What Works for the Poorest?

David Lawson, David Hulme, Imran Matin, Karen Moore

Poverty reduction has become the central goal of development policies over the last decade but there is a growing realization that the poorest people rarely benefit from poverty reduction programmes. Microfinance programmes can help poor people improve their lives but generally such programmes do no...

Uncharted Territory

Sara Pantuliano

Disputes over land often start conflicts; and land is often a key issue when refugees and internally displaced people attempt to return home when the conflict is over. Access to land affects people’s choice to return and their prospects of recovery. Yet humanitarian agencies largely neglect these wi...

Sugar production from Sugar Cane

This brief describes the process of sugar production, explaining yields, crushing, juice treatment, juice boiling and cleanliness.

Recycling Plastics: Starting a business

An introduction to plastic recycling looking at the reasons for recycling and the practicalities of small-scale businesses.

Serpentine Solar Water Heating: Guidelines for Fabrication

The Serpentine is a solar thermal collector developed as part of a low cost water heating system by the AIDG for households in Xela, Guatemala.

Strawberry Flavoured Jam

Strawberry flavoured jam can be made from ash gourd and artificial strawberry flavouring.

Coffee Processing

This fact sheet describes the types of coffee, and the techniques and equipment needed for small-scale coffee production.

Mud as a Mortar

Clay is the inherent binder of soils which are used in building. Such mortars are generally used with adobe and compressed soil blocks.

Fuelling Economic Growth

Michael Graham, Jean Woo

The private sector is playing an increasingly important role in the funding of scientific research. As public sector research declines in the countries of the north and the south, research and development carried out by the private sector becomes more important for innovations that have economic pot...

Farmer First Revisited

Ian Scoones, John Thompson

Agriculture is an urgent global priority and farmers find themselves in the front line of some of the world's most pressing issues- climate change, globalization and food security. Twenty years ago, the Farmer First workshop held at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK, lau...