Africa

Many of the promotion girls Heineken uses in African countries to stimulate the sale of the Dutch beer, are faced with sexual harassment during their work, according to Olivier van Beemen, who investigated the situation these young women face and wrote a book about it.

In an article in NRC, Van Beemen writes that many Heineken promotion girls have to deal with sexual harassment or assault, have to go to bed with managers, and prostitute themselves to clients. Heineken has known about this problem for 15 years, but does little about it, he said.

Netflix is planning an expansion of its Amsterdam operations to eventually accomodate over 400 employees. The video-on-demand, production and distribution firm wants the office to become its customer service headquarters for its clients in Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Minister Lilianne Ploumen of Development Cooperation is working to counteract one of the first decisions made by new United States president Donald Trump. On Monday he scrapped funding to organizations that help with family planning and offer safe abortions in developing countries. Ploumen is launching an international fund to make up for the about $600 million gap created by Trump's decision, ANP reports.

Dutch soldiers on a United Nations mission in Mali got a visit from Sinterklaas and two Zwarte Piets in their traditional blackface makeup on Monday, according to a photo the Ministry of Defense posted on Twitter. 

The Netherlands is making a final push for a much sought after temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council. The happens today in New York, around 4:00 p.m. Dutch time. Two seats are up for grabs. The Netherlands is competing against Italy and Sweden.

The Dutch branch of the Red Cross has begun a national fundraising campaign to provide aide to 42 million people in multiple African nations, all suffering from food and water shortages. Affected countries include Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, all succumbing to a lack of rain caused by the El Niño weather pattern.

The Netherlands is an important link in the illegal trafficking of endangered wildlife, both in terms of market and of transit, according to research done by criminologist Daan van Uhm for which he will receive his doctorate on Tuesday

The Netherlands is investing 50 million euros in the development of the African economy. The intention is that this money will improve employment in North African countries and stop local young people from risking their lives by fleeing to Europe by boat.

The Netherlands will sign treaties with 23 African nations aimed at preventing locally operating enterprises from using Dutch jurisdiction to evade taxation in their countries. The enterprises will be prevented from formally locating themselves in the Netherlands simply by registering a post office box, reports Volkskrant.

Dutch drug manufacturer Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies started testing an Ebola vaccine on humans this week. The Johnson & Johnson subsidiary produced 400,000 doses of the vaccine for large-scale clinical trials that could launch by April, the firm said in a statement.

Manon Ossevoort arrived at the South Pole on Tuesday after traveling from Europe, through Africa and finally across Antarctica on a red Massey Ferguson tractor.