Practical Action Publishing: 82 books

As the number of people affected by disasters has risen, so have the expectations placed on humanitarian agencies by donors, the public and the affected populations themselves. Agencies must now provide evidence of impact of their interventions. But applying conventional evaluation methods can pose problems....

Seen as a successful ‘emerging economy’, Brazil walks tall on the world stage and its voice is growing louder. Its success, celebrated in the 2014 Football World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, is attracting millions of foreign tourists. Yet Brazil also faces huge challenges: to combine economic...

Why is it that so many organizations, seeking to do good in the world, miss opportunities to do so – and indeed sometimes exacerbate the very problem they seek to address? The Business of Doing Good reveals six insights for microfinance and other social purpose organizations using the marketplace to...

This new edition of From Poverty to Power has been fully revised and now includes a new chapter with an in-depth analysis of the human impact of the global financial and food crises. From Poverty to Power argues that a radical redistribution of power, opportunities, and assets rather than traditional...

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...

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...

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 different...

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 range...

In spite of the current wave of globalization, the majority of the world’s people remain poor, excluded from economic development. The aim of this book is to show that disadvantaged smallholders and other poor people can be included in modern integrated value chains, which are profitable for them,...

Food Regimes and Agrarian Questions extends the original conception of the food regime, formulated by Harriet Friedmann and Philip McMichael, detailing new dimensions of the succession of imperial, intensive and corporate food regimes. Developing the methodological contributions of food regime analysis,...

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...

Local people can generate their own numbers and the statistics that result are powerful for themselves and can influence policy. Development practitioners are supporting and facilitating participatory statistics from community-level planning right up to sector and national-level policy processes....

Understanding and demonstrating the effectiveness of efforts to improve the lives of those living in poverty is an essential part of international development practice. But who decides what counts as good or credible evidence? Can the drive to measure results do justice to and promote transformational...

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 services,...