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Deze studie analyseert de vooruitgang die Vlaamse steden en gemeenten boekten bij het verantwoord aankopen van natuursteen, acht jaar nadat onderzoeksjournalisten belangrijke mensenrechten-schendingen bloot legden bij geïmporteerde natuursteen uit India. Op basis van een grondige analyse van bijna 100 aanbestedingen van lokale besturen wordt een beeld geschetst van de huidige aankooppraktijk van Vlaamse steden en gemeenten. De bevindingen worden verder geduid met interviews met aankopers, deskundigen en beleidsmakers. De studie stelt vast dat, ondanks de inspanningen van onder meer TruStone, het multistakeholder initiatief van de Nederlandse en Vlaamse overheid om verantwoorde invoer van natuursteenproducten te bevorderen, er weinig verandering merkbaar is in het aankoopgedrag van Vlaamse steden en gemeenten. Ondertussen blijven studies de problemen aankaarten bij de productie en verwerking van natuursteen in lage- en middeninkomenslanden, met voorbeelden van moderne slavernij, kinderarbeid, lage lonen, onveilige en ongezonde arbeidsomstandigheden, gebrek aan sociale bescherming en vrijheid van vereniging. De studie formuleert concrete beleidsaanbevelingen om het beleidskader en de praktijk van verantwoord aankopen van natuursteen te verbeteren. status: published

De aanpak die beschreven wordt in deze nota is gebaseerd op de ervaringen binnen een project (2019-2021) over mensenrechten in de toeleveringsketens van universiteiten. Specifiek werd met KU Leuven en UZ Leuven een traject opgezet dat initieel focuste op concrete acties binnen een beperkt aantal toeleveringsketens (ICT, academische literatuur, verse groenten), om deze uiteindelijk te verankeren in een meer structureel beleid van ‘ketenzorg’. Het project zet tevens in op sensibilisering bij andere aanbestedende overheden. Om deze doelstellingen te realiseren werd, naast de relevante diensten binnen beide organisaties, samengewerkt met de Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad voor Ontwikkelingssamenwerking (VLIR-UOS), The Shift, en verschillende andere maatschappelijke partners. ispartof: Policy brief status: Published online

Deze nota is gebaseerd op de ervaringen binnen een project (2019-2021) over mensenrechten in de toeleveringsketens van universiteiten. Specifiek werd met KU Leuven en UZ Leuven een traject opgezet dat initieel focuste op concrete acties binnen een beperkt aantal toeleveringsketens (ICT, academische literatuur, verse groenten), om deze uiteindelijk te verankeren in een meer structureel beleid van ‘ketenzorg’. Het project zet tevens in op sensibilisering bij andere aanbestedende overheden. Om deze doelstellingen te realiseren werd, naast de relevante diensten binnen beide organisaties, samengewerkt met de Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad voor Ontwikkelingssamenwerking (VLIRUOS), The Shift, en verschillende andere maatschappelijke partners. ispartof: Policy brief status: Published online

This policy brief explores the topic of Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) from a workers’ perspective and identifies points of leverage for trade unions to engage with HRDD, illustrated through seven examples from this emerging practice. While companies have the responsibility to implement comprehensive HRDD policies, the involvement of organised labour is critical as it is directly affected by (the lack of) policies in this area. The focus of the policy brief is on examples both upstream and downstream in the supply chain, and demonstrates the different ways in which trade unions in the Global South and North can engage more actively with the HRDD agenda. status: published

Cette note d’orientation s’attache à la question de la diligence raisonnable en matière de droits humains (HRDD, en anglais) à partir de la perspective des travailleurs et, au travers de sept exemples, elle identifie des leviers permettant aux syndicats de s’impliquer dans cette pratique émergente. Les entreprises ont certes la responsabilité de mettre en oeuvre des politiques globales de diligence raisonnable en matière de droits humains. Néanmoins, la participation des travailleurs organisés est essentielle du fait qu’ils sont directement affectés par les politiques (ou leur absence) dans ce domaine. Cette note d’information met l’accent sur des exemples en amont et en aval de la chaîne d’approvisionnement et elle illustre l’éventail de modalités possibles d’implication plus active des syndicats du Sud et du Nord global sur le plan de la diligence raisonnable en matière de droits humains status: published

As development challenges are becoming increasingly complex in a globalised world, which is driven by short-term economic and political gains, this policy brief describes the central role played by civil society organisations (CSOs) to contribute to restoring governance for sustainable development. It outlines ten ways to foster civil society’s role in sustainable development, clustered in three broad domains: the governance models, the enabling environment, and CSO-government relations. The policy brief builds, amongst others, on the research outcomes of the Research Chair on Decent Work and the SDGs. status: published

This policy report explores the role of civil society in governance for sustainable development and argues that civil society organisations (CSOs) have a more structural role to play than what is witnessed across the globe today. There is a need to move from governance models which predominantly focus on public and for-profit actors and pay lip service to genuine civil society participation, towards an ‘inclusive’ governance model in which the three actors are structurally represented. Institutionalised and effective engagement between governmental, for-profit and civil society actors through a tripolar governance model has the potential to strengthen democracy and increase societal support for policy and regulation, and to recognise the value creation role of CSOs. Even though contexts do vary, the paper demonstrates that this approach to inclusive governance has relevance at the local, national, regional and international level. In the policy report we bring together various strands of literature to illustrate how CSOs are contributing to improved governance for sustainable development, further enriched with case studies reflecting the experiences of different social movements with which WSM, ACV-CSC and CM-MC cooperate. The policy report ends with an exploration of the structural conditions that need to be in place for CSOs to have a meaningful seat at the governance table. status: published

This executive summary covers the main findings and recommendations of the Belgian National Baseline Assessment (NBA) on Business and Human Rights (main report). The NBA charts the progress made by Belgian authorities and companies since the launch of Belgium’s first National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights, in June 2017. The research was commissioned by the Belgian Federal Institute for Sustainable Development (FIDO/IFDD), and was executed by a consortium of the research institutes HIVA-KU Leuven, and the Law and Development Research Group (University of Antwerp). IPIS Research supported the team in the topics of conflict zones and arms trade. The report draws on a comprehensive data collection and review process covering the 31 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). ispartof: National Baseline Assessment Business and Human Rights in Belgium: Executive Summary - Version 2.0 status: Published online

This report covers the findings and recommendations of the Belgian National Baseline Assessment (NBA) on Business and Human Rights. The NBA charts the progress made by Belgian authorities and companies since the launch of Belgium’s first National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights, in June 2017. The research was commissioned by the Belgian Federal Institute for Sustainable Development (FIDO/IFDD), and was executed by a consortium of the research institutes HIVA-KU Leuven, and the Law and Development Research Group (University of Antwerp). IPIS Research supported the team in the topics of conflict zones and arms trade. The report draws on a comprehensive data collection and review process covering the 31 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). ispartof: National Baseline Assessment Business and Human Rights in Belgium: Main Report status: Published online

This paper investigates the fresh vegetable supply chain for the catering services of the university hospital UZ Leuven. More specifically, the goal is to assess the likelihood of human rights and labour abuses in its supply chain with Spain, one of the main exporters of vegetables in Europe. ispartof: Report status: Published online

Air pollution remains a key environmental problem in an increasingly urbanized world. To quantify health impacts and support informed policies, the population exposure needs to be accurately monitored. However, the inherent spatial variability of air quality poses a tenacious challenge to this. While concentrations of traffic-related pollutants like nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are known to vary over short distances, official monitoring networks remain inherently sparse, as reference stations are costly to construct and operate. Here we show that citizen science provides an cost-effective way to collect large, spatially distributed datasets that critically complement official monitoring.

Report ispartof: 0 status: Published online

ispartof: The SDGs as a compass for the Belgian development cooperation. Inception report field studies. pages:1-35 status: Published online

Het project Straatvinken ontstond in de context van verhitte debatten over mobiliteit in Antwerpen. De bouw van de Oosterweelverbinding, een tunnel die de Antwerpse ring sluit, lokte immers heel wat protest uit. Daarbij gingen burgergroepen ook zelf aan de slag en stelden ze eigen ontwerpen voor, met het overkappen van de Antwerpse ring als meest sprekende voorstel. Voor de vervoerregio Antwerpen werd in 2017 een ‘toekomstverbond’ gesloten tussen een aantal burgerbewegingen enerzijds en de Stad Antwerpen en de Vlaamse Overheid anderzijds. Als doel heeft dit toekomstverbond het streven naar een modal shift in de Antwerpse vervoerregio van 70/30 naar 50/50 wat betreft verplaatsingen (Figuur 1). Onder de vlag van de Ringland Academie zoekt één van de burgerbewegingen (Ringland) samenwerking met onderzoekers wat resulteert in burgerwetenschapsprojecten zoals Straatvinken. Het streven naar een meer duurzame modal split vormde de aanleiding voor het Straatvinken burgerwetenschapsproject. Het idee was eenvoudig: laat burgers op een afgesproken dag een uur lang het verkeer in hun straat tellen, en dat elk jaar tot en met 2030. De eerste twee edities zijn reeds achter de rug (2018 en 2019) en gaandeweg ontdekten zowel betrokken burgers als onderzoekers de meerwaarde van dit initiatief. De wetenschappelijk opzet is jaarlijkse data te verzamelen over de modal split op straatniveau, waarmee we dan verdere analyses kunnen doen en zo bevindingen kunnen doen over het verplaatsingsgedrag van burgers op straatniveau.

20.000 burgers kregen dankzij het citizen science project 'CurieuzeNeuzen' zicht op de luchtkwaliteit (stikstofdioxide) aan hun voordeur. Maar de echte blootstelling hangt af van een complexe combinatie van blootstellingen op alle plaatsen waar iemand zich begeeft. Wetenschappers van UHasselt en HIVA focusten op het verplaatsingsgedrag van 5000 deelnemende burgerwetenschappers, om zo een nauwkeurigere inschatting te kunnen maken van de blootstelling aan stikstofdioxide doorheen de dag status: published

This study was commissioned by the Global Minds programme of the University of Leuven (KU Leuven), which is supported by the inter-university council VLIR-UOS. The study aims to contribute to ongoing debates on the need for a renewed perspective on university development cooperation in the SDG era. It involved documenting lessons from innovative initiatives around SDG integration in different settings. In collaboration with the network of the League of European Research Universities (LERU), good practices were identified and researched. These constitute a body of knowledge on how to reshape the set of international initiatives that expresses universities’ response to Agenda 2030. The analysis of these insights is subsequently used to sketch a number of scenarios for university authorities wanting to engage more deeply with the 2030 Agenda through university development cooperation. ispartof: Universities and Global Challenges: Redesigning University Development Cooperation in the SDG era status: published

ispartof: Scoping Paper. Belgian Development Cooperation and the SDGs. State of play. status: published

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This report assesses recent human rights due diligence (HRDD)-related efforts of three European countries -the Netherlands, Germany and France-, with a specific focus on the policy frameworks that are used, and new multi-stakeholder initiatives and regulatory measures that are taken. This comparative analysis is then used to assess Belgium’s efforts on contributing to sustainable supply chains. The findings of the research also serve as an input for future policy influencing work by Belgian civil society organisations, which are active on the topic of business and human rights. status: published

ispartof: Gids op Maatschappelijk Gebied vol:109 issue:5 pages:33-39 status: published

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This high-level evaluation covered the ILO’s work on social protection following the adoption of the Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), which had a profound impact on its work. The evaluation focused on the ILO’s strategy and work on promoting social protection, including social protection floors, for the 2012–17 period. HIVA researchers executed the evaluation in combination with the ILO EVAL unit. status: published

Southern trade unions possess relevant experiences and practices that can inform their counterparts in other countries to address similar challenges. From 2012 to 2016 the Belgian trade union ACV-CSC/IIWE in cooperation with ten Southern trade unions carried out a capacity building programme to unlock this knowledge by facilitating exchanges. An end-of programme evaluation of HIVA-KU Leuven identifies the main characteristics of the strategy as well as good practices of how South-South exchange can induce organisational and policy change nrpages: 4 status: published

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This study, commissioned by the Flemish NGO-Federation intends to shed light on key trends in governmental support for civil society organisations (CSO). More specifically the study aims to identify the most important trends in governmental funding in eight different OECD-DAC countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and UK) and the EU. These actors represent different approaches to development cooperation in general and CSO support in particular, have experienced different evolutions in their ODA, and together represented around 50% of the governmental funding going to CSOs in the period under review. The study was executed over the period December 2014 to September 2015. Research questions addressed the funding context and policy; the scope of funding; the income sources of CSOs; the funding modalities and criteria; funding procedures and the relationship between CSOs and the government. status: published

How do development actors attempt to mobilize private sector resources for sustainable development and what are the main issues they have to deal with when doing so? Tackling this question,this working paper provides on overview of the broad policy framework on Financing for Development and identifies different types of instruments that can be used to mobilize private resources. It also maps the current Belgian policy and practice regarding private resources for development and compares this with the approaches of three other donors: the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Switzerland. nrpages: 70 status: published

What are the most important developments, modalities and good practices regarding the role and involvement of the private sector in addressing global development problems? The paper tackles this question by providing a contextualized overview of recent developments in the debate on the role of the private sector in development and introduces an improved typology to dissect and map the roles private sector could play in development cooperation. It also investigates how these roles are already visible in the development policy of different OECD-DAC donors (in particular Sweden, Australia, and the Netherlands). nrpages: 77 status: published