Practical Action Publishing
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Walls using the ‘rat-trap bond’ technology: technical brief
The rat-trap bond technology has been developed by Architect Laurie Baker with the HABITAT Resource Centre in India and is a result of its experimentations in cost-effective housing technologies conducted over 40 years.
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Managing Developmental Civil Society Organizations
When citizens band together in a civil society organization to effect change for the better, they can be a tremendous force for good. This book is about how to channel people’s enthusiasm most effectively, so that pitfalls are avoided, and goals are attained. The book reviews the variety and differ...
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Navigating Complexity in International Development
International development interventions often fail because development experts assume that our world is linear and straightforward when in reality it is complex, highly dynamic and unpredictable. Things rarely happen in the way that they were planned. The dominance of logical planning models in inte...
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Sustainable Livelihoods and Rural Development
The message of Sustainable Livelihoods and Rural Development is clear: livelihoods approaches are an essential lens on questions of rural development, but these need to be situated in a better understanding of political economy. The book looks at the role of social institutions and the politics of p...
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Water Is Life
G. Honor Fagan, Suzanne Linnane, Kevin G. McGuigan, Albert Rugumayo
A safe, adequate water supply within easy reach is still a dream for many people living in rural Africa. This book examines why such a basic service is not yet universally available by studying in detail one particular region of rural Uganda. What is the experience of women and children who have re...
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Qualitative Research for Development
How do we know whether our development programmes are reducing poverty and empowering the most vulnerable people? What evidence do we have to support our theory of change? Qualitative research for development aims to build the research capacity of development practitioners so that their work benefit...
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Scaling up Agroecology
Chris Henderson, Jonathan Casey
To eradicate extreme poverty means focusing on the 500 million smallholders so they can reliably generate more food and income from their agricultural activities. This paper uses the three pillars of Technology Justice (access, local innovation, and sustainable use of technologies) to assess the ran...
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The Politics of Evidence and Results in International Development
Rosalind Eyben, Irene Guijt, Chris Roche, Cathy Shutt
Understanding and demonstrating the effectiveness of efforts to improve the lives of those living in poverty is an essential part of international development practice. But who decides what counts as good or credible evidence? Can the drive to measure results do justice to and promote transformation...
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Brazil Under the Workers’ Party
In 2002, after a long political struggle, Lula was elected Brazil’s first working class President amid huge expectations that he and the Workers’ Party (PT) would bring much-needed reform. A great deal was achieved, including a dramatic reduction in poverty. But, just months before the staging of th...
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Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Humanitarian Contexts
Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, droughts, disease outbreaks as well as conflicts are all crises that result in death as well as profound disruption to those left behind, and to those communities who shelter them. Among the most urgent interventions are those to provide water, sanitation and hygiene (...