Reducing vulnerability

International programme: coping with environmental change and conflict

Our Reducing Vulnerability projects help poor people to use technology to cope with natural disasters, environmental degradation and civil conflict.

Poor people are the most vulnerable. Their lives are highly susceptible to shocks or disruptions caused by climate change, natural disasters, conflict and the spread of infectious disease.

We work with poor people to build on their skills and knowledge and use appropriate technologies to help them develop more secure lives, cope with the risks they face and adapt their lives successfully to meet future challenges. Our approach includes:

• helping communities to organise and plan their own development
• increasing access to technologies and skills for sustainable farming
• managing natural resources such as soil, land and water
• increasing access to a range of skills so that poor people have more ways of making a living
• helping people to find ways of coping better with hazards including drought, flood and conflict
• working directly with local people
• working with partners so we can share our work and reach more people
• working at all levels from local to international in order to have a bigger impact on the policies that affect vulnerable people

Some examples of Practical Action's work in reducing vulnerability:

Preparing for floods in Nepal Early warning systems, protective shelters and strengthened river embankments can help to reduce the impact of disastrous floods in Chitwan, Nepal. Earthquake-resistant housing 'Improved quincha' - a timber and lattice frame design with an earth infill - based on traditional technologies, are better placed to withstand earthquakes. Rice-fish culture Rice-fish culture involves farmers introducing another 'crop' into their rice fields - small, indigenous fish - increasing crop yields.

Turning compost into lifelines The silted sands left behind after floods in Bangladesh are too infertile to grow crops. But a simple solution can transform a sandbar into a field rich with pumpkins. Bringing life to the land Using simple technology, such as foot-driven treadle pumps, Practical Action is helping "low caste" families in Nepal move from malnutrition to self-sufficiency. Resisting the flood waters Practical Action has worked with communities in Bangladesh to develop simple and affordable flood-resistant housing.

Practical Action's Reducing Vulnerability programme is one of four international programmes through which we carry out our project work. The others are Making markets work for the poor, Improving access to services and Responding to new technologies.