Practical Action 1775 views

ABOUT US 

We are an international development organisation putting ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world. 

 We do things differently, so answers that start small can grow big – bringing people together in bold collaborations, combining knowledge and innovation to help shape a world that works better for everyone. 

 We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. We work with communities to develop ingenious, lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste management, climate resilience and clean energy. And we share what works with others, so answers that start small can grow big. 

 We’re a global change-making group. The group consists of a UK registered charity with community projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, an independent development publishing company and a technical consulting service. We combine these specialisms to multiply our impact and help shape a world that works better for everyone.

OUR AIMS 

We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems, made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. Our aims are to: 

• Make agriculture work better for smallholder farmers, many of them women, so they can adapt to climate change and achieve a good standard of living

• Help more people harness the transformational effects of clean affordable energy and reduce avoidable deaths caused by smoke from indoor stoves and fires. 

• Make cities in poorer countries cleaner, healthier places to live and work. 

• Build disaster resilience into the lives of people threatened by hazards – reducing the risk of hazards and minimising their impact on lives and livelihoods. 

HOW WE WORK 

We work on holistic solutions that change systems and have a framework to help us achieve our aims:

 • Analyse the root causes of a poverty and vulnerability 

 • Define the change at scale we need to make

 • Develop activities along three complementary paths: Demonstrate, Learn and Inspire 

• Demonstrate that our solutions are sustainable in the real world

 • Learn by capturing evidence and adapting our approach • Inspire wider support to multiply our impact.

 OUR ORGANISATION 

Practical Action is an unconventional, multi-disciplinary, change-making organisation

 • A highly innovative community development charity operating in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Practical Action community projects use ingenious ideas to design, test, refine and prove new ways to overcome poverty and disadvantage and then ‘open-source’ knowledge of what works so that it can be implemented at a greater scale by others. • A world-class consulting operation that helps socially responsible business, government policy makers and other development organisations. This draws on learnings from our own development work as well as the combined brainpower of a roster of over 2,000 expert consultants. Practical Action Consulting helps to extend the reach of our influence by providing the best advice to others, whose work can make a bigger difference. 

 • A well respected specialist development publisher. Practical Action Publishing brings together development practitioners, researchers and thought leaders to create publications that stimulate discussion, strengthen peoples’ capabilities and inspire sustainable change.