Practical Action Publishing
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Water Supply and Sanitation Services for the Rural Poor
Safe drinking water near to the home and adequate household sanitation save poor households time, reduce illness and increase a sense of well being and dignity. Gram Vikas, a non-government organization working in one of the poorest states in India, recognized this key role and encouraged villages t...
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What's Wrong with Microfinance?
Thomas Dichter, Malcolm Harper
Microfinance has been a long-lived development fashion and in 2005 it enjoyed the accolade of a UN International Year. Many of the world's biggest multinational banks are now eagerly committing quite substantial sums to it, for business as well as public relations purposes. However, there are some i...
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Where There is No Artist
A simple to use catalogue, containing a wealth of illustrations, with a unique combination of written text and visual aids.Visual aids can provide information, provoke discussion and discovery, and make difficult ideas easy to understand. They can also improve the accessibility of a book or a poster...
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Reconstructing Agriculture in Afghanistan
The book raises critical questions relating to both humanitarian intervention and development agendas in crisis states. It supports a growing literature that interrogates past and present interventions, but does so by putting food security at the heart of both short- and long-term responses to crisi...
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Sharing Power for Development
Decentralisation and good local governance are often identified as necessary precursors to effective pro-poor development work. In this publication, the authors examine case studies from the work of Swiss development organisation Helvetas and its local partners in the Philippines, Cameroon, Mali, Vi...
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Springs of Participation
Learning from others in the form of fusion and adaptation of existing tools and approaches is very much part of evolving new participatory methods, and is a key component of the process of creating fresh approaches to new challenges. Springs of Participation brings together the experiences and refle...
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The Aid Chain
Tina Wallace, Lisa Bornstein, Jennifer Chapman
The Aid Chain explores the role of funding conditions in shaping co-operation and resistance as aid moves from donors, to NGOs, to local communities. Significant proportions of aid flow through the non-governmental sector but questions are increasingly being asked about the role of NGOs and whether...
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Conversations with Practitioners
This is a collection of interviews with leading microfinance practitioners and specialists discussing the challenges facing microfinance institutions as they attempt to become more market-oriented, competitive and sustainable. It was written by a recognised leader in the field on the basis of extens...
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Drying of Foods
The drying of food results in longer preservation and ease of transport (lighter). This technical brief describes some of the requirements for food drying to retain maximum nutrients and aesthetics, and summarizes information on the various drying equipment.
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Solar Photovoltaic Energy
This Technical Brief looks at the background of solar photovoltaic (PV) energy (in which sunlight is directly converted into electricity), the design of PV cell, modules and arrays, and configuration of PV systems.