“Practical Action works alongside communities to find practical solutions to the poverty they face. We see technology as a vital contributor to people’s livelihoods. Our definition of technology includes physical infrastructure, machinery and equipment, knowledge and skills and the capacity to organise and use all of these.
We actively seek to work with communities and adopt a collaborative approach, sharing knowledge and experience. We increase our impact by scaling up success and pushing for policy change that directly benefits poor communities.
Practical Action’s vision and mission
Vision – Technology justice: a sustainable world free of poverty and injustice in which technology is used for the benefit of all.
Mission – To contribute to poor people’s wellbeing, using technology to challenge poverty by:
– building the capabilities of poor men and women,
– improving their access to technical options and knowledge, and
– working with them to influence social, economic and institutional systems for innovation and the use of technology.”
Source: Practical Action.org
They have tons of free info online on a wide range of topics.
A quick search didn’t turn up any mention of earthbag building on their site or other sites. As a lot of our readers know, dozens of countries have earthbag buildings and this method would be perfect for the sort of projects Practical Action works on. If someone from this organization sees this note, please search our websites listed on the right. Our Earthbag Structures.com site is particularly appropriate for development work.
Hi Owen
Practical Action hasn’t worked on earthbag buildings technologies, I’ll take a look at the information you suggest. However, we have worked on earth construction without bags and this has been very successful in many of the countries that we work in. In particular on “timberless construction” in Sudan.
That’s great work you’re doing in Sudan.
Take a look at these earthbag building links:
Step-by-Step Earthbag Building http://www.instructables.com/id/Step-by-Step-Earthbag-Building/
Project pages (photos) http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/projects/projects.htm
Drop me an email if you’re interested in more info or doing a project together. strawhouses [AT] yahoo.com