Practical Action

About the charity

We believe that the right idea, however small, can change lives.

Practical Action is an international development charity with a difference. We work together with some of the world’s poorest women, men and children, helping to alleviate poverty in the developing world through the innovative use of technology.

Practical Action’s particular strength is our ‘simple’ approach: finding out what people are doing and helping them to do it better. This enables poor communities to build on their own knowledge and skills to produce sustainable and practical solutions: driving their own development.

Whether enabling women and men in Darfur to feed their families, providing people in Bangladesh with the chance to control the impact of flooding on their lives or working with remote communities in Peru to introduce electricity, our activities are always people focused, locally relevant and environmentally sensitive, offering tangible ways out of poverty.

Practical Action was founded (as the Intermediate Technology Development Group) in 1966 by the radical economist Dr EF Schumacher to prove that his philosophy of “Small is Beautiful” could bring real and sustainable improvements to people’s lives. We now operate in 13 countries across Africa, South Asia and Latin America.