Mansoor Ali
Mansoor Ali works with Practical Action and has 26 years of experience in basic services for poverty reduction. He worked in 18 countries. Current projects include Kenya, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Nepal and Zimbabwe.
Recommended reading: http://www.practicalaction.org
Posts by Mansoor
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Conflicts between moving populations with livestock and settled farmers groups are common in many parts of the world. Practical Action Sudan has developed and tested an approach to mark the pastoralist routes more clearly and have negotiated this with the farmers around the routes.
This involved complex negotiations but led to something simple, which works. The routes are marked with colored poles and provides a visible mark for all the parties involved. This approach has great potential to reduce conflicts.
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Sanitation is off-track
April 20th, 2012Recent UN meeting declares sanitation as the most-off track MDG. The following link has more details.
Global sanitation target under threatLack of access to improved sanitation is an obvious example of technology in-justice. Global effort is needed to build the sector and address the issue.
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Challenges of urban sanitation
March 23rd, 2012Practical Action has launched a project to improve sanitation situation in the slum areas of Ronda and Kiptembwo in Nakuru, Kenya, which will benefit 190,000 women and men.
Both the slums have very poor status of sanitation, with no toilets available and where they are available, they are used by at least 50 people.
Both the slums have areas where open defecation is common. This creates serious health risks. The project will be pioneering the approach of Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), in an urban context.
Practical Action will be working with Umande Trust on this project and supported by the Municipal Council of Nakuru. The project will use participatory approaches through community health workers to enable tenants and landlords to improve their sanitation system.
This process of demand creation will then be supported by introducing affordable technologies and financial systems. A commercial bank has already shown interest to support the project through soft loans. Currently the project is carrying out baseline surveys and developing monitoring indicators. The project is well supported by the local water company, the Ministry of Health and other NGOs working in Nakuru.
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Is Sanitation tariffs really an Issue?
December 2nd, 2011Yes, but provided they exist for the majority of urban population, who are now more than 50% of slum dwellers in towns and cities of developing countries. Our work in Kenya and partners work in 5 other African Countries show that pro-poor tariffs is a totally neglected areas in many countries. Promiting people’s choices and control over technologies in urban areas is becoming a major challenge. This is due to many reasons including government control and nature of technologies. Therefore our attention is on the conditions under which technologies are delivered and tariffs is one of those important conditions. In many cases government standards and tariffs are far from the capabilities of the poor people. This means influencing decision makers on affordable systems is still an important part of our work.
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Participatory planning is more than a planning tool!
November 21st, 2011Please take a look at our new Technical Brief on participatory planning with slum dwellers.
http://practicalaction.org/urban-participatory-planning
Our recent experience in Kenya suggests that participatory planing has a potential to overcome social and econmic injustice if it creates a local ownership. It plans a development which is people-centered.
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What is special about 19th November?
November 19th, 2011This was at the back of my mind, as I came out of the toilet.
This may be another ‘World Toilet Day’ for more than 2.5 billion waiting to receive access to improved sanitation.
Sanitation is a challenge in urban slums
2008 was declared as the International Year of Sanitation as more than 2.5 billion people lack safe sanitation and each year millions of children die from diarrhoeal diseases and cholera.Sanitation was declared a major challenge in international development. Sanitation is not just about physical infrastructure or technologies, as attitudes and behaviours play a major role in sanitation choice and use.
Initially, toilet were considered a simple human need which does not need rocket science as far as technology is concerned.
Later, many NGOs and international agencies found that sanitation is not about constructing toilets and its impact on health is not about its use only. It needs a change in behaviour and habits and requires hygiene education.
Children and women are worst affected by poor sanitation. Young girls stop going to school because of the lack of toilet facilities needed during their menstrual cycle and children are scared of using toilets designed for adults. Even in technology, the cost of construction, affordability and standards are some of the major challenges which require social research. To achieve positive health impacts, the entire community needs to have toilets and people must use them regularly. This means working at the village and neighbourhood levels, not just with the households.
For our colleagues in Kenya, this day is more exciting than many of us, as they are preparing to start a new programme on urban sanitation in Nakuru, based on the principles of Community-Led Total Sanitation.
In the early 1990s, some NGOs in Bangladesh and India worked on an approach called the Community-Led Total Sanitation approach (CLTS, 2008). The CLTS methods were developed to talk openly about ‘shit’ and create a feeling of disgust and shame among groups, such as villagers. The roots of CLTS are found in participatory approaches (Chambers, 2008) already tested and successful.
The CLTS acted as a trigger and the whole village took the responsibility of constructing toilets and declaring the village as Open Defecation Free (ODF). This was a major social breakthrough to solve a problem which had previously been considered as a health and engineering problem. The outcome of total sanitation was achieved through the understanding and facilitation of social processes only. The next challenge is to enable social scientists and engineers to work together, to integrate the software and hardware of the CLTS approach to move up to the next rung in the ladder. Kamal Kar, is one of the main drivers in spreading the CLTS movement and a recent book by Lyla Mehta, ‘Shit Matters’ published by Practical Action Publishing, captures deeper research questions.
I feel CLTS has a potential to change the game in sanitation and to reach a stage when we do not remember 19th November, as another day of hopelessness.
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Ice Road Truckers in India
November 17th, 2011Is there anything common between international development and ice-truckers in India?
May be nothing and I am just trying to create an un-necessary relationship!
While watching ice-truckers in India, my mind could not stop thinking about its link to international development. In the end, I end-up watching all the programmes, but may be very for different reasons.
The skills of ice road truckers in North America and Canada are impressive. They drive on very difficult roads, to very remote locations and in extremely low temperatures. They have the right technology for this job, one of the most powerful trucks in the world. In addition, they have a system of roads, traffic, pedestrians, support services and communication to do their job. The ice truckers and other users of the road know the system, generally follow the rules and reach their destinations without much difficulty. So, there is a technology – the truck, a skillful person – the expert and a system to support both.
The same drivers from North America and Canada tried their skills in India, but with two major changes; with Indian trucks and within a system of Indian roads and users. The trucks were less powerful, the roads were narrow and un-safe and the whole system of support, other drivers’ attitude, road signs, road lights and all of it was just not there. It is amazing to watch all this, but with an international development lens.
Practical Staff like me regularly travel to our target countries. We travel with all our experience, skills and above all good intentions. However, we are in a different system, with different people and skills around us. We are faced with very different and rather un-known set of institutions, attitudes and behaviors. We may know the history, but we may not predict the future. The concepts and language around us may be different. In such a situation, when we know less and there is more un-unknown, planning for development may be frustrating. In the same way as some of the ice-truckers got frustrated.
Ice truckers in India has some great parallels with international development. It shows the importance of understanding the system around our projects and informs limitation of our skills and experience in a different context. Practical Action worked in technology and innovation for more than 40 years, and we regularly learn why just skills or technologies on its own are not enough to deliver development, without an understanding of the system. We know that local ownership is the key to development. Ice truckers in India were exposed to similar challenges and I feel the programme has a great parallel with our intentions and challenges. Do you agree?
Ice-trucker Link (may be we need a better link)
http://www.thirdage.com/news/ice-road-truckers-loses-one-while-approaching-season-4-finale_10-4-2010
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Challenges of a brand new country
November 7th, 2011This is my third day in South Sudan and my second visit to Juba. To be honest, it took me a bit of time to overcome the fear and nervousness of working in a post conflict country. I’m feeling ‘more knowledgeable’ now, but definitely not an ‘expert’.
Although I worked in Kenya and North Sudan on Practical Action’s project, this opportunity to work in South Sudan was created by Practical Action Consulting (PAC). It’s very exciting to be working in a new born country, where everything is progressing so fast, whether it is the working of government institutions or the entry of Chinese and Indian businesses.
South Sudan had suffered from two periods of long wars for over 35 years. After the signing of Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, it is now on the path of independence and state building.
In July 2011, South Sudan became the world’s newest country and a member of the United Nations, following a referendum in January 2011, when more than 95% of people voted for a separate country. More than 8 million people in South Sudan have suffered from the conflict over the last 35 years.
The journey ahead may also not an easy one. There are still tribal clashes and cattle raiding. A few splinter groups of the army are still fighting and there are areas under threat from rebel groups from Congo and Uganda. The closure of supply routes between North and South causes additional challenges and drives up prices.
Basic services, including roads, health facilities, and water and sanitation are not available to the majority. Humanitarian NGOs, who provide some of these services are pursuing an exit strategy and the government lacks sufficient capacity to take them on.
Working in South Sudan provides a great insight to the complexities of development. I’m sure that my work here could make a contribution to improving the lives of the South Sudanese people.
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Pakistan – reconstruction after the floods
Bourton on Dunsmore, Warwickshire CV23 9, UK, Bourton on Dunsmore
September 6th, 2010Practical Action has compiled a list of its publications and other resources to help local and international agencies. Please do not hesitate to ask our Technical Information Service if you need further elaboration on any of these.
Resources on post-disaster reconstruction from Practical Answers
Please also visit Duryog Nivaran for further news, publications and regional resources.
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Pakistan floods: so who is there to help?
August 18th, 2010As of today more than 20 million people are reported to be displaced by the floods in Pakistan. International and national efforts are reaching no more than 2 million people of those who were displaced. So, how are the remaining 18 million people being looked after?
Practical Action, in our climate adaptation advocacy work, emphasise Community Based Adaptation (CBA). Since most natural disasters hit without much warning, their scale is large and the damage is serious – you can only address the problem to a limit. Many principles of good development – participation, accountability etc, may not work in such a situation.
The physical infrastructure required to stop such floods is clearly beyond the reach of Pakistan government. So, the best approach to reduce the impact of disaster is to build people’s resilience, support their organisation and appreciate their efforts to help themselves and others. This is very evident in case of Pakistan floods where 90% of those who were displaced are being looked after by their relatives, friends and others. This is also strong evidence of the presence of a core economy or co-production, which some of the high income countries are trying to promote. So, why don’t international development programmes to address climate impact build on such a strong capital – the capital of people to help each other?
Flood evacuation in Sukkur. Photo: Reuters/Akhtar Soomro, courtesy www.alertnet.org
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