Search results for:

• (Journal Article) Software Reviews

  01.01.2002
  

• (Journal Article) Conference Call

  01.07.2000
  

• (Journal Article) Rainwater harvesting in challenging environments: Towards institutional frameworks for sustainable domestic water supply

  01.07.2010
  Rainwater harvesting (RWH) has proved to be a viable alternative water source in challenging environments where other means of water supply have no or very little potential. In the last two decades, interest in RWH has grown. Several governments of Southern countries have taken the initiative to scale up community-based RWH approaches and networks have been established between Southern and Northern civil society organizations, governments, private sector and research institutes to support and promote upscaling of RWH. This paper describes the approach taken by one of these network organizations in water-scarce, remote and marginalized areas, and discusses lessons learned, challenges and the way forward. The main challenges are: 1) the multi-layer institutional model requires substantial initial investment and effective communication between organizations, water users and governments; 2) women's involvement in community management of RWH systems is still weak; and 3) initial investment costs for rainwater harvesting tanks are relatively high, limiting replication by communities in challenging environments.

• (Journal Article) Supporting small business membership organizations

  01.06.1995
  Small Business Membership Organizations (SBMOs) have been of increasing interest to donors because of their potential to deliver services according to the needs of small businesses and in a way that is useful to their members. The following article, based on a survey of SBMOs in Africa and South Asia, reveals that SBMOs often lose this responsiveness as they grow too large and bureaucratic. Donor finance itself has sometimes contributed to this loss of direction. The article outlines the findings of the survey, suggests how donors can identify the most useful SBMOs, and points to ways of supporting them without overwhelming them.

• (Journal Article) Waterpoints

  01.01.1992
  

• (Journal Article) Field report: Sustainable support for food processing SMEs in Uganda

  01.10.2014
  This report describes an approach to support for small and medium food processing enterprises in Uganda that meets many of their identified needs in a financially sustainable way. The components of support provision were: 1) identification of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) needs in specific food sub-sectors; 2) provision of training to SME owners; 3) selection of potential trainers and advisers from among participants and provision of training for local trainers and consultants to provide ongoing support; and 4) creation of an independent, not-for-profit company to coordinate SME support, create linkages with other institutions, and supply equipment, materials, information, training, and consultancy services on a commercial basis. This was intended to enable financial sustainability and long-term support for food processing SMEs.

• (Journal Article) Business development services in Poland - reaching rural areas

  01.09.1999
  For the last five years, a small pilot project has been undertaken in rural Poland to establish groups capable of supporting SME development. Prior to this project, most BDS efforts had been concentrated in the towns, and this project aimed to work with local government in the villages to foster new businesses in the countryside. A feature of its success was that it was built upon the same core principles as those outlined by Gibson (1997). However, it is concluded that the role of local government as an umbrella structure for those entities, and a source of supplementary support, was also a necessary ingredient in that success, within the context of rural Poland.

• (Journal Article) Minimizing the social impacts of dam construction

  01.10.1991
  Dams often have serious ecological and social impacts: in the Saguling case they were indeed very large. But the people adapted and developed fisheries and were able to benefit significantly from the project.

• (Journal Article) Work that water! Hydroponics made easy

  01.04.1999
  This simple system, which builds on the principle of isolating the nutritive solution in which water roots grow from the evaporative effects of the environment, can be invaluable in situations where space is limited and/or soil quality is poor.

• (Journal Article) Crossfire: ‘Does hygiene promotion risk making people feel more ashamed about their poverty and poor living conditions?’

  01.10.2010
  Does hygiene promotion risk making people feel more ashamed about their poverty and poor living conditions? Can stigmatization sometimes work against the public health goal?

• (Journal Article) Assessing high-profile public messaging for sanitation behaviour change: evidence from a mobile phone survey in India

  01.10.2020
  The UN Sustainable Development Goals call for the elimination of open defecation by 2030. Assessing global progress will require learning from India’s sanitation efforts because of its ambitious program of high-profile behavior change messaging to tackle open defecation, and because open defecation is widespread in India. In 2014, the Prime Minister announced a policy called the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), which aimed to eliminate open defecation by 2019. However, the 2015–16 National Family Health Survey –4 found that about 55% of rural and 11% of urban Indian households lack a toilet or latrine. To assess the extent of public awareness of the SBM, we use a mobile phone survey to ask about people’s knowledge of the existence and purpose of the SBM. We report representative estimates of awareness of the SBM among adults in Delhi (2016), Uttar Pradesh (2016), Mumbai (2016–17), Rajasthan (2016–17), Bihar (2018), Jharkhand (2018), and Maharashtra (2018). While much of the SBM’s activities took place in its last two years, we find that, at the time of the survey, no more than one-third of adults in any state are aware that the SBM intends to promote toilet and latrine use. Awareness was particularly low in Uttar Pradesh, where one in eight people who defecates in the open worldwide lives. While the SBM was very active in constructing latrines, the lack of awareness we find suggests that the SBM was less successful in raising the awareness required for large-scale behavior change in promoting latrine use.

• (Journal Article) Books

  01.04.2003
  

• (Journal Article) Tackling the 'frontiers' of microfinance in Kenya: the role for decentralized services

  01.09.2006
  Formal microfinance organizations have difficulty extending their services to remote rural areas in Kenya, as elsewhere in Africa. This article proposes to map the frontiers of microfinance in Kenya based on poverty incidence and population density. It then presents a spectrum of centralized and decentralized models, from banks to MFIs, SACCOs, ASCAs and ROSCAs. The more decentralized models, which involve greater user-ownership and management, have the potential to provide services to poorer people and in rural areas due to inherently lower cost structures and key characteristics of their services, despite many challenges to their long-term effectiveness and sustainability. Five organizations in Kenya that are reaching into rural areas are analysed to explore where the frontiers lie. It concludes by discussing potential strategies for the improvement of decentralized services as the 'bottom up' spike of a two-pronged approach which complements centralized service delivery.

• (Journal Article) Turning the COVID-19 crisis into entrepreneurial success: an exploratory study on women innovators of Pakistan

  01.06.2021
  The COVID-19 pandemic has not only created significant havoc in the world but has also opened doors to new opportunities for women entrepreneurs. The objective of this study is to examine case studies of women entrepreneurs to determine how they have taken advantage of the circumstances offered by COVID-19 to expand their businesses. To gain deeper insights about lived experiences of women entrepreneurs, the study uses semi-structured interviews to identify the strategies women entrepreneurs have adopted during times of social and economic upheaval. The findings indicate that women entrepreneurs responded to this crisis by accessing finance and using their innovative and creative skills to leverage e-commerce, often in the face of economic hardship. This study aims to contribute to policymakers’ and practitioners’ development of appropriate response strategies that focus on strengthening women entrepreneurs in Pakistan.

• (Journal Article) Book Reviews

  01.12.1993
  

• (Journal Article) Building the Thai jumbo water jar using a brick form

  01.10.1984
  

• (Journal Article) Excreta disposal in emergencies: Bag and Peepoo trials with internally displaced people in Port-au-Prince

  01.01.2011
  After a series of earthquakes devastated Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on 12 January 2010, safe excreta disposal became an urgent priority. To mainstream innovative approaches to sanitation within the realities of urban humanitarian response, Oxfam GB undertook a trial from April to May 2010, of standard bag and Peepoo excreta disposal systems in two IDP settlements. Trial results demonstrate that with proper collection and removal, both bags and Peepoos are viable excreta disposal options in emergencies. A reduction was seen in ‘flying toilets’, open defecation and user reports on diarrhoea in both settlements. For in-home use, the Peepoo was preferred over bags, 84 per cent to 55 per cent (χ2 = 6.15, p=0.013) based on its ability to contain odour. Key programmatic recommendations include contingency planning for disaster-prone areas and further analysis of cost effectiveness and phase-out points for bag excreta disposal systems. Additionally, the Peepoo size should be adjusted to be more widely applicable in diverse emergency settings.

• (Journal Article) Review

  01.04.2014
  Review of The Hydro-politics of Dams: Engineering or Ecosystems? by Mark Everard

• (Journal Article) Waterpoints

  01.07.1983
  

• (Journal Article) Waste stabilization pond design: some myths behind the science

  01.04.1985