Technical consulting

Who we are

Practical Action Consulting (PAC) was founded over 50 years ago by radical economist and philosopher Fritz Schumacher, who was decades ahead of time with his views on sustainable business, environmental protection and socioeconomic systems that work for the benefit of everyone.

Since 1969, PAC has been innovating and providing technical assistance to tackle some of the world’s toughest problems.

We have a long-standing international reputation of providing expertise that brings about good development; good government and good business through our work with stakeholders (governments, businesses, communities, researchers, and practitioners) and our diverse client base including the World Bank, FCDO, European Union, Asian Development Bank, Start Network, RTI, GIZ, NGOs and the private sector (e.g. IKEA Foundation, Mobile Power and CDC).

Where we work

We are able to draw on the combined expertise of our highly skilled in-house experts operating from seven regional offices in the UK, Senegal, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Kenya and Peru, as well as our global network of associate consultants.

Our Expertise

We provide thought leadership and innovation to three of Practical Action’s focal areas: Agriculture and Markets, Energy Access, and Resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction.

Agriculture and market systems

Inclusive supply chains
Market assessments and analysis
Sustainable agriculture

Disaster risk reduction
Nature based solutions
Research methodologies

Humanitarian Energy
Last Mile Distribution
Productive Uses of Energy (PUE)

We believe that small has the power to change the big picture.

Our consultants work across and within the thematic areas, providing a range of services to our clients including:

Research and Innovation: putting science into practice

We partner with leading researchers and academic institutions to ensure new research is informed by the concerns of affected communities, and we collaborate with them to bring innovations and new technologies and techniques to scale.
We design, pilot and scale-up new research methodologies/topics that better take into account the needs of those we work with.
Using our extensive experience of working with local communities, we work with researchers, scientists and other development practitioners to communicate complex information in meaningful ways.

Project Innovation

We identify emerging global trends and respond by exploring innovative project approaches and ideas.
As key thought leaders, PAC has led the design and implementation of a number of prominent, internationally recognised projects and programmes including: the Global Distributors Collective, Renewable Energy for Refugees, Moving Energy Initiative and more recently Powering Renewable Energy Opportunities.
We provide technical assistance/expert advice and inputs (e.g. community assessments; baseline and feasibility studies; project reviews; participatory planning and multi-stakeholder facilitation) to a range of clients throughout the entire project cycle.

Inclusive Markets Development: building income & agency for marginalised groups

We undertake market assessments and analysis, and use this to focus on interventions where change is needed and establish partnerships with market actors. We also bridge the gap between companies and small scale producers; and we work with marginalised communities to develop their capacity in ways that ensure supply chains are inclusive and resilient.
We train farmers/farming businesses in practices (e.g. regenerative agriculture and climate smart technologies) that protect natural capital and lead to sustainable production increases, adaptation to climate change and reduction of carbon emissions.
By strengthening producer groups’ capacity: we support improved productivity, better quality produce, and aggregation of farmers’ produce which provides economies of scale and opens up market opportunities for farmers.

Deploying Knowledge for Impact: seeding success at scale

We ensure that knowledge generated by our work supports learning beyond the projects and programmes themselves, in order to build a sustainable and high impact legacy of project findings.
Through the production of high-quality, inclusive audio-visual materials, we manage the synthesis, dissemination and uptake of evidence, knowledge and research, ensuring it reaches those most often excluded from information/knowledge access.
We are experienced in facilitating the exchange of knowledge through face-to-face events and on platforms such as communities of practices, trainings, webinars, international events and information portals.