The Transnational Institute (TNI) is an international research and advocacy institute committed to building a just, democratic and sustainable world. For more than 40 years, TNI has served as a unique nexus between social movements, engaged scholars and policy makers.
In April 1974, when Pakistani intellectual activist Eqbal Ahmed introduced TNI as our first Director, he did so very modestly saying he hoped “we will be known for the work we do.”
We were an unusual new actor on the international scene – a centre for research and scholarship, yet deeply engaged with emancipatory movements and far removed from the rarefied atmosphere of academia. We were, as our new strapline declares, about putting “ideas into movement.”
40 years later in 2014, we celebrated TNI’s four decades of work with considerable pride. Heart-warming messages poured in, affirming our continued value, relevance and impact.
Much has changed, but looking back we can see TNI has consistently accompanied and supported some of the most significant struggles of the times – against military dictatorships, Apartheid, nuclear weapons, Third World debt, structural adjustment programmes, corporate-led globalisation – and continues to do so.
2014 shows the power and impact that ‘ideas into movement’ can have.
With the Treaty Alliance, we won an amazing victory at the UN Human Rights Council that moves us closer to holding transnational corporations legally accountable for their actions. Our ground-breaking research on international investment has helped turn the hitherto unknown issue of Investor-State Dispute Mechanisms into the central focus of public concern around the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Our long-term analysis and advocacy on the devastating costs of the drugs war is supporting a domino effect in favour of regulation and harm reduction. And our advocacy of democratically reformed public utilities has assisted a wave of cities taking back control of their water services.
Our focused work in Myanmar brings many of these issues together and has increased the capacity of their citizens to have a say in their country’s future.
Towards the end of 2014, we got the good news of a significant grant from the Dutch Ministry of Trade and Development that will give us some security up to 2020 as we seek the rest of our funds.
The challenges we face are greater than ever, but so too is the need for our work. We hope you will continue to support us as we put ideas into movement.
Fiona Dove
Few organisations manage to straddle as effectively the diverse worlds of social movements, academia and policy domains. TNI's efficacy is partly because it always works in partnerships, and seems adept at forging the right ones, magnifying and globalising its impact.
Ruth Hall - Institute for Poverty, Land & Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), University of the Western Cape, South Africa
TNI in numbers
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How we work
TNI’s unique strengths lie in its forward-looking insights into critical global issues, its capacity to bridge academia, activism and policy-making, its deep engagement and involvement in and with social movements, and its willingness to find pragmatic solutions that work now while never losing sight of the radical transformations that are needed long-term to deliver social and ecological justice.
2014 in Review
Testimonials
“TNI supplies us with invaluable ideas and materials and organises international support on a level that other institutions have never done.”
Nila Ardhianie - Director of AMRTA Institute for Water Literacy, Jakarta, Indonesia FULL PROFILE
“TNI’s great advantage is its ability to make links between the research community and activist community and reinforce both. It is a broker, translator, facilitator and convenor of conversations that will have long term impacts.” Ian Scoones - Director, STEPS Centre, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, UK FULL PROFILE
“TNI has always been for us a bank of knowledge and information that have been critical to development of our policies.” Julio Calzada Mazzei - Secretary General of the National Drugs Board of Uruguay FULL PROFILE
Nila Ardhianie
Director of AMRTA Institute for Water Literacy, Jakarta, Indonesia
Our small organisation was founded in 2004, in response to a new water law in Indonesia. The law was required by a World Bank Structural Adjustment Loan and threatened a lot more commercialisation and commodification of water. I started to investigate the issue, because not many people were aware of its potential impact.
I first met TNI staff at the World Water Forum in Kyoto in 2003 and we started to collaborate, sharing information, research, organising meetings. TNI supplies us with invaluable ideas and materials and organises international support on a level that other institutions have never done. We live in a world now where policy in Indonesia is often determined internationally. So the opportunity to work with organisations at international level is very useful as they can provide us with documents, analysis, better understanding, and a context that we can’t always access.
One example of our collaboration is when TNI and Amrta organised a meeting in which we invited the CEOs of two private water companies (Paylja and Aetra) and CEO of public water utility Pam Jaya to meet with key stakeholders including government audit agencies. We discussed publicly the problem of water privatisation and got the attention of civil society and media.
Recently people in Indonesia celebrated two important court cases that have successfully challenged privatisation. In the first in February this year, the Constitutional Court declared that Law No. 7/2004 on Water Resources, that had allowed water privatisation, was unconstitutional, and imposed such strict requirements for private operators that it would be likely that nearly all water services could only be run by the state. Then thanks to a citizen lawsuit, the District Court ordered an end to water privatization in Jakarta on 24 March.
Unfortunately some of government agencies including the President, is now appealing the decision So we still have a long struggle ahead and will need the continued collaboration of organisations like TNI.
Still there is a big difference to a few years ago that gives me hope. No-one talked about commodification a few years ago, and with the struggle we have seen important young leaders emerging that will continue this fight.
Ian Scoones
Director, STEPS Centre, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, UK
The main area where my work intersects with that of TNI is our shared focus on land. This is a critical issue because land, food and livelihoods are so intimately connected. The poorest people in the planet – indeed half the world’s population – derive livelihoods from land, but are increasingly are under pressure as capital and livelihoods confront each other. It means struggle to defend control of land will only intensify.
I have worked on a number of events with TNI and I think its great advantage is its ability to make those links between the research community and the activist community and then reinforce both. TNI is a broker, translator, facilitator and convenor of conversations that will have long term impacts. The great thing too is that when you bring these different communities together, it makes for inspiring meetings. Certainly the ones we have convened together have had a a diversity of people, buzz and energy that are rare for academic conferences.
Although there isn’t always a clear divide between researchers and activists, we can sit in different worlds and we often fail to have open honest conversations. Researchers,for example, can encourage activists to be more rigorous, to look at nuance and think more deeply about key issues. Activists help remind researchers of the injustice lying behind situations and the urgency to act. TNI and its people bridges both worlds, doing solid research yet with a strong commitment to social change and justice.
I think you can see some of the results in the way that the land grab debate has matured a great deal. In the first phase activists dragged researchers into the game and raised the profile of the issues. As researchers came along, they have gained greater insight and inevitably shown a more complex reality. But the ability to have the conversations between activists and researchers has meant that activists have started to bring those ideas on board, maturing their campaign stances.
It is a truth of most political struggles that the political slogan you start with is unlikely to be the same one you end with. The key is to walk together, building solidarity as you advance.
Julio Calzada Mazzei
Secretary General of the National Drugs Board of Uruguay
The change in Uruguay’s drug policies was the result of a whole convergence of factors – the democratisation and liberalisation that took place here after the dictatorship finished, the growing numbers of academics and non-governmental organisations who raised the issue, and finally Cannabis users themselves marching, saying: “We are here, we are not criminals.”
I got involved personally in the 1980s when I worked with street children, and saw how some drugs were very problematic and others not, and realised we needed a better approach based on reducing harm. The Drugs war has had a huge impact in terms of creating institutional violence, particularly related to narco-trafficking in Latin America. Many people have died and suffered as a result of these parallel markets.
It was around 2005 that I first started to work closely with TNI and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). TNI had accumulated a lot of experience and knowledge of working on these issues internationally and put that bank of knowledge at our disposal. This was not just ideas and information but also relationships of people who also support our work. And it contributed significantly to the work we did.
TNI colleagues not only provide political support, they also show personal qualities that transcend the professional and helped build trust. There was one occasion in 2013, when Martin Jelsma, head of TNI’s drugs and democracy programme came all the way from Asia to participate in a key event here in Uruguay. TNI’s knowledge and expertise of UN processes and in-depth understanding of Cannabis use and drug reform policies is particularly helpful. It doesn’t mean we always agree. Sometimes we have frank exchanges, but always based in mutual respect and human warmth.
Internationally, Uruguay’s decision to regulate Cannabis use has clearly had repercussions, but for us in Uruguay we are very conscious that we still have a long way to go. We hope we have contributed to improving policies at international level, and that our work starts to address and minimise the problems of violence and harm associated with drug markets. But we don’t believe we have changed the world. I just hope we have contributed to a more equitable, rational and humane society.
Stories of Change
TNI celebrates 40th birthday
2014 marked 40 years since the Transnational Institute was set up under the leadership of Eqbal Ahmad, a Pakistani activist intellectual. TNI has over four decades accompanied the emancipatory movements of the times and mobilised the critical thinking of its scholars in their service. These movements included the resistance to dictatorships, colonialism and apartheid through the 1970s and beyond, right up to the most recent manifestations in the Occupy movements and Arab Spring.
TNI’s 40th anniversary prompted a flood of birthday wishes from around the world. These included reflections, appreciations and good wishes from renowned scholars like Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein, former comrades of liberation struggles in Burma, the Philippines and South Africa, as well as contemporary leaders of social movements worldwide.
The message from all was also the same: that TNI is very much needed and wanted in the upcoming struggles over the next 40 years.
Landmark victory against corporate impunity
After months of public campaigning, many meetings with government officials and in the face of furious opposition by transnational corporations, the moment of truth had arrived. The atmosphere at the UN Human Rights Council meeting on 26 June was palpable. Then the vote count flashed on the screen: 20 in favour, 14 against, 13 abstentions. The room erupted to jubilant cheers: an historic vote in support of binding regulations for corporations had been passed.
TNI has been at the heart of that movement that has made this happen – exposing the nature and impacts of corporate power (such as in our landmark annual State of Power reports), providing People’s Tribunals as platforms for affected communities to testify to corporate abuses, and most recently coordinating the Global Campaign to Stop Corporate Impunity and Dismantle Corporate Power, and the process of drafting an alternative vision embodied in a People’s Treaty.
The UNHRC vote might be only the start of a long road to change, but it marks an extraordinary victory for social movements and communities negatively affected by the impunity of transnational corporations.
The hidden citizens revolution for public water
When TNI started working on water issues in 2004, privatisation was in full force. It was frequently imposed as a condition for aid and loans by donor countries and international financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank. In the face of these forces, TNI’s decision to help construct a network – in favour of both reclaiming public water and then democratising and improving public water utilities – may have seemed both idealistic and even futile.
Instead, the accelerating trend revealed in the report released by TNI in November 2014, Here to Stay – Remunicipalisation as a global trend, showed its prescience. 180 cities in 35 countries have reverted to public water in the last 15 years. Iconic cases of remunicipalisation, such as Paris, have not only succeeded in lowering water tariffs but have also increased democratic participation, improved worker rights and prioritised environmental conservation.
TNI has been at the heart of this surge, working with the Reclaiming Public Water network as well as regional networks such as the Platform for Public Community Accords of Latin America (PAPC ), offering inspiration, advice, learning and support. TNI will continue to monitor, document and showcase best practice as well as support and encourage Public-Public partnerships between public water utilities in order to deliver the human right to water for all.
Dialogue and debate to find solutions to complex issues
TNI knows that good ideas by themselves do not lead to change. They need the backing of popular movements, but to be realised often also require conditions in which policy-makers can safely hear the demands for reform and openly discuss the ideas, dilemmas and options involved in change.
TNI’s work on international drug policy, in particular, has perfected the art of bringing the right mix of affected communities, activists, academics, experts and policy-makers to the table to discuss how to advance drug policy reform.
In 2014, TNI facilitated dialogues on drug policy reform with authorities in India, Spain, Colombia, Ecuador and Greece. These dialogues enable participants to speak freely , on the condition of anonymity, opening up discussion on hitherto ‘taboo’ issues and allowing policy-makers to freely discuss dilemmas and challenges with experts and activists.
TNI’s Agrarian Justice work too has created similar spaces to deepen engagement and discussion between activists and academics. TNI’s co-sponsored landmark conference on food sovereignty in the Hague in January was typical and widely praised for the way it reinforced academics’ commitment to social justice while deepening understanding amongst social movements of the concept of food sovereignty and its potential for transforming agriculture.
I like working with TNI because they are serious campaigners. They know their stuff, are great at building alliances and most of all because they listen and respect us. This helps us link worlds together - North and South - which is critical in our globalised capitalist world.
Josua Mata - Alliance of Progressive Labour, Philippines
TNI has worked with agrarian justice movements for more than two decades, backing impoverished, vulnerable and marginalised rural working people struggling to gain control of their land, water and other natural resources.
NLUP pre-consultation workshop in Lashio in Northern Shan State, Myanmar on the National Land Use Policy organised with TNI partner, Land In Our Hands (LIOH) network in November 2014
Mini teach-in on the Tenure Guidelines and food sovereignty for the LIOH pre-consultation workshops organising committee in Yangon, Myanmar, November 2014. Credit: Jenny Franco
Goal (2011-2015): Through critical research and analysis, to support agrarian movements resisting land and other natural resource grabbing and asserting their rights to land and food sovereignty to enable them to build dignified, socially just and sustainable livelihoods.
RESULTS TO WHICH TNI CONTRIBUTED
Social movement actors participating in the consultative process at the Committee on World Food Security at the FAO are better able to engage in negotiations over new guidelines for ‘responsible agricultural investment’
1000 farmers from ethnic minority regions in Myanmar participated in regional capacity building workshops on the draft national land use policy
The Myanmar government extends its consultation process timeline for a new National Land Use Policy in order to consider previously ignored civil society concerns
Awareness of and support for the struggles of small-scale fisherfolk grows among academic networks, social movements and policy-makers, as TNI’s co-produced primer on ‘ocean grabbing’ receives media attention.
PROJECT IN NUMBERS
Works with partners in 27 countries
3,150 attended Agrarian Justice meetings, workshops, seminars and events
Published 23 papers and reports
Co-organised 2 landmark conferences on food sovereignty
Our work in 2014
In 2014, TNI continued to deepen its work and analysis on land issues:
providing unique analysis on unexplored dimensions and key drivers of the global land grab,
sharing our experience and analysis with social movements and civil society organisations as they engage with national governments and international fora,
proposing working alternatives that are socially just and sustainable to current policies that insist on large-scale private corporate sector investment, in favour of investments that support rural working people,
cultivating alliances with artisanal fishers and fisher communities, through the 10 million-strong World Forum of Fisher Peoples, who are facing enclosure of their marine commons.
Digging deeper
TNI has been probing beyond the predominant simplistic analysis of land grabbing – focused on illegal grabs of land by companies as well as states such as China and Saudi Arabia – to show how land grabbing is happening in every region of the world (including Europe and North America), involving domestic and international players, often using existing laws, and affecting water, forest and aquatic resources as well.
In TNI’s view, land grabbing is ultimately about impoverished vulnerable and marginal rural working people being deprived of control of the natural resources essential for their identities, livelihoods and dignity.
For better understanding of the drivers of this trend, TNI initiated research in 2014 on ‘flex’ crops and commodities and their impact on land and agriculture. Flex crops have multiple uses and can be flexibly commodified across food, feed, fuel, fibre and other sectors – for example, corn that can be given as feed to cows or turned into biofuel. We launched the ‘Flex Crops & Commodities Think Piece Series’ to explore the issue in depth, starting with a framework paper, followed by reports on how ‘flex crops’ operate in sugarcane, soybean, and industrial tree plantation sectors (with reports on oil palm and ‘flex fish’ to come in 2015).
Also in 2014, TNI concluded the Hands Off the Land project, having produced with partner organisations 16 reports raising awareness of the role of European actors in natural resource grabbing worldwide. We began preparation for a new awareness-raising project called Hands On the Land (to begin in early 2015).
In addition, TNI began work on two new action-research projects. One led by the Institute of Social Studies (ISS), with Food First International Action Network (FIAN) and local partners, exploring the interplay of climate change mitigation strategies, land grabbing and conflict in Myanmar and Cambodia. In the second, led by FIAN, exploring with ISS and PLAAS at the University of Western Cape and local partners how the CFS/FAO Tenure Guidelines and the COFI/FAO Small Scale Fisheries Guidelines can be used by communities to claim land and water rights in Mali, Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa.
“TNI for me signifies a rare and masterful blend of relentlessly serious scholarship and unfailingly strategic support to social movement causes. There’s a good deal of talk about activist scholars, but TNI makes it happen. Over just the past two years I have witnessed it directly in the input TNI has made to the negotiation in the Committee on World Food Security first of the Tenure Guidelines and now of the responsible agriculture principles.”
– Nora McKeon, formerly of FAO, now director of Terra Nuova
Providing expertise to movements
Throughout 2014, TNI participated in the global consultative process of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) at the FAO to define principles for “responsible agricultural investment“. TNI’s capacity as a reliable knowledge resource on issues of agricultural investment was tapped by social movement partners engaged in the process, and our research paper on public-peasant investment synergies provided useful and timely input into their efforts to shift the negotiation focus away from corporate investment and toward support for the investments made by the world’s small-scale food producers. A number of critical points, were won, including a key safeguard that investment in agriculture should do no harm.
At a national level, when Myanmar’s quasi-military government suddenly released a new national land use policy draft for public comment with tight deadlines in the last two months of 2014, TNI lent a hand to local partners to meet the difficult challenge of responding rapidly in a highly constrained and uncertain political climate. TNI worked quickly with local partners to conduct 10 intensive regional workshops with local farmers and community leaders to assess the draft policy and prepare a collective response, drawing on international human rights standards. TNI’s experience and credibility helped to open up space for the Myanmar coalition, Land in Our Hands, to directly engage the government for the first time in 18 official consultation meetings, 2 expert roundtables and a national dialogue on customary tenure. TNI backed up this engagement with two critical reports: assessing the policy overall and from a gender perspective. Informed engagement by local partners across Myanmar contributed to pressuring the government to extend the consultation process into 2015.
Forging new alliances
Fisherfolk worldwide are also facing deprivation as their traditional coastal and inland lands, waters and fishing grounds are increasingly enclosed and reallocated to large-scale aquaculture and other industrial enterprises, hydropower development, tourist and recreational enclaves, and marine protected areas.
In 2014, TNI undertook research, with partners Masifundise and Afrika Contakt, to support the struggles of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples. The results were published as a primer on ocean grabbing which was launched at the General Assembly of the WFFP in South Africa. Attracting attention of media and academe, the primer also continues to serve as a key reference point for small-scale fishing communities and other activists in this field.
Proposing real solutions
TNI has also been at the forefront of work on proposals for how to build a more sustainable, just food and agriculture system. In January, TNI co-organised a colloquium on food sovereignty at the ISS in The Hague, bringing together 300 prominent international academics, activists, researchers, and farmers to debate and discuss how principles of food sovereignty could be used to build a more just food system.
In June, TNI hosted a packed-out public event at which the new UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Hilal Elver, made her maiden speech. Elver argued that governments should shift subsidies and research funding from agro-industrial monoculture to small farmers using ‘agroecological’ methods as the best way to ensure the right to food for everyone.
TNI believes that building successful alternatives requires challenging the myth that only agro-industries and private investment can modernise food production and deliver food for all. TNI produced a report in 2014, Reclaiming Agricultural Investment, that showed the many workable policies states could use to ally with peasants rather than corporations, and thereby protect and enhance rural livelihoods. The report has been cited in academic journals and books, at an EU parliamentary hearing, and was a key input for civil society participants in the negotiations on the principles on responsible agricultural investment at the Committee on World Food Security in Rome.
One tangible sign that TNI’s work is both feeding into, deepening, and amplifying a powerful movement for a food and agricultural system built on real solutions – embedded in the existing practices of millions of peasant farmers worldwide – was shown at the co-organised Food Otherwise conference at the University of Wageningen, where the passion and creativity of the 800 participants was palpable and where TNI’s analysis and work was deeply appreciated. In the words of one of the conference’s presenters, Hanny van Geel of Via Campesina, the “seeds and sprouts”seen at conferences like this show the vibrancy and potential of the agrarian justice movement to grow into “hearty plants”, one in which peasants are not considered ‘otherwise’ but at the heart of any solution for a sustainable food system.
“Thank you for supporting Masifundise and other social movements in the North and South in our fight against neo-liberal fisheries policy and the resulting subversion of livelihoods and cultures. We are looking forward to continuing the collaboration and building new strong alliances all over world.”
– Masifundise, South Africa
Partners
Global La Via Campesina
FIAN International
World Forum of Fisher Peoples
Europe-wide
Hands Off the Land (2011-2014) including European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC), FIAN Netherlands, FIAN Belgium, FIAN Germany, FIAN Austria, FIAN Sweden, FDCL (Germany), IGO (Poland), EHNE-Bizkaia (Basque countries), Crocevia (Italy), Terra Nuova (Italy), Vedegylet (Hungary), Za Zemiata (FOE Bulgaria), Eco Ruralis (Romania).
Institute for Social Studies (Netherlands)
University of Wageningen (Netherlands)
Afrika Kontakt (Denmark)
Asia Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), Chiang Mai University, Thailand
Paung Ku (PK), Myanmar
Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN), Myanmar
Land in Our Hands Network (LIOH), Myanmar
Land Core Group (LCG), Myanmar
Equitable Cambodia (EC), Cambodia
Community Peace-Building Network (CPN), Cambodia
Africa Masifundise, South Africa
PLAAS, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Katosi Women’s Development Trust (KWDT), Uganda
Friends of the Earth Nigeria/ Environmental Rights Action (ERA), Nigeria
Coordination Nationale des Paysannes du Mali (CNOP), Mali
Convergence Malienne contre les accaparement des terres (CMAT), Mali
Americas Land & Sovereignty in the Americas Activist Research Collective including IPC Latin America, Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo (CLOC)/La Via Campesina Latin America
Food First (USA)
Cornell University (Philip Mc Michael and Wendy Wolford
University of California Davis (Liza Grandia)
FIAN Ecuador, Colombia, Honduras and Brazil
Universidad Autonoma de Mexico (UAM) Xochimilco (Carlos Rodriguez), Universidad de Zacatecas, Mexico (Raul Delgado-Wise and Henry Veltmeyer)
Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (Silvel Elias)
Universidad de Costa Rica (Andres Leon Araya)
Universidad del Externado de Colombia (Dario Fajardo and Vladimir Rodriguez)
Universidad Nacional de Brasilia (UNB) (Sergio Sauer)
Universidad Estadual de Sao Paolo (UNESP) (Bernardo Mancano Fernandes)
Comité de Unidad Campesina de Guatemala (CUC)/LvC Guatemala, Asociacion de Zonas de Reservas Campesinas de Colombia (ANZORC), Movimiento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) (Rita Zanoto and Marina dos Santos)
Movimiento Nacional Campesino e Indigena de Argentina (MNCI/LvC Argentina)
Consejo Internacional de Tratados Indios (CITI)
Base Investigaciones Sociales, Paraguay
Guatemalan Institute of Agrarian and Rural Studies
Fundacion Tierra Bolivia
People
Dr. Jennifer Franco
Research Associate
Dr. Jun Borras
TNI Fellow, Professor at the Institute of Social Studies
Pietje Vervest
Hand Off the Land Project Coordinator
Sylvia Kay
Researcher
Alberto Alonso Fradejas
Researcher
Tim Feodoroff
Research Assistant
Daniel Gomez
Research Assistant
Katie Sandwell Intern
Corporate power
TNI’s work to tackle corporate impunity had a major breakthrough in 2014 when the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in June adopted an historic resolution which set up an inter-governmental working group to explore a binding treaty. This followed intense lobbying and advocacy by TNI and partners in Geneva and in capitals around the world.
Goal (2011-2015): Move towards the establishment of a Binding Treaty to regulate transnational corporations, end impunity, and secure justice for communities affected by corporate abuses.
RESULTS TO WHICH TNI CONTRIBUTED
UN Human Rights Council votes in favour of moving towards a binding Treaty on corporate accountability and sets up an inter-governmental working group to explore this further
European Parliamentarians agree to set up an international Parliamentary Working Group to support a binding treaty.
The campaign is significantly extended to the international human rights movement through the establishment of the Treaty Alliance and the embracing of the campaign by the ETO consortium.
PROJECT IN NUMBERS
20 countries vote for a Binding Treaty on TNCs
11 cases of corporate violations by 8 TNCs in 9 countries were heard at a Permanent People’s Tribunal in June
State of Power report and infographics 21,606 unique visits
610 organisations from 95 countries sign up to the Treaty Alliance’s call for a binding treaty.
Supporting communities fighting for justice
The UNHRC vote followed a week of mobilisation by members of the Global Campaign to Stop Corporate Impunity, which TNI initiated along with La Via Campesina, Friends of the Earth International, the World March of Women and others in 2011. Activities included a Permanent Peoples Tribunal that heard 11 cases of violations by eight TNCs in nine countries.
Two of the most notorious included the decades-long oil pollution by Chevron in the Ecuadorean Amazon and the complicity of Lonmin in the assassination of 34 miners in South Africa. The tribunal not only made visible the deep-seated nature of corporate impunity but was also a tribute to determination of communities to resist violations and to seek justice.
The case of Anglo-Swiss Glencore was particularly emblematic of the global reach and impunity of transnational corporations. Testimonies were received from communities affected by the mining giant in Peru, Colombia, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Philippines. All eleven cases demonstrated the systematic lack of access to justice for the victims of intimidation, persecution, murder and environmental destruction.
Through the Stop Corporate Impunity campaign, TNI and its allies seek to provide permanent support to human rights defenders on the ground and to respond promptly to requests by communities affected by corporate violations. This is done by monitoring corporate activities, sharing information internationally, facilitating solidarity actions and keeping cases of corporate abuses in the public eye.
Engaging political decision-makers
The June decision of the UNHRC to support the ‘elaboration of an internationally legally binding instrument on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights’ would not have happened without strong political engagement. The eventual vote was 20 countries in favour, 14 against and 13 abstentions.
In the run-up to the vote, TNI engaged with seven government delegations as well as the head of the EU mission in the UN. Meanwhile, partners, particularly in South Africa and the Philippines, played a significant role in strengthening their countries’ support for the resolution. Similar engagement will be needed as the work goes forward through an Intergovernmental Working Group set up to work on the binding standards for TNCs.
In November, TNI participated in a meeting hosted by European United Left and Nordic Green Left (GUE/NLG) left parties at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. MEPs agreed to set up an international group of parliamentarians dedicated to accompany the process for a binding treaty and to be engaged during key moments in the campaign’s political calendar.
TNI has also been leading on consultations for the People’s Treaty as a key mechanism for exploring options for regulating and reducing corporate power, and for building broad-based support for this. A base document was finalised in 2014, which will form the basis for a global consultation over the next two years. The Peoples’ Treaty makes both juridical proposals for regulating TNCs as well as articulating an alternative vision of democratic governance, including on the basis of collective rights and the commons, and alternative economic paradigms.
Building a lasting movement
TNI continued to build the international movement against corporate impunity, providing speakers at many high profile forums – including the Public Eye Awards in Davos, the Southern African Peoples Solidarity Network (SAPSN) Summit in Bulawayo, the ATTAC Summer school, the Pan-Amazonian Social Forum and various meetings of Brazilian social movements. TNI actively contributed to the Treaty Alliance’s success in garnering 610 organizational and 400 individual signatories from 95 countries supporting the call for a binding treaty at the UNHRC meetings.
TNI’s landmark annual report, State of Power was produced for the third time in 2014, being launched at the Public Eye on Davos during the World Economic Forum in January. A proven critical resource for social movements, the report again included very popular infographics exposing the most powerful individuals and corporations worldwide. This time, however, they were accompanied by eleven insightful essays by TNI Fellows on different dimensions of globalised power relations. The report is one of TNI’s most popular publications, receiving 21,606 unique visits.
Meanwhile, TNI’s Susan George published her latest book, Les Usurpateurs (The Usurpers), in French in October delving into the sources of illegitimate power of what she terms the Davos class. Her book will be out in English and other languages in 2015.
People
Brid Brennan
Project Coordinator
Diana Aguiar
Stop Corporate Impunity Coordinator
Gonzalo Berrón
Associate Fellow
David Fig
TNI Fellow
Andrea Tognoni
Intern
Jorge San Vicente Feduci
Intern
Partners
International
Bi-regional Europe-Latin America and the Caribbean Enlazando Alternativas Network
CADTM International
Friends of the Earth International
International Articulation of those Affected by Vale
La Via Campesina International
The International Office for Human Rights Action on Colombia (OIDHACO)
World March of Women
World Rainforest Movement
Regional
Amigos de la Tierra América Latina y el Caribe – ATALC
CADTM – AYNA, Americas
Focus on the Global South, India/Thailand/Philippines
Hemispheric Social Alliance, Americas
Jubileo Sur Americas
Plataforma Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrollo (PIDHDD), Americas
Social Movements for an Alternative Asia (SMAA)
Africa African Women Unite Against Destructive Natural Resource Extraction (WoMin), South Africa
Alternative Information Development Center (AIDC), South Africa
Bench Marks Foundation, South Africa
Centre for Trade Policy and Development (CTPD), Zambia
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria
Groundwork – Friends of the Earth South Africa
La Via Campesina Africa – Mozambique
Americas ATTAC Argentina
Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA)
Brazilian Network for the Integration of the Peoples (REBRIP), Brazil
Censat Agua Viva – Amigos de la Tierra Colombia
Derechos Humanos sin Fronteras, Perú
Educational Assistance (FASE), BrazilFundación de Estudios para la Aplicación del Derecho (FESPAD), El Salvador
Grassroots Global Justice, United States of America
Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) – Global Economy Project
Instituto Eqüit – Gênero, Economia e Cidadania Global, Brazil
Instituto Políticas Alternativas para o Cone Sul (PACS), Brazil
Justiça Global, Brazil
Mesa Nacional frente a Minería Metálica, El Salvador
Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (MAB), Brazil
Movimiento Rios Vivos, Colombia
Polaris Institute, Canada
Red Muqui Sur, Peru
Terra de Direitos, Brazil
Unión de Afectados y Afectadas por las Operaciones Petroleras de Texaco (UDAPT), Ecuador
Asia (and Middle East)
Alliance of Progressive Labour (APL), Philippines
Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM), Philippines
Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (Stop the Wall), Palestine
Europe ATTAC France
Centre Europe Tiers Monde (CETIM), Switzerland
Col·lectiu de Respostes a les Transnacionals (RETS), Catalunya, Spain
Coordination Climat Justice Sociale, Switzerland
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), Belgium
Ecologistas en Acción-Ekologistak Martxan – Ecologistes en Acció, Spain
Enginyeria sense Fronteras, Catalonia
France Amérique Latine (FAL), France
Hegoa, Instituto de Estudios sobre el Desarrollo y la Cooperación Internacional del País Vasco, Basque Country
Milieu Defensie – Friends of the Earth, Netherlands
Multiwatch, Switzerland
Observatório de la Deuda en la Globalización (ODG), Spain
Observatorio de Multinacionales en America Latina (OMAL), Spain
Red Internacional de Derechos Humanos (RIDH), Switzerland
SolidaritéS, Switzerland
SOMO – Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, Netherlands
War on Want, United Kingom
TNI believes that current prohibitionist drug policies are ineffective, counter-productive and undermine human rights. Through our work in the last 20 years, TNI has become one of the world’s leading institutes on drug policy reform – unique for our technical and policy expertise and for our pioneering proposals related to farmer participation, harm reduction on the supply side and regulation of markets for cannabis and mild stimulants.
Goal (2011-2015) for 2014: To strengthen and consolidate a network of academia, civil society and reform-minded government officials that expands harm-reduction policies, advances drug law reform in specific countries, and opens up a discussion about the necessity of revising international drug treaties.
RESULTS TO WHICH TNI CONTRIBUTED
The international momentum in favour of cannabis regulation continued, with new breakthroughs at the local level in the US, Europe and the Caribbean.
Emergence of like-minded groups of countries, particularly in Latin America but also in the Caribbean and Europe that are determined to initiate drug policy reform
In Ecuador, Argentina and the U.S, legal proposals were proposed that for the first time ever reduced sentences for small-time drugs trafficking
Increased awareness amongst policy-makers on the legal options to reform the current prohibitionist stance on cannabis regulation at international level
Inclusion of poppy farmers in drug policy discussions in Myanmar
PROJECT IN NUMBERS
301 stakeholders participate in 5 Informal Policy Dialogues
2 Expert Seminars, 1 Farmers Forum, 1 Drug Users roundtable
75+ articles in the media
8 Open Society Foundation drugs fellows train at TNI for a month
31 reports and publications
37,000 copies of special edition on TNI research in Cañamo magazine
150,000 visits to drug law reform country pages
In 2014, TNI
advanced the debate about the need to revise UN drug control treaty system to a more sophisticated level, by exploring options that do not require the consent of all treaty parties and can be set in motion by a small group of like-minded countries.
elaborated viable scenarios for countries to legally reconcile cannabis regulation with their international treaty obligations.
continued the series of informal dialogues to debate strategic policies and to help build like-minded groups and alliances in favour of drug policy reform – particularly between Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Uruguay, Ecuador, and to some extent Argentina, Bolivia and Costa Rica.
Landmark report on Cannabis prohibition
In March, TNI together with the Global Drug Policy Observatory (GDPO) presented its landmark report The Rise and Decline of Cannabis Prohibition at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna. The report describes in detail how cannabis was included historically in the UN drug control system and outlines the various legal options to reform the current prohibition of recreational cannabis at the international level. The presentation was organised with the government of Uruguay – which has fully regulated recreational cannabis from seed to sale – and was the first time the UN drug control conventions were openly challenged at an official side event of the CND. 37,000 copies of a Spanish version of the report,were published as a supplement to the monthly magazine Cañamo and distributed to Cannabis Social Clubs in Spain. The report has since been in hot demand, being presented at events in Colombia, Mexico, Switzerland, Germany and Uruguay.
“TNI’s Drugs and Democracy Programme is an invaluable resource of information and analysis for us that strengthens our work in Argentina and Latin America as we try to transform current drug policies.”
– Graciele Touzé, Intercambios Asociación Civil (Argentina)
Proportional sentencing
Throughout the world, an excessive number of poor and dispossessed farmers, drug users, and small time traffickers languish in prison serving disproportionate sentences for minor offences, filling already crammed and under-resourced prisons to breaking point, and generating new sets of social problems. TNI and its partner at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) have been raising awareness of the human cost of these policies for a number of years, releasing in-depth reports, compelling videos exemplifying cases of incarcerated women and lobbying for change.
TNI’s work to establish a Latin American network of legal experts and our research on the disproportionality of sentences for drug offences, in particular, has started to pay off as the issue climbed the policy agenda in 2014 throughout the Americas. In April an official – Drug Abuse Control Commission Working Group on Alternatives to Incarceration was established by the Organisation of American States (OAS) to come up with policy recommendations for the hemisphere on the basis of a survey.
This year, sentencing reform proposals in Ecuador, Argentina and the U.S. were officially tabled to reduce sentences for low-level trading offences. Since the 1988 UN Convention against drug trafficking, the whole hemisphere had only and continuously seen increases in sentencing levels.
Dialogues open the door to more change
Dialogues were organised in collaboration with authorities in India, Spain, Colombia, Ecuador and Greece. TNI continued our efforts to bring nuance into the drugs and development debate and to facilitate meaningful participation of farmer communities.
In 2014, for the first time the Indian government agreed to co-host an Asia Dialogue in New Delhi. At this dialogue, governments from India, Malaysia, Cambodia and Myanmar met with civil society representatives, experts and representatives of WHO and UNODC. In Asia, shifts in the drug policy debate are still largely under the surface but there are signs that the climate may be changing.
TNI, together with partner WOLA, organized two very successful Informal Drug Policy Dialogues in Latin America: in April a meeting in Quito, Ecuador, hosted by CONSEP (National Drug Council), and in December together with the Colombian Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Health in Santa Marta. Both events had top level participation from both government and civil society, and are critical for preparations of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs, scheduled for 2016.
Drugs and Conflict
TNI has also continued to work on the links between illicit drug markets, armed conflict and violence. Both in Colombia and in Myanmar, TNI has been involved in meetings related to drugs and the peace processes currently underway, using our experience in both countries to cross-fertilise ideas and lessons.
In June, we launched Bouncing Back- Relapse in the Golden Triangle, an in-depth examination of the illegal drug market in Southeast Asia, which has witnessed a doubling of opium production, growing prison populations and repression of small-scale farmers. The report details the failure of the Association of South East Asian Nation’s (ASEAN’s) ‘drug free’ strategy and the need for a new approach. A subsequent meeting in Yangon, Myanmar led to the formation of an informal drug policy advocacy coordination group to engage more actively with parliament and government on legislative reform and drug policy changes.
“It is not an exaggeration to state that the drug reform movement which is growing at the moment relies – to a large extent – on the excellent publications, the field work and the expertise of TNI.”
– Thanasis Apostolou, Diogenis Association
People
Martin Jelsma
TNI Drugs and Democracy Programme Director
Ernestien Jensema
Team Coordinator
Pien Metaal
Latin America Drug Law Reform Project Coordinator
Tom Blickman
Researcher
Tom Kramer
Senior Consultant, Myanmar
Amira Armenta
Programme Assistant
David Bewley-Taylor
Associate Fellow
Ricardo Vargas
Associate Fellow
Valerio Loi
Intern
Meaghan Li
Intern
Hijke Schennink
Volunteer
Melissa Koutouzis
Volunteer
Partners and Networks
Global
Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP)
International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC)
Open Society Foundation (OSF)
Americas
Research Consortium on Drugs and the Law (Colectivo de Estudios Drogas y Derecho, CEDD) Latin America
Intercambios Asociación Civil, Argentina
DeJusticia, Colombia
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económica (CIDE) Mexico
Colectivo por una política integral hacia las drogas (CUPIDH), Mexico
México Unido Contra la Delincuencia (MUCD), Mexico
Centre for Research on Drugs and Human Rights (CIDDH), Peru
Asociación Costarricense para el Estudio e Intervención en Drogas (ACEID), Costa Rica
Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), US
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), US
Asia
Lawyers Collective, India
Paung Ku, Myanmar
Burnet Institute, Myanmar
Asian Harm Reduction Network, Myanmar
Metta Development Foundation, Myanmar
Europe
Forum Droghe – Fuoriluogo, Italy
University of Utrecht (Criminology), Netherlands
Transform Drug Policy Foundation, UK
Global Drug Policy Observatory (GDPO), Swansea University, UK
International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy, UK
Release, UK
Diogenis Association, Greece
Energy Control, Spain
Observatorio de Cultivos Declarados Ilícitos (OCDI), Spain
International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research & Services (ICEERS), Spain
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Germany
Public sector solutions
TNI and its partners have been working for nearly a decade, through the Reclaiming Public Water network, to build a strong countervailing force that reverses privatisation and delivers a more democratic, accountable and effective public sector that works better for citizens and the environment. In 2014, TNI continued to work with the global public water movement, as well as pioneered work with supportive governments, municipalities and public sector unions to share learning on best practices in the delivery of public services.
Carolina Cosse (former CEO of Uruguay’s largest company, the telecom parastatal Antel, and current Minister of Energy and Industrial Development) with President José Mujica at the TNI/ANTEL international seminar on Public Enterprises and Development, held in Montevideo in September.
Fellow Hilary Wainwright speaking on the role of trade unions in building public sector alternatives at the TNI/Antel Summit in Montevideo
Goal (2011-2015): To promote and support the (re)establishment of effective, democratic public enterprises that ensure equitable access to good public services and which provide leadership in sustainable development
RESULTS TO WHICH TNI CONTRIBUTED
The number of communities and cities taking water utilities back into public hands is accelerating: doubling in the last five years in comparison to the previous decade
A strong international network of citizens, workers and public sector water professionals continues to grow, supporting cities and feeding into international policy-making through networks such as the Global Water Operators’ Partnership Alliance
A new international network emerges of researchers, managers, trade unions and policy makers seeking to make democratised state-owned enterprises leaders in sustainable development
PROJECT IN NUMBERS
1,960 people attended international events on public sector alternatives
16 new members joined the Reclaiming Public Water network, which grew to 318 members from 58 countries
Report on water remunicipalisation, Here to Stay, covered by 14 media outlets
TNI published a well-publicised report on water remunicipalisation, Here to Stay, showing that despite the political and economic pressure in favour of privatisation, there is a growing global trend over the past 15 years for cities to take water utilities back into public hands. The report was a result of a monitoring effort collectively undertaken by the Reclaiming Public Water network, which has members in 58 countries. The network shares a vision of comprehensive public water provision involving cooperation between communities, trade unions, utility professionals and public authorities. By November 2014, activists had helped document 180 cases of remunicipalisation, with 55 cases explored in depth and made available online at www.remunicipalisation.org. Members translated the synthesised report into their own languages to use in engagements with local authorities, policy makers, trade unions leaders and citizens. These languages included Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, Spanish, French and Portuguese.
TNI also continued to provide political and financial support to Amrta Institute in Jakarta, one of our long standing partners, which has spearheaded a successful campaign for the water utility to be returned to public control after 17 years of negligence in fulfilling citizens’ human right to water. A citizen lawsuit was brought by a coalition of civil society organisations in 2014, which Amrta supported by providing evidence, involving international experts and helping the coalition withstand immense pressure to withdraw.
“I have to congratulate TNI and Antel (Uruguay’s telecom company) for this type of initiatives, which are very much needed to help us think and act… It is not possible to think of Uruguay without thinking of its public enterprises, because they constitute the backbone of our national project. But today, more than ever, they must be understood as the key drivers of development”
– President Jose Mujica – 21 September 2014 – International Seminar on Public Enterprises and Development, jointly organised by TNI and Antel
Key to the success of many of the remunicipalisation struggles have been alliances of communities and trade unions. TNI Fellow Hilary Wainwright interviewed workers from unions in different parts of the world, highlighting many innovative case studies in which trade union engagement is creating more effective and accountable public services. This was co-published as a report by TNI and Public Services International, which distributed it widely among its affiliates representing some 20 million members.
TNI is also a leading member of the Municipal Services Project, which convened a major international conference on public services in Cape Town this year. Attended by around 500 participants, the focus was primarily on the water and energy sectors. TNI launched the English edition of its book Reorienting Development at the conference.
Co-edited by TNI Fellow Daniel Chavez, Reorienting Development is the outcome of presentations at an international conference on Public Enterprises and Development that TNI co-hosted with the Uruguayan telecom parastatal ANTEL in 2012. The conference spawned a new network of academics, public enterprise management and trade unions – largely from Latin America and Europe. It then convened a follow-up conference in Mexico City in 2013 and a third conference in Montevideo this year, which attracted more than 450 participants. The purpose of the network is to put public economics back into university curricula, and to promote democratisation and reorientation of public enterprises to becoming sustainable development leaders. Daniel Chavez represented TNI at a number of meetings, many with a focus on the energy sector, including in Athens, Lima, Buenos Aires, Cape Town and Bangalore.
“Our organization has been working closely with TNI in the struggle for public water services… TNI’s persistence to support civil society organizations in Jakarta, mostly through hard and frustrating times, has now seen encouraging results. TNI [supplies] us with invaluable ideas and materials and organising international support on a level that other institutions have not yet achieved.”
– Nila Ardhianie, Amrta Institute, Jakarta, Indonesia
People
Satoko Kishimoto
Project Coordinator
Dr. Daniel Chavez
TNI Fellow
Hilary Wainwright
TNI Fellow
Lavinia Steinfort
Intern
Partners and Networks
Global
Reclaiming Public Water Network
Municipal Services Project
Public Services International
Americas
Plataforma de Acuerdos Públicos Comunitarios de Las Américas
Censat Agua Viva (Colombia)
Queens University (Canada)
University of Mexico
University of Costa Rica
University of the Republic (Uruguay)
ANTEL (Uruguay)
Africa
University of the Western Cape (South Africa)
Asia
Amrta Institute (Indonesia)
Focus on the Global South (Asia)
Europe
Corporate Europe Observatory (Belgium)
Public Services International Research Unit (UK)
Trade & investment
The term Investment-to-State Settlement Dispute Mechanism (ISDS) sounds so obscure that mobilising public concern about its impacts would seem a near-impossible task. Yet TNI’s ground-breaking research into its social and ecological costs in recent years has played a key role in making this unjust mechanism – that allows corporations to sue governments – into a hot political issue.
Our work with others has engaged growing numbers of organisations and people, and forced policy-makers to commit to a review of its impact. TNI’s focus on ISDS, integral to so many trade agreements, has also raised critical public awareness about the small number of winners and the many losers of corporate ‘free’ trade and investment agreements.
Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño holding a copy of TNI’s Profiting from Injustice report at the Ministers Meeting of Latin American States affected by Transnational Interests, Guayaquil, Ecuador. Photo Credit: Fernanda LeMarie
Goal (2011-2015): Move towards global architecture that puts public interests above investor rights by convincing governments to end, review or reject investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms that undermine democracy and regulation in the public interest.
RESULTS TO WHICH TNI CONTRIBUTED
Ecuador audits its Bilateral Investment Agreements, opens up debate on the iniquities of the International Investment Regime
Regional observatory (to which TNI contributed advice) set up by six Latin American nations that will allow countries to coordinate their defence in disputes with TNCs.
Growing awareness amongst civil society and government officials in Myanmar about the potential negative impacts of investment agreements
European Parliament holds hearing about proposed EU-Myanmar Investment Treaty following pressure from Myanmar CSOs
Increased public awareness across Europe. The Dutch campaign against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has put the previously unknown issue of Investor State Dispute Settlement Mechanisms high on the Dutch political agenda
PROJECT IN NUMBERS
Profiting from Crisis downloaded 1770 times and cited by media in 7 European countries
1000 people attended TNI (co)-organised events in 10 countries
1,150,000 signatures collected with TNI’s help by end 2014 for self-organised European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) against TTIP with 50,000 signatures in The Netherlands
Auditing injustice
TNI’s investigative work, such as the report Profiting from Injustice (2012) that exposed the corporate lawyers that profit from investment disputes at times of crisis, contributed to the Ecuadorian government’s decision to create an Auditing Commission to analyse all Ecuadorian Bilateral Investment Agreements (BITs) and arbitration cases against Ecuador. Cecilia Olivet from TNI was invited to be one of the eight Commissioners and serves as a chair.
The Commission’s open process included strong participation from civil society and academia and is due to deliver its final report in April 2015. During 2014, it embarked on in-depth analysis of the legality and legitimacy of Ecuador’s Bilateral Investment Protection Treaties (BITs) and the cases filed against the country.
Even before the Commission’s work was done, it has broken the taboo on critiques of investment regime for fear of upsetting investors. It has also planted the seeds for the future Inter-governmental Observatory on Investments and Transnational Corporations (which 6 nations agreed in September to establish) that will share analysis and experiences to enable states to better defend against arbitration cases brought by TNCs.
Putting the spotlight on EU
After the success of Profiting from Injustice in 2012-2013, TNI turned the spotlight in 2014 on the European Union, showing how transnational corporations and arbitration lawyers were exploiting the economic crisis to sue nations most affected by the economic crisis. Profiting from Crisis examined investment settlement disputes in Spain, Greece and Cyprus and showed how corporations were making money out of the crisis, while ordinary citizens were being deprived of their basic social rights. The report caused a considerable stir, being cited in media in The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Italy, France, Finland, Greece and Hungary and also prompted meetings with the European Commission Directorate General for Internal Market and Services.
Confronting TTIP and CETA
TNI’s work on Europe-focused trade and investment takes place in close cooperation with other members of the Seattle-to-Brussels (S2B) Network. High on the agenda of the S2B, on whose coordinating committee TNI also serves, has been the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). TNI has been an active member of the Dutch anti-TTIP network and acts as a Dutch focal point in the self-organised European Citizen Initiative (ECI) on TTIP and CETA.
The ECI gathered 1,600,000 signatures in 6 months and is aiming for 2 million by October 2015. On the occasion of EU Commission President Juncker’s 65th birthday in December, Susan George, the Chair of TNI’s Board, was tasked with symbolically handing over the first one million campaign signatures.
TNI and its partners in the Dutch Fair Green & Global (FGG) alliance organised the first election debate with Dutch candidates for the European Parliament. The main focus of the sold-out event was positions on TTIP, and more specifically ISDS. Lobby and advocacy with parliamentarians, government officials and journalists has sustained this critical focus throughout the year. Results include the Dutch parliament requesting that the government carry out an impact assessment of ISDS in TTIP, and the Dutch Ministry of Trade & Development deciding to delay negotiations on new Dutch BITs, pending further research on the developmental impacts of its current BITs.
TNI also shone a spotlight on CETA, co-publishing a briefing, Trading Away Democracy, that analysed the ISDS clause in the agreement and exposed how the European Commission’s ISDS reform agenda has no teeth. The report was published in four languages (with a summary in 13 languages) and was picked up by media outlets in Canada, the UK, Greece, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands and elsewhere.
“TNI is one of our closest and most knowledgable international partners…The issues [in Myanmar] are difficult – from new land grabbing and consequences of irresponsible investment to old conflicts in ethnic areas that persist without true peace. Our struggle will be long term – and as much as anything, we need to learn from others’ experiences and build on similar struggles in other places. TNI is the place we often turn to for this.”
– Paung Ku
Capacity-building in Myanmar
Meanwhile, TNI continued to support civil society organisations in Myanmar to engage with their own governments and the EU on of the proposed EU-Myanmar Investment Agreement . Signing agreements that limit the country’s capacity to regulate investment threatens the fragile democratic and peace process in the country. Yet under pressure from the international community, Myanmar has already signed one investment treaty with Japan, is about to sign another with Hong Kong and is now negotiating with the European Union.
To coincide with DG Trade Commissioner De Gucht’s visit to Myanmar in March, TNI and Myanmar partner Paung Ku updated and co-published a briefing on the proposed agreement. 70 Myanmar civil society organisations subsequently wrote to De Gucht and EU Member States’ trade ministries and parliaments, asking for a due consultation process to properly assess the costs and benefits of an agreement with ISDS. In June, TNI and partners Paung Ku and KESAN followed up with a capacity-building seminar in which 66 people from 34 organisations participated. A statement, subsequently signed by over 220 CSOs rejecting an investment agreement with ISDS was sent to the EU and the Myanmar government. As a result, the European Parliament in November held a hearing on the treaty negotiations.
TNI continued to monitor the impact of other Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) between the EU and Southern countries. This included, for example, the FTA with Colombia, where civil society organisations on both sides of the Atlantic worked to stop ratification of the EU-Colombia FTA on the grounds that human rights were being violated in Colombia.
Regulatory chill
TNI also continued to support the EU-ASEAN FTA Campaign, which together with Indonesia for Global Justice, co-published a briefing on Newmont mining’s use of ISDS against Indonesia. This case is a powerful example of how the mere threat of an ISDS case is used by companies to get exemptions from government regulations and legislation, undermining democracy and development. The case was covered in Politics.co.uk, UK’s leading political news website and the Dutch newspaper NRC, and also was also frequently cited in Myanmar as a dangerous precedent for its own development aspirations.
Promoting alternatives
TNI has been a key player in setting up and now hosting the Alternative Trade Mandate Alliance. Through an extensive process of consultation within Europe and among partners in the South, the ATM Alliance developed an alternative vision for trade and investment policy-making that respects human rights, delivers social justice, and increases economic, social and environmental well-being globally.
The Alliance organised a campaign in the run-up to European Parliament elections in June, approaching all candidate MEPs to pledge support for an alternative trade and investment mandate. 193 European parliament election candidates from 20 EU member states covering a broad range of political groupings present in the European Parliament (EPP, S&D, Greens, GUE/NGL, ALDE) signed on to the ATM pledge. 75 were subsequently elected and the extent to which they are honouring their pledge is being monitored by the Alliance.
Meanwhile, Latin American organisations — together with TNI — developed a proposal for an alternative investment model, tackling the main concerns of the current investment protection model and coming up with medium and long term solutions. These proposals have been discussed with civil society organisations globally and have been presented to different governments in Latin America .
“Profiting from Injustice, as other reports from TNI, is an extremely user-friendly report which we found to be an eye-opener!”
– Maitreya Misra for the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health
People
Cecilia Olivet
Trade and Investment Project Coordinator
Lyda Fernanda
Consultant (climate change as cross-cutting issue)
Hilde van der Pas
Economic Justice Programme Assistant
Susan George
Chair of the Board of TNI
Joyce Keuker
Volunteer
Eise Moonen
Volunteer
Teuntje Vosters
Intern
Laura de Ruiter
Intern
Partners
Global/Regional
Seattle to Brussels network
Focus on the Global South
EU-ASEAN FTA network
Thai Watch
Monitoring Sustainability of Globalisation
Just Investment
Rosa Luxembourg Foundation Brussels office
Europe
Chamber of Labour (Vienna), Austria
Attac Austria
Corporate Europe Observatory, Belgium
Le Centre National de Coopération au Développement (CNCD), 11.11.11., Belgium,
Aitec, France
ATTAC France
France America Latina, France
Institute of Global Responsibility, Poland
Powershift, Germany
Vedegylet Egyesulet, Hungary
Re-Common, Italy
Fairwatch, Italy
Stop TTIP – Italy campaign
Milieudefensie, Netherlands
Both ENDS, Netherlands
SOMO, Netherlands
FNV, Netherlands
WEMOS, Netherlands
Foodwatch, Netherlands
Dutch Dairymen Board, Netherlands
Nederlandse Akkerbouw Bond
ASEED, Netherlands
Vrijschrift, Netherlands
Platform Authentieke Journalistiek, Netherlands
Platform ABC, Netherlands
Ecologistas en Acción, Spain
Traidcraft, UK
War on Want, UK
Global Justice Now, UK
Americas
The Democracy Center, Bolivia
CENSAT Agua Viva /Friends of the Earth, Colombia
Colectivo de Abogados “José Alvear Restrepo” (CAJAR), Colombia
Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular (CINEP), Colombia
Escuela Nacional Sindical, Colombia,
Oficina International de los Derechos Humanos Acción Colombia (OIDHACO), Colombia
SENPLADES, Ecuador
Ecuador Decide, Ecuador
Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)
Redes/Friends of the Earth, Uruguay
Asia
Indonesia for Global Justice
Paung Ku, Myanmar
Kesan, Myanmar
Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability
Democratising EU
In 2014, TNI consolidated its position as a critical hub for activists and academics concerned with the impact of austerity policies across Europe. With limited resources, TNI has:
Exposed the corporate interests behind an EU policy agenda that has sought to limit public spending and increase competitiveness
Showed the consequences of austerity policies that have weakened social and labour rights
Brought together key social movements to develop effective strategies to challenge austerity and propose alternative policies for Europe
Engaged new political parties such as Syriza and Podemos with ideas and proposals related to state democratisation and energy
Goal (2011-2015): To expose the corporate interests influencing EU policy and to strengthen and link up European social movements resisting austerity policies.
Exposing the consequences of austerity
In May, TNI helped bring 12 witnesses from 11 European countries to Brussels to testify about the consequences of policies promoted by the Troika (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) in their countries. The witnesses included Portuguese dockworkers, Greek neighbourhood groups, and Spanish housing activists. All testified that high levels of unemployment (especially among young people) and disturbing levels of inequality and poverty have resulted from austerity. However, they also showed how resistance can have an impact, as has happened with the growing movement in Spain preventing house evictions and the Greek movement that stopped water privatisation in Thessaloniki.
The two day People’s Tribunal was live-streamed, allowing 200 people across Europe to follow it. Thanks to a coordinated European wide communication campaign, hundreds of social media hubs spread the testimonies to thousands more people. The Tribunal and an accompanying week of action was covered by Belgium, Russian and other European media. TNI also produced a primer in 2014 with German, Irish, Austrian economists – Unpacking Competitiveness – that analysed the Chancellor Merkel’s proposed EU ‘Competitiveness Pact’ that seeks to further entrench austerity policies across Europe. The primer examined the corporate lobbying groups promoting the pact, explained its potential impact on labour rights, pensions and environmental protection, and highlighted the potential to stop its implementation. The publication was translated into German and Spanish, for distribution at major forums about economic governance.
“TNI has played an impressive role in bringing together social movements that operate at the local and national level and helping them to develop a Europe-wide perspective.”
– Professor John Grahl, Economist, Middlesex University
Building a European movement
TNI has consciously sought to link up established social actors (trade unions and civil society organisations), critical academics and policy makers within newly formed social movements (Occupy, Indignados/15M, Blockupy, Debt audit groups).
In 2014, TNI sponsored several events in Brussels in February, March and May and in Amsterdam in May that facilitated exchange of practices and expertise between activists, NGOs and critical scholars. TNI also promoted an online exchange of perspectives in a series called “At the Crossroads: Europe’s movements respond”. It was active in a creative, multilingual, satirical project — the Troika Party — that drew attention to the anti-democratic nature of current EU economic policies using innovative social media tools in 6 languages across the EU.
TNI’s work on EU internal policies has also linked closely with our work on trade and investment policy, particularly in terms of our campaign against the proposed EU-US trade agreement, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), that could set dangerous new global standards for enshrining corporate rights above human rights.
Solidarity between Asia and Europe
TNI again served as the European anchor and key organizer of the 10th Asia Europe Peoples’ Forum in Milan, Italy in October that paralleled the official ASEM summit. Over 400 representatives of peoples’ organisations from 42 Asian and European countries participated under the banner of a call for a “Just and Inclusive Asia and Europe”. TNI also co-organised a number of sessions on trade and investment, food sovereignty, sustainable land use and natural resource management.
The final statement of the AEPF was presented to the Italian Foreign minister, who attended the closing session, as well as to the ASEM Heads of States. It included a demand to the Laos government (host of the previous ASEM in 2012) for meaningful information on the whereabouts of Sombath Somphone, the chairperson of the national AEPF host committee who was ‘disappeared’ shortly after the 2012 summit. The Laos Government has consistently denied any knowledge of or responsibility for Sombath’s disappearance, despite video evidence to the contrary.
Peace & security
TNI has long worked on peace and security issues: challenging illegitimate wars, opposing the expansion of the military-industrial and surveillance complex and defending civil and human rights. The war on terror proved to be a boon for the military-industrial complex, as it was used to justify the dramatic expansion of surveillance, drone warfare, and terrorist blacklisting, with very little democratic oversight or control.
In 2014, TNI continued to monitor developments in this area, looking more closely at the expansion of drones, the growth in terrorist blacklisting, and the militarisation of climate change adaptation.
Drones
In February, TNI released Eurodrones, Inc, a joint report with Statewatch. Researched and written by TNI Fellow, Ben Hayes, it told the story of how European citizens are unknowingly subsidising through their taxes a controversial drone industry yet are systematically excluded from any debates about their use. The report showed how behind empty promises of consultation, EU officials have turned over much of drone policy development to the European defence and security corporations which seek to profit from it.
The report argued that while there are clear legitimate uses for drones, such as in monitoring environmental impacts, EU drone development has been heading in a dangerous direction, dominated by the military and security industry, leading to policy being developed behind closed doors.
The report caused considerable stir in the European Commission, and was widely covered in the European press by the media including the Daily Telegraph (UK), Euractiv, Russia Today, Proceso (Mexico), Telepolis and VPRO television (NL), and also prompted questions on EU drone policy in the Dutch Parliament.
Terrorist proscription and conflict transformation
Building on its previous work on the Financial Action Task Force and blacklists, TNI continued its investigation of the impact of terrorist proscription on conflict transformation undertaken with the International State Crime Initiative at Queen Mary University in London. By examining a number of cases of proscribed organisations such as the Kurdish Workers’ Party, Al Shabab and Hamas, the research is probing how blacklisting obstructs peace-building. The report, to which Ben Hayes is contributing, was co-published in February 2015.
War on Terror
TNI Fellow Phyllis Bennis continued to be a frequently called on analyst and commentator on Middle East politics and US foreign policy, particularly concerning the war in Syria, the US return to military action in Iraq, and the rise of ISIS.
Climate and security
TNI also continues to research the military’s preparations for dealing with the consequences of climate change. The results of this research will be published in a book by TNI and Pluto Press in 2015.
Publications
Most popular publications of 2014
Working transnationally
Scroll over country to see a list of events and partners
People
TNI Fellows
Click on thumbnail to read about their work:
Prof. Achin Vanaik
Dr. Ben Hayes
Dr. Daniel Chavez
Dr. David Fig
Prof. Edgardo Lander
Dr. Hilary Wainwright
Dr. Jun Borras
Phyllis Bennis
Praful Bidwai
Prof. Achin Vanaik
Professor of International Relations and Global Politics, Delhi University
Achin Vanaik contributed the introductory chapter to TNI’s Reader, Shifting Power: Critical perspectives on emerging economies. He has been active analysing and sharing concerns about the implications of the election in May 2014 of the Hindu nationalist BJP in the general elections. As a member of the National Coordinating Committee of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), India and given the new political dispensation, he was involved in organising (along with other groups) a major two day conference on Challenges to Indian Democracy: Nuclearization, Militarization and State Violence in August 2014 in Delhi which was attended by civil society activists from all around the country. He stood down as a fellow in 2014 after serving 27 years.
Dr. Ben Hayes
Independent researcher, with a longstanding association with Statewatch, UK
Ben Hayes began the year with a major report for TNI on EU drone policy, Eurodrones, Inc, that garnered significant media coverage throughout Europe and prompted questions in the Dutch parliament. He also led TNI’s involvement in a research project concerned with the impact terrorist listing has on peace and reconciliation in a number of conflict-torn regions in the world. Ben focused on the case of Hamas and the peace process in Palestine. He continued research and writing for a book on climate and security issues, to be published by TNI in 2015.
Dr. Daniel Chavez
Independent Researcher, Coordinator of TNI’s Public Services and Democracy Programme
Daniel Chavez finished the English edition of Reorienting the State that explores the potential of state enterprises to lead a more sustainable development. Co-published by TNI and Antel, Uruguay’s state telecommunications company, the book was launched at the MSP conference in Cape Town in mid-April. He coordinates TNI’s involvement in a growing international network concerned with the role of public enterprises and actively represents TNI in the Municipal Services Project, contributing to a book on corporatisation within state-owned companies. He also represented TNI at a number of meetings on participatory democracy in Spain, at the FLACSO conference in Argentina and the CLAD conference in Ecuadior in November.
Dr. David Fig
Independent researcher, Chair of the Board of Biowatch Africa, Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at the University of Cape Town
David Fig is a strong local supporter of the TNI-initiated Global Campaign to Stop Corporate Impunity. He works closely with the environmental justice movement on extractive industries and energy, particularly in Africa. He was involved in running an energy school and in contributing to a primer on energy in Namibia as well as an activist handbook on shale gas as a basis for campaign work in South Africa. With changes in the trade union movement, he supported initiatives by the United Democratic Front and NUMSA (metalworkers) in developing energy and electricity campaigns and continues to work with the food sovereignty movement and in support of projects on the ground in northern KwaZulu-Natal. He has maintained support for the anti-nuclear movement – faced by presidential determination to order a new fleet of reactors — and has made a number of public interventions on its behalf.
Prof. Edgardo Lander
Professor of Social Sciences at the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas.
Edgardo Lander continued his work on the need to construct a post-extractivist economy, drawing on his analysis in Beyond Development, a book published jointly in English by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and TNI in 2013. He presented the analysis at meetings in Ecuador, Germany, Peru, Myanmar, Lima and via skype Mozambique. He is also active in the Permanent Working Group on Alternatives to Development, sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. He also participated in several activities in the Peoples’ Summit on Climate Change, that ran parallel to COP 20 in Lima, December 2014, some of which were co-organized by TNI. Towards the end of 2014, he wrote a paper for TNI “Venezuela: terminal crisis of the rentier petro-state model?” that examined the links between Venezuela’s political crisis and its dependence on an extractive fossil-fuel economy.
Dr. Hilary Wainwright
Editor of Red Pepper magazine, UK
Hilary Wainwright wrote an important TNI/Public Services International pamphlet on trade union-led alternatives to privatisation. It resonated widely with trade unions and progressive governments, prompting a series of speaking invitations. She spoke at a conference of left governments hosted by Syriza in Greece; at the Municipal Services Project (MSP) conference in South Africa, a Uruguayan conference on public enterprises, and at the international sociological association meeting in Japan.
Dr. Jun Borras
Associate Professor in Rural Development at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) and Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Peasant Studies (JPS)
Jun Borras convened the highly successful conference on Food Sovereignty at the Institute of Social Studies with TNI and others. It brought together 300 leading academics, activists and social movement leaders to discuss and deepen understanding of the concept and its potential vis-á-vis global agro-industry. He has involved TNI as a partner in a number of research projects relevant to our work on agrarian justice, including the MOSAIC project that explores the links between climate mitigation policies and land grabbing in Cambodia and Myanmar as well as the BICAS initiative that is examining the role of BRICS countries in land grabbing.
Phyllis Bennis
Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies
Phyllis Bennis is a prominent commentator on US foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East. She is a critical progressive voice in the US media, as well as an essential alternative source of information for everyone keen to understand the unfolding political crises in the Middle East. She played a key role in building the movement against the US military escalation in Syria and Iraq, as well as the movement to defend diplomacy against war in Iran. She remained active in her support for Palestinian rights, particularly during the summer assault on Gaza. She was short-listed to become the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Palestine, and spent much of the year on the road speaking in Japan, Europe, and across the US.
Praful Bidwai
Independent Journalist, fellow of TNI
Praful Bidwai contributed a Working Paper entitled “The Emerging Economies and Climate Change: a Case Study of the BASIC Grouping” to TNI’s Shifting Power series on Critical Perspectives on Emerging Economies. This analysed the ambivalent and contradictory role of the Brazil-South-Africa-India-China grouping in the UN climate negotiations and its marginalisation since the 2011 Durban summit. He continued writing as a columnist for 20 newspapers in South Asia, bringing a critical perspective to bear on political economy, energy, environmental and social justice issues, and on Indian politics, the ascent of Narendra Modi and its dangerous regional implications. He worked towards finalising a full-length book on the crisis of India’s mainstream Left, and the potential reinvention of a rejuvenated new Left. The book will be published in 2015.
Associate Fellows
Dot Keet Dr. Gonzalo Berrón
Dr. David Bewley-Taylor
Pauline Tiffen
Dr. Ricardo Vargas Dr. Tom Reifer
Associates
Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky Dr. Howard Wachtel Dr. Jochen Hippler Dr. Joel Rocamora
John Cavanagh Dr. Kamil Mahdi Dr. Kees Biekart Dr. Marcos Arruda
Mariano Aguirre Myriam Vander Stichele Dr. Walden Bello
Board of Advisors
Dr. Godfried van Benthem van den Berg (Netherlands) Bob Debus (Australia) James Early (USA)
Halle-Jorn Hannsen (Norway) Hermann von Hatzfeldt (Germany) Christine Merkel (Germany)
Prof. Jan Pronk (Netherlands) Peter Weiss (USA) Roger van Zwanenburg (UK)
Board of Directors
Dr. Susan George Chairperson
Gisela Dutting Treasurer
Diederik van Iwaarden Member
Prof. Mirjam van Reisen Member
David Sogge Member (up to mid-2014)
Staff
Management
Fiona Dove (Executive Director)
Lia van Wijk (Finance Manager)
Rozemarijn Vermeulen (Bureau Manager)
Martin Jelsma (Drugs Programme)
Pietje Vervest (Economic Justice Programme)
Communications
Nick Buxton
Tessa Kersten
Bea Martinez Ruiz
Finance
Kees Kimman
Katja Gertman
Bureau
Susan Medeiros
Albi Janssen
Programmes
Amira Armenta
Brid Brennan
Tom Blickman
Ernestien Jensema
Satoko Kishimoto
Pien Metaal
Cecilia Olivet
Hilde van der Pas
Consultants / Research Associates
Dr. Gonzalo Berron (Brazil)
Diana Aguiar Orrico (Brazil)
Tim Feodoroff (France/Netherlands)
Lyda Fernanda Forrero Torres (Colombia)
Sol Trumbo Villas (Spain/Netherlands)
Tom Kramer (Netherlands/Burma)
Dr. Jennifer Franco (Netherlands)
Sylvia Kay (Netherlands)
Dr. Vicki Sentas (Australia)
Dr. Gavin Sullivan (Australia/Netherlands)
Dr. Louise Boon-Kuo ( Australia)
Kevin Woods (Research associate, Burma) Antje Ifrik (Netherlands)
Sebastian Stellingwerff (Netherlands)
Teuntje Vosters (Netherlands)
Alberto Alonso Fradejas (Netherlands)
Manuel Perez Rocha (Mexico/USA)
Interns
William Kemp (UK)
Meaghan Li (New Zealand)
Valerio Loi (Italy)
Eise Moonen (Netherlands)
Laura de Ruiter (Netherlands)
Katie Sandwell (USA)
Jorge San Vicente Feduci (Spain)
Hijke Schennink (Netherlands)
Lavinia Steinfort (Netherlands)
Andrea Tognoni (Italy)
Volunteers
Celia Drummond
Daniel Gomez
Zeno Gosling
Karin Hakansson
Joyce Keuker
Melissa Koutouzis
Ruud Slagboom
David Terlingen
Ruud Tevreden
Herman Wissink
Full audited financial reports are available from the TNI office
Summary of the annual accounts 2014
Balance sheet
dec 31 2014
dec 31 2013
in Euro
in Euro
ASSETS
Fixed assets
Building
1,909,906
1,957,259
Office equipment
2,703
4,620
1,912,609
1,961,879
Receivables
Accounts receivable
12,476
8,274
Grants
400,896
376,520
Other receivables
49,935
19,930
Prepayments
30,613
41,892
493,919
446,615
Cash
Petty cash
5,226
9,903
ASN Bank
644,539
264,998
ABN-Amro Bank
230,115
99,825
Triodos Bank
26,607
20,952
Paypal
12,265
10,877
Accounts in foreign currencies
282,505
296,841
1,201,257
703,397
Total assets
3,607,786
3,111,892
LIABILITIES
Equity:
Balance previous year
879,335
872,368
Result current year
3.927-
6,967
875,407
879,335
Provisions
Building Restoration
9,867
15,817
Long term liabilities (loan)
Triodos Bank, mortgage
1,508,243
1,515,969
Current liabilities
7,726
7,726
Redemption mortgage due coming year
666,098
282,395
Grants
161,867
81,508
Accounts payable
208,842
191,450
Liabilities to Partners
17,879
14,353
Wage withholding tax
81,996
59,469
Provision vacation pay
12,870
12,870
Security on rent
56,991
51,001
Other current liabilities
1,214,268
700,771
Total Liabilities
3,607,786
3,111,892
State of Income and Expenditure
2014
2013
Income
Grants
2,553,137
2,668,262
Rent
140,250
137,533
Exchange losses/gains
70,160
4,701-
Interest
6,320
12,502
Other
157,430
61,915
Total Income
2,927,297
2,875,511
Expenditure
Administration and fundraising
Personnel costs
237,783
241,499
Building expenses
144,825
148,485
Travel and accomodation
5,296
3,060
Office and communication
86,239
56,178
474,143
449,222
Research and activities
Activity costs
1,424,559
1,381,515
Personnel costs
538,819
458,875
Research Fees
92,045
100,443
Publication and outreach
337,842
357,365
Web/Publications
13,948
13,377
Office and communication
83,700
81,088
2,490,912
2,392,663
Total Expenditure
2,965,055
2,841,885
BALANCE
-37,758
33,626
EXTRAORDINARY INCOME
33,830
26,659-
TOTAL BALANCE
3,927-
6,967
Grants received by TNI in 2014
Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Fair, Green and Global)
1,023,320
European Union
* Hands off the Land
218,583
* New Approaches in Drug Policy & Interventions
188,524
* Making EU Investment Policy work for Sustainable Development
292,080
Foundation Open Society Institute
330,296
Swiss Development Cooperation
202,332
Swedish International Development Agency
87,786
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH
74,408
Isvara Foundation
43,966
OxfamNOVIB
35,858
Rockefeller Foundation
21,446
Berghof Foundation
18,109
Samuel Rubin Foundation
9,079
ISS/Erasmus University
4,809
JMG Foundation
2,539
100,400
TOTAL
2,653,535
The community of those who will forever seek to change the world for the better and never be content with the status quo, has been immeasurably strengthened and enriched by TNI.
Patrick Costello - Chef de Cabinet, Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, European Commission
Credits
Writing/Editing: Nick Buxton
Photos: Jennifer Franco, Daniel Chavez, Victor Barro/FOEI (UNHRC rally), Cancillería de Ecuador (Ricardo Patiño), Brookings Institute (Martin Jelsma), Kruha – People’s coalition for the right to water (Jakarta protest), Tom Kramer, Middle East Children’s Alliance (Gaza children/water)
Infographics and designs: Ricardo Santos, Guido Jelsma, Evan Clayburg
