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The challenge for foresters, and other rural development professionals, is to build new landscapes which provide a range of biomass products to local users. This book will contribute to that task by helping professionals to see new opportunities by working through, not against, the local people.

Candlemaking for Profit covers the various materials and methods used in candlemaking. It includes step-by-step illustrations to explain methods appropriate for small-scale production. It advises on different wax types, wicks, dyes and scents and gives advice on dealing with material suppliers.

The Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December 2004 devastated the coastline in Aceh province on the northern tip of Indonesia leaving 167,000 people dead and over half a million people without homes. This resulted in an unprecedented humanitarian response. Over the next three years the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Member Agencies collectively constructed almost 20,000 houses in Aceh, in addition to numerous schools and health centres. In ''Lessons from Aceh'' their experiences are used as a case study to illustrate the practical realities of delivering a successful programme and the range of issues that need to be considered; highlighting best and worst practice whilst recognizing that there is validity in different approaches within the same response. ''Lessons from Aceh'' is targeted at senior managers, decision-makers and programme advisers to help them make informed decisions, manage expectations and reduce risk in future responses. It will also be of interest to built environment professionals, researchers or policy makers. An important theme throughout is the way in which reconstruction can act as a catalyst to recovery, contribute to long-term development and reduce vulnerability to future disasters. In Aceh, the most successful reconstruction programmes have left a legacy that is much more than just bricks and mortar.

Commercial and Inclusive Value Chains includes case studies on fifteen profitable and inclusive value chains from different countries in Western, Eastern and North Eastern Africa, and from India, Cambodia, Peru.

Commercial and Inclusive Value Chains includes case studies on fifteen profitable and inclusive value chains from different countries in Western, Eastern and North Eastern Africa, and from India, Cambodia, Peru.

What assistance do disaster-affected communities need? This book guides humanitarian field staff in answering this vital question during the early days and weeks following a disaster, when timely and competent assessment is crucial for enabling informed decision making. Needs assessment is essential for programme planning, monitoring and evaluation. In an emergency response, however, a quick and simple approach to needs assessment may be the only practical possibility - in other words, it needs to be 'good enough'. This guide does not explain every activity needed to carry out an assessment, but it describes the assessment process, and provides a step-by-step guide through the process. It also contains a number of tools and resources that may be helpful when planning or carrying out humanitarian needs assessments. This guide is essential reading for field staff carrying out assessments after a humanitarian crisis; it should also be read by humanitarian policy makers, students, lecturers and researchers.

Based on a three-year project in Kenya, this booklet examines the key features in understanding the development of participatory urban planning strategies and approaches that will assist in safeguarding of the position of poor and vulnerable.

This revised edition of a classic text re-emphasizes the importance of agroecology as the discipline that provides the basic ecological principles of how to study, design and manage agroecosystems

Women Feeding Cities analyses the roles of women and men in urban food production and is essential reading for policy makers, planners, researchers and practitioners working on urban agriculture programmes.

Writing from diverse locations, contributors critically examine some of the key terms in current development discourse. The reflections included here raise major questions about how we think about development itself.

This handbook provides practical guidelines for evaluating water and sanitation related hygiene practices for the purposes of project planning, monitoring or impact assessment. The main focus, therefore, is on the practical concerns of field personnel working in water supply, sanitation, and health / hygiene education projects.

This book is the first attempt to examine 'what works for the poorest' and analyses innovative ultra-poor programmes from around the world and explores the lessons that emerge from this important body of knowledge. It should be read by staff of donor agencies and NGOs, students of development studies who are concerned about chronic poverty.

This book is essential reading for agribusiness leaders and technical staff, bankers and cooperative leaders working in agriculture, NGO and microfinance development practitioners, researchers and policy makers. Published in association with FAO.

This book examines strategies of engagement employed by women working to transform the bureaucratic structures of state organizations, multilateral institutions and NGOs to make them more gender-equitable. It is aimed at feminists working within state or civil society institutions - with the aim of promoting women's concerns.

The jiko, a charcoal-burning stove consisting of a ceramic liner fitted inside a metal case, burns 25 to 40 per cent less charcoal than the traditional stoves on which its design was based. This book provides guidance on its production and promotion.

This book provides examples of toilets that provide a safe sanitation option and recycle nutrients in excreta to produce compost. The designs are suitable for regions where there is no high water table or prolonged wet season with instructions for constructing toilets, from the simplest, most affordable to the more sophisticated ecological toilet.

Confronts the paradox of mass poverty coexisting with vast resource potentials in rural India, such as the potentials from groundwater and trees, previously underestimated. Combines empirical research with practical political economy.

Traditionally the primary function of NGOs has been to mitigate the effects of war; providing humanitarian aid and protection on the peripheries of violent conflict. Recently there has been an increased focus on the impact of humanitarian aid in general, and to a lesser extent on the impact of aid on conflict and peace dynamics.

People's Participation draws on the 165 papers discussed at the 1997 World Congress of Participative Convergence in Knowledge, Space and Time, to present the most significant themes arising from this important event. The book looks at the social, political, economic and cultural movements at the heart of Participative Research - where knowledge, space and time are seen as the principal tools for change for the advancement of peoples. It has been published to promote the ongoing discussion amongst economists, politicians, scholars, NGO workers, policymakers, engineers, scientists, social scientists and all those with a deep interest or involvement with Participatory Approaches and methodologies.

This book traces the development of Ghana's informal engineering sector through stories of the progress of the actual people involved. The first generation of grassroots engineers are wayside vehicle mechanics, or 'fitters', engaged in repairing machinery.

Learning from others in the form of fusion and adaptation of existing tools and approaches is very much part of evolving new participatory methods. This book discusses a wide and rich range of participatory methods, focussing on Reflect and the Internal Learning System (ILS). In the second part of the book, the authors reflect on what enables and constrains creativity, adaptation, and innovation, using examples of many different methodologies to illustrate their discussions.These reflections come from two broad perspectives: from innovators who have all worked principally as independent development consultants and advisors, and from researchers. These two common positions in the world of development and aid give rise to different challenges in creating and using participatory methodologies.

This is a guide to the use of induction motors for electricity generation in remote locations. It is written as a practical handbook for engineers and technicians involved in designing and installing small water-power schemes for isolated houses and communities.

Local crop diversity in the South is being threatened by the promotion of modern 'high-yield' varieties. These worldwide case studies show the importance of small-scale farmers and local communities to maintaining crop diversity.

This book contains both justification and inspiration for Design and Technology teachers wishing to introduce sustainable design into their lessons. The authors introduce the big issues, link climate change and poverty to sustainable design, and encourage us all to develop as active citizens taking on our environmental responsibilities.