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(Book) Living on Little
Living on Little illuminates the many deep and overlooked ways that scarcity shapes the lives of ordinary Kenyans. Drawing on four years of systematic research with nearly 300 low-income families, this book offers readers a new and intimate perspective on poverty. Living on very little money doe...
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(Book) Bio-sand Water Filters
This brief focuses on bio-sand water filters, which use sand and gravel to partly clean water with a simple approach.
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(Book) Understanding Equid Welfare Issues
A comprehensive technical guide to understanding and dealing with equid welfare and health issues from The Brooke
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(Book) Quality Assurance Guidelines for Building Construction
This document is intended to assist building workers (carpenters, masons etc…) in maintaining reliable standards in carrying out their respective work on a construction site.
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(Book) Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action Arabic
The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, Save the Children
The 2019 edition of the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPMS) is a ‘one-stop shop’ for all the latest resources on child protection. The CPMS aims to strengthen quality and accountability in child protection programming and improve multi-sectoral approaches to children...
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(Book) Slow Sand-Filtration Water Treatment Plants
Slow sand-filtration systems are a technically viable water treatment solution.
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(Book) Self-Supply
Sally Sutton, John Butterworth
While governments and development partners focus on improving community and utility-managed water supplies to ensure access for all, hundreds of millions of people are taking actions to supply their own water. In the WASH sector household investment in construction and improvement of facilities is w...
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(Book) Le nexus énergie-eau-alimentation à des échelles décentralisées
Ce document s’appuie sur l’expérience de Practical Action en matière de programmes de microcentrales hydroélectriques et vise à établir un lien entre les débats mondiaux sur le nexus (liens) et les solutions et expériences des communautés isolées hors réseau et des petits exploitants agricoles. Par...
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(Book) Poor People's Energy Outlook 2017
Energy access sits at the heart of sustainable development, enabling progress in health, education and women’s empowerment, among other things. Recognizing this, the global community committed to a dedicated energy access goal in the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. To achieve this, investmen...
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(Book) Gender Mainstreaming in Energy Projects
This manual provides implementers with technical information on how to install an efficient pico hydro unit with community participation (including that of women in the community who benefit the most from this technology). It further helps practitioners made aware of how best to harness strengths of...
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(Book) From south-south comparative research to policy impact
The Evidence and Lessons from Latin America (ELLA) programme promotes evidence-informed policymaking, by facilitating South-South research, exchange and learning on economic, social, governance and environmental issues.
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(Book) 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.
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(Book) Design, fabrication and testing of a millet thresher
A thresher was developed for threshing, separating, and cleaning millet seeds. The major components of the machine include threshing, separation and cleaning units.
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(Book) Clay Tile Manufacture
A guide to clay tile manufacture, covering tools, factory siting, operations, budgeting and financing the project.
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(Journal Article) Exploring the complex relationships between food loss and waste, climate change, and the environment to support informed sustainable food system transformation decisions with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa
01.12.2022
Food loss and waste (FLW) reduction is key to transforming food systems to deliver food security, while responding to climate change and reducing other environmental impacts. Food production and postharvest systems differ with location, reflecting the diversity of agroecological and socio-economic environments and the drivers influencing them. The interactions between drivers and environments, practices and products influence food systems and their greenhouse gas emissions and other related environmental impacts. These factors also influence the level of food loss during or after harvest, or food waste at retail or consumer level. This think-piece examines the relationships between climatic change, the environment, and FLW within a broader food systems framework. We use the case study of maize in Malawi to explore these relationships. This analysis unpacks the issues and suggests an approach for supporting decision-makers in making a more informed assessment of how to reduce FLW, taking into account the complexity of food systems, their multiple drivers of change, diverse stakeholder interests/influence, and the need to operate with very incomplete knowledge. -
(Journal Article) Greater Rural Opportunities for Women (GROW): A multifaceted approach to poverty alleviation at scale
01.06.2022
How did the Greater Rural Opportunities for Women (GROW) project reach over 23,000 smallholder farmers in northern Ghana and achieve impact? This case study describes the project’s multifaceted approach to poverty reduction, which combined adaptive management and a comprehensive communications strategy to work toward poverty alleviation at scale. With an initial focus primarily on improved nutrition and food security, the project evolved to include a greater emphasis on women’s economic empowerment and leadership. Group formation was an important strategy for providing services at scale, including increased access to market linkages, agronomic information and practices, and financial services. -
(Journal Article) Strengthening behaviour change communication in western Nepal: how can we do better?
01.10.2015
The Government of Nepal aims to achieve full water and sanitation coverage by 2017. The bilateral Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project in Western Nepal (RWSSP-WN) works with local governments in 14 districts, aiming to declare them open defecation free. This behaviour change communications evaluation explored how to improve RWSSP-WN’s present practices to reach the diverse target population in the Terai districts, where more than 1 million people still defecate in the open. The study reviewed RWSSP-WN’s present behaviour change triggering tools and related communications strategies. Our findings suggest that availability of subsidies seems to change how people think about sanitation and tends to eliminate willingness to pay for a latrine. We recommended strong advocacy for a no-subsidy policy, and more attention paid to alternative financing options with targeted support to the poorest of the poor. The present behaviour change triggering tools do work as intended, but there is a need to develop pre-triggering and post-triggering strategies to increase the overall impact. The pre-triggering strategy would ensure that potential barriers to change are identified and addressed before the actual triggering event, and that the key stakeholders are prepared for the actual triggering event. The post-triggering strategy is needed to continue motivating households to change via messages that tap into the drivers of change, addressing also the barriers which may keep each household from changing behaviour. This paper provides a number of recommendations applicable for those working with local governments and communities to increase the scope and scale of behaviour change triggering. -
(Journal Article) Assessing emotional motivators for handwashing with soap in emergencies: results from three Asian countries
01.01.2019
This paper examines how emotional motivators can be used to promote handwashing with soap (HWWS) among mothers affected by an emergency. The impact of using emotional motivators along with other behaviour determinants for behaviour change in development settings has been well documented; however there is limited evidence for the use of motives for HWWS in emergency contexts. Oxfam, in partnership with Unilever’s Lifebuoy soap and Unilever’s Chief Sustainability Office (CSO), collected data in three countries affected by crises – Nepal (2015), Pakistan (2014), and the Philippines (2015) – to determine motivating factors and barriers around HWWS among mothers. Methods used for the assessment included household survey, structured observation, key informant interview, focus group discussion, and behavioural trials. Post-emergency handwashing knowledge and practice was also measured along with the most effective communication channels to reach the target group. The findings reveal that all mothers were motivated by affiliation and nurture; additionally, in Nepal and Pakistan mothers were motivated by purity and mothers in the Philippines were motivated by handwashing drivers related to shame. Barriers to HWWS in emergencies relate to socio-cultural beliefs and the absence of handwashing hardware. -
(Journal Article) Improving management of manually emptied pit latrine waste in Nairobi’s urban informal settlements
01.01.2022
Sanergy has offered reliable, non-sewered sanitation services in Nairobi, Kenya through the implementation of container-based, urine-diverting dry toilets. However, there remains a large volume of untreated faecal waste in urban informal settlements due to poorly managed pit latrines. With limited space in the settlements to bury old pits and dig new ones, management of faecal sludge requires manual pit emptying and safe discharge. Sanergy piloted the Mtaa Fresh project in the settlement of Mukuru Kwa Njenga, establishing a waste transfer station where manual pit emptiers could safely and reliably dispose of pit latrine contents. The most important factors in the successful implementation of this station were, first, the relationship established between Sanergy and the pit emptiers and, second, Sanergy’s commitment to iterating as new insights emerged. The relationship with the emptiers impacted the location, design, and adoption of the site, and aided in the formalization of a pit emptiers’ community-based organization. The commitment to iterating enabled Sanergy to respond to learnings gained from the emptiers. Additional factors that ensured the success of Mtaa Fresh included the implementation of full-time staff, security when the site is closed, support from local authorities, and an expansion to improve management of faecal sludge and trash. Improvements trialled during the expansion aim to minimize operation and maintenance costs, but sustainability will still rely on government support and external funding. -
(Journal Article) Why do some behaviours change more easily than others? Water-use behaviour interventions in rural Nepal
01.10.2015
Water-sector development is inevitably based on changes in people’s behaviour. We analyse why some types of domestic water-use behaviours change more easily than others. Our case study is a water supply and sanitation intervention in remote and rural Nepal. We found that collective opportunities, degree of individual freedom, and individual incentives influenced the ease of the promoted behaviour changes. The enhanced individual opportunities, incentives, and collective tolerance enabled behaviour changes that were regarded as beneficial by the people themselves, whereas the existing social traditions in our case-study context often restricted those changes. Often, the individual agency and the collective traditions confronted one another. We suggest that this study can provide a design for predicting possible opportunities and challenges regarding behaviour changes in field operations, and for enhancing joint operation of individual and collective capabilities at local levels in the development intervention context.