Sliuzas (e-mail: r.sliuzas@utwente.nl) You are also invited to visit our homepage.
Please submit your application before 8 January 2021 (choose “apply here” below). Your application must include (i) a motivation letter outlining your research and teaching interests and (ii) a CV with references.
For more information, please find the vacancy here.