Bücher veröffentlicht von Practical Action Publishing

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.

Poor people bear the brunt of climate change since they live in those regions most affected by fluctuating temperatures, sea level rise, flooding and drought. Far from behaving as victims, however, they use the assets and resources at their disposal to adapt and survive. How can agencies assist local communities adapting to change? By what mechanisms can communities make the most of emerging information? Can effective community-based approaches be scaled up? Understanding Adaptation to Climate Change demonstrates that although communities' adaptation strategies may be varied and depend on local context, social networks play a pivotal role in accessing appropriate climate knowledge and resources and communicating useful approaches to other communities. The key activities of reducing vulnerability, fostering resilience and developing the capacity to experiment and learn are combined as appropriate. This book is essential reading for NGO practitioners, students and government and NGO policy makers who wish to gain an understanding of what adaptation means in theory and practice.

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 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.

What assistance do disaster-affected communities need? This book guides humanitarian field staff in answering this vital question during the early days and weeks following a disaster, when timely and competent assessment is crucial for enabling informed decision making. Needs assessment is essential for programme planning, monitoring and evaluation. In an emergency response, however, a quick and simple approach to needs assessment may be the only practical possibility - in other words, it needs to be 'good enough'. This guide does not explain every activity needed to carry out an assessment, but it describes the assessment process, and provides a step-by-step guide through the process. It also contains a number of tools and resources that may be helpful when planning or carrying out humanitarian needs assessments. This guide is essential reading for field staff carrying out assessments after a humanitarian crisis; it should also be read by humanitarian policy makers, students, lecturers and researchers.

This revised edition of a classic text re-emphasizes the importance of agroecology as the discipline that provides the basic ecological principles of how to study, design and manage agroecosystems

Women Feeding Cities analyses the roles of women and men in urban food production and is essential reading for policy makers, planners, researchers and practitioners working on urban agriculture programmes.

This handbook provides practical guidelines for evaluating water and sanitation related hygiene practices for the purposes of project planning, monitoring or impact assessment. The main focus, therefore, is on the practical concerns of field personnel working in water supply, sanitation, and health / hygiene education projects.

This book is the first attempt to examine 'what works for the poorest' and analyses innovative ultra-poor programmes from around the world and explores the lessons that emerge from this important body of knowledge. It should be read by staff of donor agencies and NGOs, students of development studies who are concerned about chronic poverty.

This book is essential reading for agribusiness leaders and technical staff, bankers and cooperative leaders working in agriculture, NGO and microfinance development practitioners, researchers and policy makers. Published in association with FAO.

The jiko, a charcoal-burning stove consisting of a ceramic liner fitted inside a metal case, burns 25 to 40 per cent less charcoal than the traditional stoves on which its design was based. This book provides guidance on its production and promotion.

Confronts the paradox of mass poverty coexisting with vast resource potentials in rural India, such as the potentials from groundwater and trees, previously underestimated. Combines empirical research with practical political economy.

Traditionally the primary function of NGOs has been to mitigate the effects of war; providing humanitarian aid and protection on the peripheries of violent conflict. Recently there has been an increased focus on the impact of humanitarian aid in general, and to a lesser extent on the impact of aid on conflict and peace dynamics.

People's Participation draws on the 165 papers discussed at the 1997 World Congress of Participative Convergence in Knowledge, Space and Time, to present the most significant themes arising from this important event. The book looks at the social, political, economic and cultural movements at the heart of Participative Research - where knowledge, space and time are seen as the principal tools for change for the advancement of peoples. It has been published to promote the ongoing discussion amongst economists, politicians, scholars, NGO workers, policymakers, engineers, scientists, social scientists and all those with a deep interest or involvement with Participatory Approaches and methodologies.

This is a practical handbook providing an introduction to the equipment, maintenance and operation of solar pumping systems. It identifies situations where solar pumps may be appropriate and it reviews developments in solar pumping technology.

This is a guide to the use of induction motors for electricity generation in remote locations. It is written as a practical handbook for engineers and technicians involved in designing and installing small water-power schemes for isolated houses and communities.

Local crop diversity in the South is being threatened by the promotion of modern 'high-yield' varieties. These worldwide case studies show the importance of small-scale farmers and local communities to maintaining crop diversity.

Renewable energy can present a baffling array of options to aid agency managers, government officials, and advisers. This publication contrasts the relative merits of biomass, solar, hydro, and wind power, as well as detailing some direct applications.

The book draws on the experience of farmers' own enterprises, combining superior production along with enhancement of biological diversity. It is based on work in 12 countries with collaborating scientists and farmers, showing how its authors perceive and quantitatively analyse agrodiversity, and how they work together with farmers.

The author addresses the major areas of tension existing between headquarters and field offices, which will be familiar to those working for NGOs, including flexibility and consistency in administrative practice, diversity and similarity of NGO staff, and field-orientated and organizationally-oriented attitudes of those staff.

This is the first book to focus on farmer-led extension, drawing on the experiences of over 70 farmers, community workers, NGO staff, researchers and policy makers from throughout the world.

This is the first book to look at gender issues in disasters in the context of South Asia, where disasters have a crucial impact on the development process. It shows how exploring the specific capacities and vulnerabilities of men and women in disaster situations will improve the chance of success in development projects.