As of today more than 20 million people are reported to be displaced by the floods in Pakistan. International and national efforts are reaching no more than 2 million people of those who were displaced. So, how are the remaining 18 million people being looked after? Practical Action, in our climate adaptation advocacy work, emphasise [...]

Monday 16th August 2010 would have been the 99th birthday of Practical Action’s founder, Fritz Schumacher. As the start of the build-up to his centenary next year, we celebrated his birthday here at Bourton Hall (Practical Action’s UK head office) and all are very impressed the way all the planned activities took place. The cyclists arrived, [...]

The Practical Action offices are buzzing this morning as we finalise preparations for the launch of our founder E.F. Schumacher’s centenary year. Today would have been Schumacher’s 100th Birthday and we have lots of exciting things happening at Bourton Hall to mark the occasion…  I can’t say too much yet but we have a number of [...]

More than 12 million people are now displaced by record-breaking floods in Pakistan, which is more than the total population of London. This is also almost 10% of the country’s entire population. Pakistan’s agriculture is very much dependent on rivers, which flow from north to south. Those who live along these rivers are poor agriculture workers. [...]

On Saturday I went to a festival in  Bruton, Somerset – Farmfest. I am not a festival goer but this one was almost on my doorstep (though I work at Practical Action, my main home is in Wiltshire), and more importantly – all its profits will be given to Practical Action! I found out about it [...]

Here I am at the third set of climate change negotiations in Bonn, and, cautiously, people are talking about forward movement at least in some key areas. All the discussions between governments are now in closed sessions, so the only intelligence is from delegates willing to be open about what’s going on. This meeting is smaller, [...]

Following my visit to Practical Action’s Kenya office, I travelled overland from Nairobi to Arusha in Tanzania, with 2 colleagues from Kenya and Sri Lanka. We got a first hard view of the extensive major road works being undertaken between the two countries, which turned the 250 km journey into a 7 hour journey, as [...]

It is positive to see that a discussion between Bill Gates and Nick Glegg is taking place about International Development. Results, outputs and impacts are all very important for international development and this is what many tax payers and development practitioners would like to see. The statement and example by Bill Gates is therefore very [...]

“Wheels have been set in motion, and they have their own pace, to which we are … condemned.”  I really like the above quote.  It comes from probably my favourite play:  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard.  It popped into my head as appropriate for my last post here at Practical Action, and I [...]

I was definitely the newbie at the Small Is  Festival last year.  I had started working for  Practical Action just four days before the big event and had no idea what to expect.  It turned out to be a great insight as to what my life as a member of staff here would be like.  [...]

I’m the work experience boy – that is my rank, my position in the office hierarchy, I am on the bottom rung of the ladder.  OK, I knew this when I came; I’m 19, only half way through my degree and have no experience.  The very fact that I’ve been permitted to write this blog [...]

In this guest post Katee Hui, who’s the Social site editor at Green Thing, shares some great energy ideas. Green Thing is a not-for-profit public service that inspires people to lead a greener life. With the help of brilliant videos and inspiring stories from creative people and community members around the world, Green Thing focuses on seven [...]

Tonight, as families in the high Andes go to sleep, temperatures will plummet, to as low as -24c. But they can’t turn up the heating, switch on the electric blanket or boil the kettle for a hot water bottle. Here, communities live without access to basic services. As the climate in the Andes is changing, families are [...]

When rumours of a $100 laptop circulated back in 2005 great excitement was generated.   Yet if we now measure success against the targets that were set, the endevour has fallen short in a number of key respects.   When Nicolas Negroponte revealed the idea in January 2005 he estimated that 150 million would be shipped by 2007.   [...]

The Small Is… Festival (as a quick glance at the website will tell you) is a celebration of the ideas and philosophy of EF Schumacher, Practical Action’s founder and inspiration.  Practical Action is not the only organisation to have emanated from Schumacher’s ‘Small Is Beautiful’, count the Schumacher Institute and Society too.  But what has made his philosophy so [...]

My three months spent as an intern with Practical Action – working with the Markets and Livelihoods team  - have gone quickly, as expected, but there has still been plenty enough time to learn a lot and meet many interesting people.  I came here without much of a clue on market systems, but with a long-held desire [...]

So hello there, my names Louis and I’m volunteering for a couple of weeks here at Practical Action.  I’m going to be communicating the progress and promoting the greatness of the forthcoming Small Is… Festival – returning for a sequel after a triumphant first year. I only arrived yesterday with a hazy (at best) idea of [...]

When my daughter was young she had a book in which a bright yellow toilet came to life and started terrorising people – quite mad and not too suitable! I was thinking that here at Practical Action we should create a book or maybe a video about a killer cooker that preys on people who are [...]

I want to share with you a snippet from a keynote speech at a conference I attended yesterday at Southbank University, delivered by Professor David Hicks from Bath University. As part of his speech ‘Educating for optimism and hope in troubled times’ he talked about the importance of enabling students to envisage a positive or [...]

It’s difficult to believe that the devastating earthquake in Haiti was just a mere six months ago. It’s even more difficult to believe that not much has changed in that six months with people still homeless and living in poverty, and the Haitian Government yet to publish, let alone execute a plan for reconstructing areas [...]