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.

Making a Manual Fuel Briquette Press

This brief describes the process of making and using a simple low-pressure manual press for fuel briquette production. This press can also be used for other purposes, such as vegetable oil extraction. In this brief however we will concentrate on fuel briquette making only.

Developing Mini-grids in Zambia

Up to now, mini-grids have struggled to grow beyond pilot projects. Today, raising awareness about the main hurdles and learning from successful experiences is imperative in order for mini-grids to make a meaningful contribution to electricity access. ENEA and Practical Action are convinced that bui...

Sustainable Livelihoods and Rural Development

Ian Scoones

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...

Managing Developmental Civil Society Organizations

Richard Holloway

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...

Navigating Complexity in International Development

Danny Burns, Stuart Worsley

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...

Qualitative Research for Development

Morten Skovdal, Flora Cornish

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...

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...

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...

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Humanitarian Contexts

Richard C Carter

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 (...