About us
Practical Answers was created to provide a means of accessing the wealth of technical information held by Practical Action. As well as Technical Briefs and other technical documents, it also includes:
- The Technical Enquiry Service supplying, free of charge, technical and developmental information to development workers, community-based organisations, NGOs and other agencies using appropriate technologies to implement sustainable development.
- Resource Centres, based in the Practical Action offices, are open to the public and hold a distinctive collection of appropriate technology and development literature.
Practical Action has created a range of materials such as leaflets, CDs, hournals and online resources covering many appropriate technology subjects. There are over 250 practical guides and case studies that explain, in a few pages, how to apply these technologies. Manual and engineering drawings can provide more detailed information when required. This material is complemented by the many books and journals available from Intermediate Technology Publications.
Through Practical Action's international network of enquiry services, the Technical Enquiry Service is able to call on the expertise of several hundred professionals in technical, economic, and sociological disciplines to help formulate the answers to enquiries - across our offices we receive and answer approximately 300 enquiries a year.
The Technical Enquiry Service always tries to supply information of direct relevance to the individual enquirer's circumstances and will take into account the non-technical factors that might have a bearing on the use of the technology.