Local news

On June 15, 2021, 57-year-old Gyanendra Kakshapati received urgent calls from an upstream community member warning him about possible flooding in the Melamchi River. Gyanendra lived in Chanaute Bazaar, Helambu Rural Municipality-6, midstream along the Melamchi in Bagmati Province of Central Nepal. Concerned about the situation, he and his son travelled to his Rainbow Trout farm and hotel in Timbu, four kilometers upstream from their home.

For millions of families across Africa, cooking is a daily act of care, but also one of survival. It’s done over open flames using firewood or charcoal, often indoors and without ventilation. The smoke fills homes, lingers on clothing, and over time, seeps into lungs.

With the aim of promoting agroforestry and silvopastoral systems in Ecuador, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), Practical Action, and Solidaridad carried out the training module “Ecosystem Services and Technical Approaches to Promote Agroforestry and Silvopastoral Systems.”

Practical Action Nepal launches a new report which establishes rainfall intensity-duration (ID) thresholds that can predict landslides in the Helambu-Panchpokhari region with high accuracy. The research involved collecting and analysing historical landslide inventory data spanning multiple years to identify trends and patterns of landslides in terms of rainfall. The correlation between rainfall intensity, time and duration with landslide occurrences was examined to determine the rainfall thresholds. To ensure the reliability of these thresholds, validation was carried out using real-time and past rainfall events, strengthening their predictive capability.

Practical Action’s Country Director for Rwanda, Denyse Umubyeyi, will call for greater investment in clean cooking solutions that are inclusive, evidence-based and community driven when she speaks at the Eastern Africa Clean Cooking Symposium from 6-8 May 2025 in Arusha Tanzania. The event is organised by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).

The Andean region, located in South America, faces recurrent climate disasters that affect more than half a million people every year. Despite advances in early warning systems, significant challenges remain to take early action and respond effectively to these events. To reduce this gap, the official launch of the Anticipatory Action Initiative, a regional proposal aimed at strengthening capacities for preparedness and anticipatory action against climate hazards in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, took place on 15 April. This initiative promotes the advancement of tools linked to anticipatory action through the integration of early warnings, climate forecasts and available financial resources. It also fosters knowledge sharing in the region through a Community of Practice that also involves Colombia and Venezuela.

Languages are an essential part of culture and the shaping of groups, peoples and nations. They allow us to name the world, to get to know it and recognize it from our understanding, memory and collective experience. Language cuts across history, culture, socio-political and environmental context and their transformations over time. Within the framework of the Indigenous inclusion for informed disaster risk reduction decision-making project, CLEAR Global and Practical Action conducted a socio-linguistic analysis with women and men from the Aymara and Tacana indigenous nations in Bolivia to identify how they understand and express different concepts related to risk management based on their own experience and representations.

As part of the International Exchange of Experiences on Climate Governance, Action and Financing, held from 31 March to 3 April  in Lima, Peru, Indigenous leaders from Peru and Ecuador conducted an in-depth analysis of the Peruvian Amazonian indigenous movement’s experience in developing their own proposals to address climate change over the past 15 years.

Astou Dabo, a 40-year-old mother of nine, has been working as a recyclable materials collector at the Thiès landfill since 2019. Every day, she collects plastics, scrap metal, and bottles—materials that provide an essential source of income for her family.