Joint message from the Chair and CEO

Practical Action is an inspirational organisation, and we are honoured to be part of it. 2010/11 has been an exceptional year. To share just a few examples from our work:

• We have achieved our five-year goal of directly helping three million people by 2012, one year ahead of target.
• Our knowledge sharing service Practical Answers reached out during the year to more than two million people and we now have more than 60,000 development practitioners around the world actively using our information and technical enquiry service.
• We have grown our reputation and influence in the energy sector, giving us significant opportunities to raise at the highest level the issue of the three billion people lacking access to decent energy.
• Our subsidiary company, Practical Action Consulting, worked in Rwanda with AJDR Co-operative helping street kids and unemployed young people earn an income by making fuel efficient charcoal burning stoves from scrap metal. 16,000 stoves have been sold in the past four years. AJDR were shortlisted for one of this year’s prestigious Ashden Awards for this work.
• Achyut Luitel, our country director in Nepal, was honoured to receive on behalf of Practical Action the ‘Jose Entrecanales Ibarra’ award presented by the King of Spain. This award recognised a global standard of excellence for the design of gravity ropeways as ‘civil engineering that benefits society’s progress, wellbeing and security’.

These achievements are particularly robust in the face of challenging political and economic environments. In the past year, the commitment of our supporters and donors to our work has increased our income by 21% to £27 million. This has enabled us to deliver planned new innovative projects and increase the scale and impact of our work.

We are also delighted to have been awarded a substantial Programme Partnership Arrangements (PPA) grant by the Government – a vote of confidence in our continuing work in poverty alleviation.

Technology is increasingly central to our world, yet the idea of appropriate technology as a foundation for sustainable poverty reduction remains alien to many people. Our vision is of a sustainable world free from poverty and injustice in which technology is used for the benefit of all. We are committed to working with others to deliver technology justice, thus bringing about real and lasting change. We look forward to the challenges in the year ahead with a continued passion for delivery and effective poverty reduction.

And finally, we would like to express our pride in the worldwide Practical Action team, our gratitude to our partners, supporters, friends and most of all to the people we work with. Thank you!

Stephen Watson (Chair)
Simon Trace (Chief Executive Officer)

Download Reporting Back: Annual Report & Accounts 2010-11 (PDF, 4Mb)

In 2010-11 Practical Action had an income of just over £27.4 million. Of this, 38% was raised from voluntary donations by individuals or by small family trusts and companies.

A further 55% came from grants made by the UK and other governments for development assistance, by multilateral development agencies such as the World Bank, and by other large funders such as international trusts, and 7% came from the income of Practical Action's publishing and consultancy subsidiaries.
How is the money spent?

Practical Action spent £26.7 million in 2010-11. The majority of spending, 83%, was directly on our programmes round the world. 6% of expenditure was on the operations of the subsidiaries, and 10% was reinvested in further fundraising. Only 1% of expenditure was on management and administration (calculated by UK Charity Commission-regulated norms).