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...

Where There is No Artist

Petra Rohr-Rouendaal

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...

Capacity Building for NGOs

Rick James, John Hailey

Capacity Building for NGOs is for anyone interested in capacity building with NGOs and other civil society organisations. It provides an overview of trends and current thinking about NGO capacity building, the challenges and constraints. It also addresses the difficult issue of why, despite all our...

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.

Mushroom Growing

Developing commercial cultivation of mushrooms is growing throughout Africa. This brief focuses on this practice in Zimbabwe.

Solar Drying

Drying using sunshine - a brief description of the basic principles behind it and how to determine the rate of drying.

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.

Ginger Processing

Ginger is valued for the dried ginger spice and preserved, crystallised ginger.

Fruit Preserves - Jams, Jellies and Marmalades

An introduction to small-scale jams, jellies and marmalades making, Known collectively as preserves.

Rethinking Monitoring and Evaluation

Esther Mebrahtu, Brian Pratt, Linda Lonnqvist

Do any of these monitoring and evaluation issues sound familiar? It feels like your monitoring and evaluation (M&E) has to demonstrate that your project is perfect. Your funder demands M&E data that's too cumbersome to collect. M&E feels more like an impediment than a resource to your work. Your M&E...