Books published by Practical Action Publishing

The phenomenon of the transnational mega-charity is examined as are the threats to the independence of voluntary organizations from governments, UN agencies and from charities themselves. This is also a story about lessons of heroism and folly, of bungling and luck and failure - and of achievements that have improved the lives of millions.

Microplanning is a community-based process which enables local people to prepare and implement programmes for settlement upgrading. Local participants contribute to both the content and structure of programmes. Case studies from Chile and Sri Lanka.

This book explores how international NGOs are navigating these rapid changes, changes that challenge their role and legitimacy, their values, and their overall purpose. It calls for a re-examination of theories about change, and a re-focus on ideas of complexity and feminism and on learning from past NGO experience.

Setting up a Food Drying Business is essential for people setting up food drying projects. It provides the reader with the prior information and tools necessary for starting such a business. It is also of interest to those in partner organizations who wish to develop a better understanding of this important sector.

In many developing countries access to veterinary services is a particular problem in rural areas, and poor farmers suffer significant losses due to preventable livestock diseases. This book describes three Intermediate Technology programmes built from local knowledge.

To mark the UN Year of Energy in 2012, Practical Action is publishing some of its best practical briefings and case study material for the benefit of energy development practitioners around the world. Practical Answers 1 is the first in a new series of handbooks that provide guides on a variety of subjects for international development workers.

This book presents 15 case studies and a variety of approaches to document the capacities and constraints to be encountered among communities facing changing climates in Bangladesh, Cameroon, Canada, Ecuador, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, Peru, South Africa, Sudan, United States, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

Community-based adaptation is a new concept whose meaning is still to be fully understood. Most agree that communities should be supported to respond to the challenges they face, and some see this as the goal of community-based adaptation. By contrast, Uncertain Futures proposes that community-based adaptation must also address inevitable future uncertainty by supporting the ongoing ability to change. In this view, attention is focused on adaptive capacity, through which communities are able to make changes to their lives and livelihoods in response to emerging environmental change. Uncertain Futures argues that as greenhouse gas emissions continue to accumulate, a 'business as usual' approach to development practice is increasingly inadequate and the importance of securing adaptive capacity becomes more urgent. Uncertain Futures examines this challenge, and invites readers to rethink development policy and practice in terms of how adaptive capacity can be best supported. This book should be read by the staff of donor agencies, policy makers, NGO practitioners, academics and students of development studies and the environment.

This book reflects the implications of a social performance management agenda for the perspective of twelve partners from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, who participated in a three-year microfinance action-research programme known as Imp-Act

This book highlights the broad range of expertise that exists in rural areas. The book first gives a brief account of women's indigenous technical knowledge, and its extent. It goes on to explore women's role in the innovation process and how technical innovation has conventionally ignored this.

This booklet was the result of a workshop run by the Ahsania Mission. The objective of the workshop was to produce adult literacy booklets that covered practical subjects. This booklet covers how to set up a small business making pickles and drew on the work of Intermediate Technology Bangladesh

This book returns to the debates about farmer participation in agricultural R & D, looks to the future, and calls for a major rethink, boosting of knowledge and capacities of farmers' organizations to innovate, strengthening networks and alliances to support and share lessons on farmer-led innovation.

This books shows that women can be instrumental in expanding and democratizing national economies: creating wealth and family well-being. Through a history of UNIFEM, the author shows how the large-scale investments of governments, the World Bank, the United Nations and other organizations can become both more effectively and gender-sensitive.

The challenge for foresters, and other rural development professionals, is to build new landscapes which provide a range of biomass products to local users. This book will contribute to that task by helping professionals to see new opportunities by working through, not against, the local people.