Practical Action

Practical Action is an international development agency working with poor communities to help them choose and use technology to improve their lives for today and generations to come.

Their work in Africa, Asia and Latin America is in partnership with poor people and their communities, building on their own knowledge and skills to come up with innovation, sustainable and practical solutions. Their work is people focused, locally relevant, environmentally sensitive and offers tangible ways out to poverty. Through their work they demonstrate alternatives, share knowledge and influence change.

Practical Action was founded in 1966 by the radical economist EF Schumacher, author of ‘Small is Beautiful’, and has built up a reputation as a respected organisation that leads the sector on issues of technology and poverty reduction.

Practical Action has locally-staffed offices and full-scale regional programmes in East and Southern Africa, Latin America and South Asia, and country programmes in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sudan.

Practical Action aims to help eradicate poverty in developing countries by developing and using technologies, and by demonstrating results, sharing knowledge and influencing others. To achieve this, Practical Action focuses its efforts, skills and resources around four themes: reducing vulnerability, making markets work for poor people, improving access to infrastructure services (such as energy and shelter), and responding to new technologies.