Sara-Jane Brown from our communication team in the UK is visiting Practical Action’s projects with poor communities in Peru. Follow the third installment of her blog as she arrives in Tarapoto:

Take a sip.

Ever thought where, when and how your coffee is produced? Well, perhaps it was grown by farmers in Peru – one of the world’s largest exporters of organic coffee.

Today, we are travelling up to Northern Peru, to an area called Tarapoto which sits on the edge of the Amazon basin.

Here, Practical Action is working with local people to help them preserve their forests and profit from them.

Where, in recent years, families have supported themselves through the mass logging of trees (in effect, sacrificing their future to survive in the short-term), now we are enabling local women and men to make a living growing high-quality coffee within the fertile land of the rainforest.

Crucially, they can also make more profit from their hard work  – by coming together to sell it for good, fair and high prices.

Now, that tastes much better doesn’t it?

Helen Marsh

Sara-Jane Brown from our communications team in the UK is making her first trip to see Practical Action’s projects. Follow her blog across Peru and Bolivia:

This morning, waking up for the first time in Lima, I started to play the ‘word association game’ with Peru, my home for the next two weeks.

In a straw poll of 100 people, I’m fairly certain that ‘Paddington Bear’ would rank highly (you remember,”if found, please return to deepest, darkest Peru …”), but I’m less sure that ‘poverty’ would feature.

In fact, in some circles, it would be Peru’s economic growth that would be commented on; in 2008, Peru was one of the fastest growing countries in the world and is often referred to as the ‘jaguar’ of Latin America (after Chile), as a result of 10 years of consecutive growth.

But, those kind of stats disguise the real Peru, one where 54 per cent of families live in poverty, where half the population is made up of indigenous ‘campesinos’ (peasants).

It’s that Peru that I’m hoping to learn more about in the coming days, travelling across the country with my colleague, Sara-Jane Brown, to meet communities who are working with Practical Action to change their lives.

Come join me on that journey … (as long as the wi-fi holds up!)

Helen Marsh
Research Officer

Do young people care about climate change or even know what it is?
Some people are concerned that they don’t but that wasn’t what I experienced at the Big Bang Fair in Manchester today. 

Thousands of school children from all over the country attended the first day of the event and many took part in the Science Council’s activity where they were asked to write a postcard to the Prime Minister describing what they think about climate change.  The responses will be collated, drafted into a report on Young Peoples Attitudes to Climate Change and sent to No.10 Downing Street.

 Responses included:

Dear Prime Minister
I think climate change

….………….is affecting each and every one of us.  From all the statistics the situation is getting worse.  I hope it won’t be as bad as they say it’s going to be.
Elaine, age 14, Cheltenham Ladies College

…………..is getting out of hand and you should do something about it!
Rabiaca, age 13,   Ali-Islah

………….is something we all need to focus on and do something about.  Instead of just complaining about it let’s make a difference!
Hattie Codfrey, age 14, C & C

………….is destroying our world.  It may cause an ice age. If we don’t act fast our world will be no more.
Sultan Munshi, age 12, Pleckgate

What surprised me was not how important they thought climate change was, but how excited they were that the Prime Minister would care what they thought!

To find out what Practical Action are doing to help communities in developing countries adapt to climate change go to
http://www.practicalaction.org.uk/our-work/ourwork_climatechange

To look at our educational resources on climate change go to http://www.practicalaction.org.uk/education/climate_change

10th March, 2010, WEDC, Loughborough University

They are all dressed-up. Some will be acting as the city mayor, some as slum dwellers and some as international investors. We are facilitating a role-play, based on some realities in the context of services and infrastructure for low income countries. This is a three-act play, arranged as three meetings between different actors in development. Slum dwellers are concerned about the poor environmental situation in their areas, municipal officers will be listening to the problems, the mayor is listening to all the parties, consultants and investors are bringing out options. All the young professionals have been preparing their dialogues, which needs to be in-depth, but also funny and lively. Role-playing is great fun but also a very effective way of learning. They did it very well and I remember a lot of sentences from the role-play. But my favourite one was “… could I see you after the meeting…”, a government officer asked a waste collection contractor.

Practical Action support debate and discussions among young professionals and in one of our international objectives we are addressing good governance in the context of infrastructure services. Poor governance, corruption and lack of collective decision-making in the choices of technologies and systems is a major cause of poverty, and infrastructure and services financing and related contracts are one of the most common contexts in which corruption takes place. We are working with a number of other NGOs in a BOND group on Governance to advocate and influence policies and practices.

Internationally-known courses at WEDC not only educate and train young professionals but also promote good professional values, leadership and passion. Young professionals on the course picked up very well many real difficulties of development, including corruption – hence this ‘special meeting’ after the official meeting was highlighted in their role play dialogues.

For further information on our Governance objective and our work with young professional in infrastructure services, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Mansoor Ali
Practical Action, UK

5th March, Knowledge Sharing Suite, University of Bristol

It’s already 1 o’clock in the afternoon. We were supposed to finish by 12:30. No students group is ready to give-up. Questions and comments are being fired upon each other. They find the debate very interesting. The question under discussion, is ‘whether supporting small scale technologies and systems is the way forward to provide services, such as waste collection, water and sanitation or we need to start from the large scale reforms, for example working directly with governments, build large infrastructure etc’. As the facilitator, I am trying my best to conclude the discussion with few key questions. They would like to discuss more and more. Finally, some questions emerged;

Supporters of Large Scale Technologies and Systems:

1. Considering the scale and urgency of the problem, are we sure that supporting just small scale initiatives, will deliver the results?
2. Whether supporting small scale initiatives wall will take care of the needs of all diverse target groups in the most efficient way?

Supporters of Small Scale Technologies and Systems:

1. Whether large scale programmes are really targeting the real problems or just imposing the external solutions? and promoting international industries only?
2. Whether large scale programmes will ultimately reduce poverty?

I said, Ok! … this is great – you got some really good questions – thank you, as I left the class, being a more ‘mature professional’, I checked my lunch vouchers, in my front shirt pocket – it was still there. While students were still discussing and debating, perhaps not even interested in lunches or vouchers – feeling hungry for knowledge and more understanding. With such energies among young professionals, the future of pro-poor technologies is bright – no doubt.

Practical Action facilitates regular debates and discussions among young professionals on issues concerned with technologies and systems for sustainable development and poverty reduction. This blog is based on one such event in Bristol. Participants are attending a course designed for developing countries, and supported by The Chartered Institute of Environmental Management (CIWEM).

Mansoor Ali
Practical Action, UK

I’ve been rushed off my feet at the UK Education Show this week. Primary and secondary teachers have been really keen to find out more about our great education resources and Practical Action’s work.  Over 800 have joined our schools list and signed up to our e-newsletter so they can find out more about us.

“I don’t think children really understand how climate change affects  poor people in other countries and that it’s not them that’s causing it,” said one teacher to me. “I’m definitely going to have a look at your website to see what resources you’ve got that I can use with my class to help them understand climate change better.”

“Thank you so much, this is brilliant. I’m really glad I came now, I will do this with my year 4 class in science week next week,” said Victoria Meir, a Primary school teacher from Suffolk, when she saw the wind power challenge activity.

So all in all a really successful three days. Just all that follow up work to do now!!

If you would like to see what the teachers got so excited about please go to  www.practicalaction.org.uk/education

My first trip away with Practical Action, to East Africa, has been with a focus on our energy work, and it’s already been quite an eye-opener to the challenges and opportunities for our organisation in the region. 

Practical Action is aiming to develop energy sources that can meet the needs of the very poor, while being affordable and without depleting the already stretched energy resources.  Soon after I arrived at the Nairobi office, located in a building shared with the YMCA of Africa, I was involved in the development of an energy strategy to look at the projects planned for 2010. 

This includes both on the ground projects to develop ethanol from sugar cane residues, new cook stoves that are efficient and reduce the health related problems of smoke inhalation, and work on developing better policies with regional governments that can tackle poverty reduction while addressing the impacts of climate change and deforestation. 

The various meetings included energy experts from Zimbabwe, Hawaii, UK, Sri Lanka, Nepal as well as Kenya, working very closely together to try and develop a strong strategy.

Although it’s been hard work trying to gain a better understanding of the numerous challenges that need to be overcome, including corruption, nepotism, the harsh environmental conditions many of the poor people in the region live in, its also been hugely inspiring. 

Whilst at the Kenyan office I was lucky to be a part of a moving farewell for a colleague who’s just completed a project in the Kiburu slums in Nairobi.  It was moving to hear the passion of her colleagues praising her tireless commitment to Practical Action’s work and wishing her well in her future career.  At the same time interviews were taking place for a new manager for the consultancy arm of the Kenyan office, who will have the responsibility of leading the small team to take the work of Practical Action to other countries in the region including Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

Today I’m travelling overland to Arusha in Tanzania with colleagues from Sri Lanka and Kenya to attend a 3-day meeting on the 5-year Pisces project to improve policy in East Africa and south Asia on sustainable biomass use.  Practical Action is working with organisations in the UK, Tanzania and India to develop vital research which can help decision makers in the two regions to make more informed decisions on using their local resources to sustainably reduce poverty, provide employment and allow people to both adapt to the challenges of climate change whilst mitigating emissions.  The trip will include an update on the work going on in the four countries as well as visits to projects currently being implemented in Tanzania, which I’m looking forward to very much. 

Ewan Bloomfield

Practical Action Consulting

Last Tuesday together with Joseph Nunns our new initiatives executive I attended the DEA launch of the Global Learning Charter at a reception in parliament.  A number of parliamentarians were there from across the political spectrum including Malcolm Bruce MP and former education secretary Charles Clarke MP.  Signatories to the charter include individuals, schools, NGOs, institutions, trade unions, local authorities and Universities, all committing to support UK citizens to learn about global issues.

I’m the one in red by the way!

If you or your organisation would like to join Practical Action and the other 200+ signatories by signing up to the charter please follow the link below:

DEA Global Learning Charter