Böcker utgivna av Practical Action Publishing

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

Barefoot Book explores the potential of `intermediate' services for the rural poor, using examples in the fields of health care, law, administration, economics, banking, management, craft, mechanics, building and geology.

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.

Candlemaking for Profit covers the various materials and methods used in candlemaking. It includes step-by-step illustrations to explain methods appropriate for small-scale production. It advises on different wax types, wicks, dyes and scents and gives advice on dealing with material suppliers.

The Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December 2004 devastated the coastline in Aceh province on the northern tip of Indonesia leaving 167,000 people dead and over half a million people without homes. This resulted in an unprecedented humanitarian response. Over the next three years the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Member Agencies collectively constructed almost 20,000 houses in Aceh, in addition to numerous schools and health centres. In ''Lessons from Aceh'' their experiences are used as a case study to illustrate the practical realities of delivering a successful programme and the range of issues that need to be considered; highlighting best and worst practice whilst recognizing that there is validity in different approaches within the same response. ''Lessons from Aceh'' is targeted at senior managers, decision-makers and programme advisers to help them make informed decisions, manage expectations and reduce risk in future responses. It will also be of interest to built environment professionals, researchers or policy makers. An important theme throughout is the way in which reconstruction can act as a catalyst to recovery, contribute to long-term development and reduce vulnerability to future disasters. In Aceh, the most successful reconstruction programmes have left a legacy that is much more than just bricks and mortar.

Commercial and Inclusive Value Chains includes case studies on fifteen profitable and inclusive value chains from different countries in Western, Eastern and North Eastern Africa, and from India, Cambodia, Peru.

Commercial and Inclusive Value Chains includes case studies on fifteen profitable and inclusive value chains from different countries in Western, Eastern and North Eastern Africa, and from India, Cambodia, Peru.

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.

Based on a three-year project in Kenya, this booklet examines the key features in understanding the development of participatory urban planning strategies and approaches that will assist in safeguarding of the position of poor and vulnerable.

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.

Writing from diverse locations, contributors critically examine some of the key terms in current development discourse. The reflections included here raise major questions about how we think about development itself.

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.