Can We Know Better?

Robert Chambers

This book is intended for all who are committed to human wellbeing and who want to make our world fairer, safer and more fulfilling for everyone, especially those who are ‘last’. It argues that to do better we need to know better. It provides evidence that what we believe we know in international d...

Fairtrade Impacts

Valerie Nelson

Fairtrade goods are claimed to empower producers, and promote sustainable livelihoods, and it is these claims that attract consumers who willingly pay a premium for the sake of the benefits that they expect will be experienced by smallholders in developing countries. But what is the evidence for the...

Minimum Economic Recovery Standards 3rd Edition

A major shift has taken place in the field of humanitarian assistance. This shift includes greater awareness of the key role markets play in assisting affected populations to recover from shocks. In parallel with emergency efforts to meet basic human needs for shelter, water, food, and health servic...

Energy Access and Urban Poverty

V Castán Broto, Lucy Stevens, D Salazar

The great majority of people without access to modern energy services are rural and, rightly, much of the discussion on energy access focuses on how to reach them. However, despite their greater geographical proximity to grid electricity and other supplies of clean energy, people living in poverty i...

Islamic Microfinance

Malcolm Harper, Ajaz Ahmed Khan

Microfinance institutions are today reaching hundreds of millions of clients throughout the global South, but the special needs of Muslim borrowers and savers, who wish to avoid any form of fixed interest, are badly served. The purpose of Islamic Microfinance is to introduce readers to the tenets of...

Managing for Sustainable Development Impact

Cecile Kusters, Karen Batjes

The development landscape has changed significantly over the last few decades, becoming increasingly complex. Many of the issues we face today such as climate change, poverty and conflict, call for a new way of doing business. This guide shows leaders and development practitioners how to navigate th...

Extreme Poverty, Growth and Inequality in Bangladesh

Joe Devine, Geof D. Wood, Zulfiqar Ali, Shamsul Alam

Over the past two decades, Bangladesh has enjoyed impressive economic growth rates and is now poised to become an upper Middle Income Country. Over the same period, the country has made considerable progress in reducing official poverty levels and in meeting its MDG targets. Despite this success, Ba...

Smart Risks

Jennifer Lentfer, Tanya Cothran

As never before, international aid is in the hands of ordinary people. Concerned citizens in wealthy countries are starting philanthropy groups, joining giving circles, and travelling internationally to lend support. Yet, they are torn between the feelings that ‘something’ must be done about global...

Putting Knowledge to Work

Luc Mougeot

Producing knowledge that is relevant and can be acted upon is essential for international development. There is a renewed urgency for knowledge from the civil society sector, particularly non-academic organizations, to be acknowledged and recorded, to be distilled and leveraged, in order to help the...

What Works for Africa's Poorest

David Lawson, David Hulme, Lawrence K. Ado-Kofie

Although great strides have been made, Africa still lags behind other parts of the world in the reduction of poverty. We now know that the poorest people rarely benefit from poverty reduction programmes, and this is especially true in some countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Microfinance programmes, fo...