As I was slowly waking up, reading the Guardian yesterday morning, waiting for the kettle to boil and the toaster to pop, suddenly the lights flickered and went out.  “Damn, another power cut” I thought, “not to worry, it’ll come on again in a minute.”  We live at the far end of the energy distribution system, so cuts are not uncommon, but are usually short.

On the drive to work I began to reflect on how essential energy is to the way we live our lives.  I had to stop reading the paper, because it was too dark.  The heating went off.  I had orange juice and cereal for breakfast instead of the usual coffee and toast.  I showered by candlelight (which was quite nice really) and left for work with wet hair.   None of this ruined my day and I was able to adapt my routine so the inconvenience was minimal. 

But for many people in the developing world – 1.6 billion people in total – life without energy is a permanent feature.  Cooking the meal can only be started when wood has been collected for the fire.  Students can only study during the hours of daylight, or risk their eyesight with candlelight.  Small businesses that could benefit from labour saving devices such as electric sewing machines and power saws are stuck with slower, less efficient equipment.  There are no refrigerators to keep fresh food edible for longer or machines to grind your grain into flour.  Everything must be done by hand – and it is hard, time consuming work.

It is not as though it would be hard to put an end to this energy divide.  Practical Action have been working with communities to install small scale renewable wind and micro hydro systems for many years.   Main tenance training for community members is an essential part of these schemes, so they can be kept in good working order.  These villages can look forward to a more prosperous and productive future.   For a relatively small investment in global terms, this prosperity could be extended to the rest of the 1.6 billion.  And this is the icing on the cake – its practically carbon free.

We’re delighted to hear Mohamed Majzoub, Practical Action’s Country Director from Sudan, is taking part in Design Triennial, Why Design Now?  with the improved clay stove.

This stove has made a huge impact of the lives of women who daily have to cope with the time-consuming and often dangerous task of collecting firewood. Now, through a combination of using these stoves and fuel saving tips fuel use has been cut in half and the number of violent incidence against women has been significantly reduced.

It’s amazing to realise that a simple technology can change women’s lives so much. We’re hoping that the visitors to Why Design Now? will be equally impressed.

Today we at Practical Action are talking about quite an unusual anniversary, as today marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Thomas Crapper - the man who revolutionised the flushing lavatory.

Yes, we at Practical Action enjoy talking toilets. So the man who invented the ballcock and promoted sanitary plumbing is very exciting to us… and while we all take ‘the toilet’ for granted not everyone around the world is quite so fortunate.

A few years ago I was in Kenya and visited Kibera, Africa’s largest slum. With more than a quarter of a million people living there, it was not unusual to find more than 200 people sharing a pit latrine, which was then often emptied into a river where children played.

The only other alterntive was the beautifully named ‘flying toilet’. Basically this is where people ‘go’ in a bag or on a piece of paper and then throw it out of the home.

When I visted Kibera I was offered their ‘best toilet’ by community leaders, honestly, it made festival toilets seem – and smell – very sophisticated.

The reality though is diseases such as typhoid and cholera thrive in these conditions – children are especially vulnerable with a child dying every 15 seconds from such diseases.

Practical Action has however been working on sanitation for a number of years, and one project which has proved really successful is our shower and toilet block. Basically the waste goes into a thick, concrete chamber, producing methane, which is connected to a water heating system for the showers.

After seeing the ‘toilets’ people were previously using, this was just amazing to see. And one fantastic side effect is because the area is surrounded by a concrete path, the area has become a hive of social activity as women and mothers meet, while giving children somewhere to play.

Ant and Dec visited these toilets when they were in Kenya, you can really see the difference projects such as this make.

Last night I saw on Channel 4, Slumdog Secret Millionaire with my 11-year-old son. Earlier, Channel 4 also showed similar programmes, such as slumming and there was also one on the waste work in slum areas.

While the programme is very well made and brings out some good details, I am not very convinced that it highlights the main causes of such situation in slum areas.

The fact, that millions of people are living in slums in Asia and their number is increasing, is to do mainly with the failure of national and international policies concerned with urban poverty. The main causes may also be to do with the corruption in some countries, poor representation, lack of welfare systems and unequal distribution of powers.

While it is important that Channel 4 viewers are aware of the situation on the ground and motivated to do something directly – such as donate to charity or work for them – it is also important that they understand the links between international development policies, trade policies and the delivery of development programmes. I was expecting that the programme would keep at least five minutes to touch on the larger issues, which may be the causes we need to address in the longer term.

Mansoor Ali
Urban Projects Manager, Practical Action

Further to our earlier reports on the need to rebuild after the earthquake, you might like to know about some direct influence that Practical Action is having in Haiti.

Practical Action Publishing is just about to publish our Emergency Market Mapping and Analysis toolkit (EMMA) – which was commissioned by Oxfam, IRC and InterAction – and is a process adapted from Practical Action’s approach to markets and livelihoods. EMMA was piloted in Haiti in summer of 2008, so is familiar to several agencies there including Red Cross, Oxfam and ACDI/VOCA. One of our early collaborators, Emmet Murphy, is in Haiti (for ACDI/VOCA) and had a narrow escape himself on the road from Port au Prince to Jacmel.

Despite the urgency and desperation around meeting basic survival needs, some agencies are already thinking forward. IRC will be using EMMA to conduct a study around staple food markets and construction materials as soon as is practicable, possibly in collaboration with ACDI/VOCA. Both organisations see a lot of value in the toolkit, and will be putting resources into using it. Mike Albu from our Markets & Livelihoods programme will provide distance-support.

Practical Action technical resources and publications for emergency relief and rebuilding

Haiti is considered as one of the poorest countries in the World and I have been talking a lot about slums in Haiti with our friends in Oxfam.

Practical Action does not work immediately after emergencies. But we have played a significant role in re-building after disasters. Practical Action worked very actively in re-building Sri Lanka after the Tsunami, especially with our owners-driven approach to housing which was adopted by many other organisations. We have been involved in a number of evaluations of post-tsunami work and advised some agencies after the earthquake in Pakistan. Over time Practical Action also developed technical resources, such as earthquake-resistant housing and re-building key services such as water, sanitation and waste collection after disasters.

Recently, we have been working in Zimbabwe to protect people from spread of cholera after rains and floods. Practical Action learnt a lot through this – the approach of supporting and working with others. One of our key pieces of learning is the need to see more clearly the links between disasters and development. Rebuilding efforts, with a more longer term vision could pave the way for a more sustainable development – in this case for millions of poor people in Haiti.

Listening with my family to the news last night we were each touched by the terrible devastation that has hit Haiti and people’s struggle to survive.

My daughter asked if we, Practical Action, were working there? I explained not directly, that our focus is on long term development – sometimes ‘saving lives’ – helping people who maybe haven’t been able to grow enough food or get clean water – but also ‘making lives’ – helping people have the opportunity to help themselves. Indirectly we probably would help in Haiti, providing advice and expertise to the agencies on the ground when they get to the rebuilding stage. Since my language was a bit technical, and even though it wasn’t politically correct, I’m not completely sure she got it! (I haven’t quite mastered teen-speak and in situations like this it is hard to explain.)

One of the realities of international development charities is that the problem is so huge there isn’t enough money to go around.

A second is that news coverage of aid is focused on disasters. Yet, for example smoke, indoor air pollution kills 1.6 million people each year – in tabloid speak, the equivalent of six 2004 tsunamis.

The third reality is that development agencies, surprising to many people, work really well together. We know there isn’t enough money and sometimes we compete to get it but actually, in reality, we value each other’s contribution. Aid is needed desperately for emergencies post-disaster and for longer term development. Practical Action is committed to sharing and we will make sure that our expertise and knowledge is available to those who need it in Haiti and beyond.

Earthquake in Haiti

Two days ago the Government’s Chief Scientist, Professor John Beddington, “Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference (OFC),  said the world will have to produce 50 per cent more food by 2030 in order to feed the growing population.   He said the only way to do this is to grow more crops on less land by using the latest scientific innovation, including GM and nanotechnology.”  (Daily Telegraph, 6 Jan 2010)

Today the House of Lords published a report entitled: “Nanotechnologies and Food” which acknowledged that, “Our current understanding of how they behave in the human body is not yet advanced enough to predict with any certainty what kind of impact specific nanomaterials may have on human health”.   It also recognised that there is currently insufficient research into the toxicology of nanomaterials and called on the Research Councils to take a more active role in stimulating such research.

All new technologies have risks as well as opportunities inherent in them.   We need to ensure that new technologies, including nanotechnologies, are used responsibly.   Practical Action have been working with the Responsible Nano Forum to work out in a practical way how this can be done.   The response of the Forum to the House of Lords report can be read here.

Yet to an extent the debates about the safety of new technologies applied to food production is a “side line” to the main issue of how the earth and its people can support an increase in food production.   In the past those who have grappled with this issue have assumed continued economic growth, low energy costs, and a zero marginal cost for pollution.   But these conditions now need to be questioned in the light of climate change, increased energy prices and a decline in water supplies.  

Most of the world enjoys cheap food but the unrecognised price is the high energy costs (transport and fertilisers) and high carbon emissions.   Local food production which supports biodiversity and food security is likely to offer increased food production.   But to realise this dream requires some fundemental re-framing of basic questions relating to the economics of food.   Harnessing appropriate technology to fulfil this dream requires us to be clearer in our articulation of the kind of world we want to live in.

Today I am preparing for a meeting with our Patron, HRH, The Prince of Wales, we are going to be talking about energy and poverty reduction.

I’ve been wrestling with whether or not it’s reasonable to make a comparison between electricity and water. At a very basic level without water you will die, without electricity you probably won’t. However development is about so much more than just maintaining life, it’s about helping people have opportunity, hope and a chance to support their families. Without modern energy development is nearly impossible (there are lots of graphs showing the correlation between energy and development but I won’t bore you with those).

In Sudan I saw people dejected, made dispirited by long term emergency aid. They had just about enough water and food but they had no hope and they had no opportunity to contribute. Engagement , work, craft, whatever you call it is about so much more than just getting the basics somehow, for many, there is a relation to self worth.

Development needs electricity so in that way – for peoples well being – it is vital.

Without modern energy people, mainly mothers and their children die as a result of breathing in smoke from cooking fires – 1.6 million each year. Clinics can’t treat patients in the evenings because doctors can’t see people properly. Schools can’t help children get the education they need. Medicines and vaccines can’t be refrigerated. Business opportunities are stifled.

Practical Action’s work on renewable energy helps development flow.

Maybe I should be more gung-ho in what we say.

Margaret

I was going to write about new years resolutions but somehow whatever I said read like an extract from a bad sermon.

4th January – end of the holiday and the day New Years resolutions really begin.

Beyond that my ‘bullshit radar’ went into overdrive. Being English and talking about changing the world, trying to make a difference, feels somehow grandiose and egotistical.

Maybe that’s worrying, especially as at the moment with continuing massive poverty and the failure of the climate change talks, we as a world, need leadership. Imagine if that leadership wasn’t some great man rallying crowds but rather millions of people coming together to build practical change.

I had a poster in my office which seems to have disappeared – it had a picture of a mother and child and said something like ‘You don’t have to be a millionaire to make a difference …..Make a difference today’. I liked the simplicity.

If we could make resolutions both for ourselves but for the world what would they be?

Sorry you ended up with half a bad and rambling sermon Wishing you a great 2010.