221 results · grouped by type
practices
221Solar Mamas MalawiEight Malawian women trained at Barefoot College return home to deliver rural solar electrification.Zorgcooperatie HoogeloonSistema Integral de Cuidados de Nuevo León and Impulso a CuidadorasWormenhotels / Le CompostierNetwork of 'worm hotels' (wormenhotels): purpose-designed community boxes that house thousands of worms and turn neighbours' organic waste (gft-afval) into compost, closing the nutrient loop within the neighbourhood. Rowin Snijder (Le Compostier) has driven the model since 2014, with the first wormenhotel on Frans Halsstraat (De Pijp, Amsterdam); the Amsterdam municipality adopted a standard design. By June 2024 Amsterdam had about 200 hotels (with ~300 people on the waiting list), each serving up to 30 households, and the model has been replicated in at least 11-12 Dutch cities (Rotterdam, The Hague, Eindhoven, Haarlem, Hilversum).GridFlex HeetenLocal energy market pilot in the Veldegge neighborhood of Heeten (Overijssel), where 48 households tested for the first time salt batteries (Dr Ten) combined with solar panels and dynamic pricing. A consortium (Endona, Enexis/Enpuls, Escozon, University of Twente, ICT Group, Dr Ten, Buurkracht) designed a market where energy is generated, stored, traded and consumed locally. Endona obtained an exemption from the Electricity Act to experiment. The study showed that grid peaks were reduced by up to 36% with savings for the community.De Hogeweyk (dementia village)Ushahidi Haiti deploymentCustomised Ushahidi deployment mapping needs and emergencies after the 2010 Haiti earthquake.Tarun Bharat Sangh johad rainwater harvesting revivalTarun Bharat Sangh (TBS) revives traditional rainwater harvesting structures (johads) managed by community village assemblies in semi-arid Alwar, Rajasthan. Since its first johad in 1985, the model recharges aquifers, refills wells and has rehydrated rivers that had been dry for decades, with community rules for water and watershed use.Stadsdorp ZuidWorld Health Partners Sky (social franchising + telemedicine, Bihar)World Health Partners' Sky program in Bihar (launched in November 2010 in 13 districts, ~43.4M population; funding of more than USD 23 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other donors). It created a network of health franchises (SkyCare/SkyHealth, up to ~10,663 health entrepreneurs) recruiting rural informal providers and connecting them via telemedicine with urban doctors, targeting childhood diarrhea and pneumonia. The independent evaluation (Duke/Stanford, with standardized patients) found null impact: Sky providers saw a minimal fraction of the target cases and did not improve knowledge or quality of treatment. The program won the Skoll Award 2013 before any evidence of results existed; the Sky program ended around June 2018.UrbanFarmers De SchildeUrban aquaponics farm built in 2016 on the rooftop of the former Philips De Schilde building in The Hague, operated by the Swiss company UrbanFarmers. It combined a ~1,200 m2 greenhouse with a tilapia fish farm connected through aquaponics; it was Europe's largest commercial rooftop farm. With an investment of ~2.7 million EUR, it never reached economic viability. After the bankruptcy of the Swiss parent company, the Court of The Hague declared UF De Schilde B.V. bankrupt on 3 July 2018.Schoonschip Amsterdam - new sanitation in a self-managed floating neighbourhoodFloating neighbourhood of 46 homes on 30 platforms (over 100 residents) on the Johan van Hasselt canal in Amsterdam-Noord (Buiksloterham), developed without a developer by a citizens' collective. In water and sanitation it applies new sanitation: separation of grey and black water, with a pilot together with Waternet to process blackwater in a floating digester that converts it into energy and to recover phosphate. The plant was built but Waternet has not yet put it into operation for legal reasons. The community self-organizes through a homeowners' association and the Pioneer Vessel foundation.CASALUD / MIDO (Medición Integrada para la Detección Oportuna, Fundación Carlos Slim)Digital health model of the Fundación Carlos Slim for prevention, timely detection and control of noncommunicable diseases in public primary care. Its MIDO component screened 743,000 people in 137 health centers in 27 of the 32 states between 2014 and 2018 (BMJ Open 2021), was adapted during the pandemic (MIDO COVID) and evolved into MIDO Embarazo and MIDO Primera Infancia within the Primeros 1000 Días de Vida strategy (launched in El Mezquital, Durango, April 2025, with the state Secretariat of Health). In June 2026 the foundation's digital health ecosystem joined the national strategy against acute child malnutrition with the federal Secretariat of Health, IMSS, IMSS-Bienestar, ISSSTE and DIF in 130 priority municipalities.Green Corridors of MedellínMunicipal green infrastructure program launched in 2016 that created a network of green corridors (road axes, streams and public spaces) regreened with about 880,000 trees and 2.5 million plants by 2021. It reduced air temperature in the intervened areas (reductions of 2 to 3°C according to Ashden), restored biodiversity and prioritized vulnerable neighborhoods. Its social component trains people displaced by the conflict and from poor communities as gardeners.Collegiate Body of Guardians of the Atrato RiverFollowing Ruling T-622 of 2016, which recognized the Atrato River as a subject of rights, a Commission of Guardians was created: the Ministry of Environment as the river's legal representative and a Collegiate Body of 14 community guardians representing more than 300 Afro-descendant and indigenous communities of the basin. They monitor compliance with the ruling and push for the decontamination of water sources and the construction of aqueduct and sewerage systems, in the face of the crisis caused by illegal mining and mercury.Ushahidi platformOpen-source platform to crowdsource and map citizen reports during crises and elections.Isla Urbana - rainwater harvesting for allHousehold rainwater harvesting and filtration systems designed by Isla Urbana for homes without reliable access to drinking water, with the patented Tlaloque first-flush diverter that reduces ~70% of initial contamination. Born in 2009 on the periphery of Mexico City, it scaled to tens of thousands of systems installed in marginalized and rural areas, with a hybrid NGO-enterprise model.EcoWorld Watamu RecyclingCommunity recycling centre in Watamu created by the NGO Watamu Marine Association as a local response to marine plastic pollution. It runs a buy-back scheme with women's and youth groups who collect plastic from the beaches, upcycles it into construction materials and curios, and links coastal clean-up with tourism and the conservation of the Marine Protected Area.UTOPIAS de Iztapalapa (community care system)Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) in KenyaA rural sanitation methodology in which facilitators trigger communities to collectively analyze their open defecation practices and decide to build latrines by themselves, without hardware subsidy, until reaching Open Defecation Free (ODF) status. Piloted by Plan Kenya in 2007 and adopted by the Ministry of Health as a national strategy. Studies in Siaya and Migori document both coverage increases and a significant reversal of ODF status.O4NT / Steve JobsScholen (iPad schools)Personalized learning school model driven by Maurice de Hond under the O4NT foundation. The first 7 Steve JobsScholen opened in August 2013: no textbooks or fixed schedules, each student with an iPad, 30-minute workshops, teachers as coaches. It reached 22 schools in 2015, far from the 100-200 announced. Half abandoned the concept due to software and training costs and pedagogical dissatisfaction; De Hond withdrew in 2017 and the foundation went bankrupt in February 2018, with DUO claiming just over 200,000 euros. The Zembla program documented the collapse.DIKSHA - national digital infrastructure for school educationIndia's national school education platform (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing), launched in September 2017 and operated by NCERT/CIET under the Ministry of Education. Built on Sunbird, open source infrastructure (MIT license) seeded by EkStep Foundation. Adopted by 35+ states and territories: multilingual content repository, QR-energized textbooks and large-scale teacher training (NISHTHA). As of June 2026 it reports 22.5 million users and 5.75 billion learning sessions. It was the backbone of remote learning during COVID-19.Kio Kit (BRCK Education)A digital classroom in a box designed and manufactured in Kenya by BRCK: a rugged case with 40 shockproof Kio tablets, wireless/solar charging and a local server with offline curricular content, for schools without reliable electricity or internet. Launched in 2015, it was deployed in several countries and won design awards. BRCK set it aside around 2017-2018 and today the company focuses on voice infrastructure; the education product no longer exists.Programa de Estancias Infantiles para Apoyar a Madres Trabajadoras (cancelled 2019)Buurtzorg NederlandAmbikapur SLRM model (Solid and Liquid Resource Management)Decentralized waste management system in Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh, operated by women's self-help groups (SHGs) recruited through the National Urban Livelihood Mission. Some 470-480 women organized into 34 SHGs collect door to door, segregate waste the same day into more than 100 subcategories at 17-19 SLRM centres, sell recyclables and compost, and send non-recoverable waste to cement plants as fuel. Ambikapur became one of the first cities in India with a zero-waste landfill; the model was launched around 2015-2016 and the former dumpsite was turned into a park in 2016.Husk Power Systems - biomass+solar hybrid mini-gridsHusk Power Systems, founded in 2008 in Bihar, started out generating electricity with biomass gasifiers that used rice husk to electrify off-grid villages. Between 2007 and 2013 it built close to 80 plants that provided electricity to about 250,000 people in 350 villages in India and Africa. In the mid-2010s it pivoted to solar+storage+biomass hybrid mini-grids capable of delivering 24/7 power. By 2024-2025 it operates more than 400 mini-grids in India and Nigeria.Zorgcooperatie Nederland (cooperative collaboration)Digisterker: Werken met de digitale overheidNational civic digital literacy program: group courses in public libraries where adults with limited digital skills learn to use government digital services (DigiD, municipality, tax agency, UWV). It began in 2011 as a project of Stichting Novay; since 1 March 2014 it has been run by Stichting Digisterker (Enschede), led by Piet Boekhoudt. In 2022, 89% of the country's library organizations offered the course. The family of programs grew to include DigiVitaler, DigiVeiliger and Doe je digiding!. The KB Impactmonitor 2019-2022 shows improvements in skills, self-confidence and application in daily life.Ser Pilo PagaNational program of the Ministry of Education (2014-2018) of forgivable loan-scholarships so that low-income high school graduates with high scores on Saber 11 could study at accredited high-quality universities. Four cohorts, ~40,000 beneficiaries. The regression discontinuity evaluation (Londoño-Vélez, Rodríguez and Sánchez, AEJ 2020) found increases of 56.5-86.5% in immediate enrollment and a closing of the socioeconomic gap. It ended in 2018 and was replaced by Generación E.Enseña por MéxicoNonprofit organization founded in 2011 by Erik Ramírez Ruiz as a member of the global Teach For All network. It recruits high-profile university graduates (PEM) who work for two years in low-income schools. As of 2026 it reports 13 cohorts, 249 active professionals, 989 alumni and more than 210,000 children and young people reached in 14 states. It measures impact with Teach For All's MET evaluation and was one of five countries selected by the Gates Foundation for semiannual measurement.SteamaCo smart-metering platform for rural solar mini-gridsSteamaCo began in 2012 as a developer of rural mini-grids in Kenya (with origins in the NGO Access:Energy, founded in 2009 on the shores of Lake Victoria; first microgrid with smart metering in 2013 on Remba Island) and later pivoted to a smart metering and remote management software company. Its cloud platform lets independent operators sell energy on prepaid accounts with mobile money, monitor consumption in real time and detect faults remotely. The pivot from asset owner to software provider is the innovation lesson. In 2024 it acquired Shyft Power Solutions.Kerala People's Plan CampaignIn 1996 the Kerala State Planning Board launched the People's Plan Campaign, transferring about 35-40% of the state plan's development budget to 1,214 local governments (panchayats and municipalities). Citizens identify needs and prioritize projects in gram sabhas and development seminars with trained facilitators: the most ambitious exercise in decentralized participatory planning and budgeting in the subcontinent.IMC Weekendschool (ToekomstExpeditie)Complementary Sunday school for children aged 10 to 14 in neighborhoods with fewer opportunities, founded in 1998 in Amsterdam Zuidoost by psychologist Heleen Terwijn after her longitudinal research on school motivation in the Bijlmer. Volunteer professionals teach their trade: medicine, law, journalism, art. Today it operates weekendscholen in several cities, the IMC Basis program inside primary schools and an alumni network; the concept was renamed ToekomstExpeditie. Its effects are continuously researched with UvA, HvA, VU Brussels, UU and Ruigrok.BATx: electrification with second-life batteries and solar (Katanzama project)BATx, a Colombian company born in 2020 at Universidad EAFIT (Medellín), remanufactures lithium batteries retired from electric vehicles to give them a second life as solar energy storage. It has manufactured more than 1.000 batteries and avoided more than 750 tonnes of CO2 and 30 tonnes of waste. With support from Youth4Climate and allies such as Maslight Solar and Fundación Socya, it brings solar systems with storage to rural communities. In the Katanzama project (Arhuaco community of the Sierra Nevada, Youth4Climate Award 2023) it installed solar generation and storage for the health post, the community hall and the school. In April 2025, EPM announced a new investment in BATx.Gjenge MakersNairobi social enterprise founded by engineer Nzambi Matee that transforms plastic waste (mixed with sand) into paving blocks and construction bricks that are stronger, lighter and cheaper than concrete. It recycles dozens of tonnes of plastic per week and buys material from collectors, women's groups and young people.MKSS jan sunwais and social audits (Rajasthan)The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan organizes jan sunwais (public hearings) in which official records of public works and welfare programs, obtained through the right to information, are read aloud and checked against the reality of the villages to expose corruption and wage theft. Started in Rajsamand in the early 1990s, it is the direct origin of the RTI movement and of the social audit now mandatory in MGNREGA.Mercados Campesinos (Central Region of Colombia)Direct marketing and short-supply-chain process that brings food from peasant farmers in Cundinamarca, Boyacá, Tolima and Meta to Bogotá, eliminating intermediaries and paying a fair price. It was born in 2004 with ILSA and Oxfam, and is coordinated with the SDDE and the Peasant and Communal Dialogue Committee (CICC). It combines sales in public squares with political advocacy for food sovereignty and security.PlaN A - National Agroecology Plan (AGROSAVIA)R&D&I initiative led by AGROSAVIA with the MADR to implement agroecological technologies and generate participatory knowledge in prioritized peasant territories and peasant reserve zones. In its first phase it worked on biofactories of biopreparations, composting, beekeeping, soil fertility, coffee post-harvest processing and crop-livestock integration in 14 departments. It is one of 14 projects under the MADR's Meta 25.SEWA women farmers' cluster farming (Gujarat)SEWA cluster farming initiative for small and marginal women farmers in Gujarat. Women farmers group together to increase their bargaining power, buy inputs collectively, access markets and add value. In a cluster of 100 potato farmers, solar cold storage (10 MT) and machinery to produce potato chips were installed, allowing them to sell at the optimal time (INR 14/kg instead of 7/kg) and raise gross margins from 50% to 75%.Push-Pull Technology (icipe)Agroecological pest management system for maize and sorghum in which desmodium (which repels the stemborer and suppresses striga weed) is intercropped with the cereal, and Napier or Brachiaria grass is planted on the border as a trap crop. Developed by icipe with Rothamsted Research and disseminated in western Kenya. The climate-smart version uses drought-tolerant Greenleaf desmodium and Brachiaria cv Mulato.Tosepan Titataniske Union of CooperativesIndigenous Nahua and Tutunaku cooperative movement in the Sierra Nororiental of Puebla, active since 1977 and formalized in 1980, bringing together more than 53,000 members across dozens of municipalities in Puebla and Veracruz. It was born to address the shortage of basic foods and today sustains a comprehensive food sovereignty project: organic production of coffee, pepper and melipona honey, fair trade, cooperative savings, agroecology, intercultural education and defense of the territory.Sustainable Milpa in the Yucatan PeninsulaParticipatory innovation project that works with Maya maize farmers in the Yucatan Peninsula to make the milpa system more productive and sustainable without losing its cultural foundation. It combines conservation agriculture, agroecological pest and weed management, integrated soil fertility, safeguarding of native seeds and market linkages, using five-station demonstration plots and a co-innovation and social inclusion strategy.mMitra / Kilkari (ARMMAN, maternal and child mobile messaging)Free voice message service synchronized with the stage of pregnancy/child-rearing for low-income women, created by the NGO ARMMAN in Mumbai (mMitra, 2014). A pseudo-randomized trial (BMC Public Health 2020, Murthy et al.) showed improvements in maternal self-care knowledge and practices. The model scaled as Kilkari, implemented with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare: the world's largest mobile maternal messaging program, expanding to all states and territories of India by 2026, and integrated into the national JANANI platform (launched by the Government of India in May 2026). It uses AI (restless multi-armed bandits, the SAHELI project with Google Research and Harvard) to prioritize retention calls.StreekWaar (agroecological bioregional network of the Wageningen region)Association (Vereniging producenten lokaal en ecologisch voedsel Gelderland) of around forty agroecological food producers in the region of Wageningen, Ede, Renkum and part of the Betuwe: farmers, horticulturists, processors (mills, cheesemakers, bakers, brewers), shops and caterers. It runs a weekly Streekmarkt in Wageningen and a participatory guarantee system (PGS). Within the SHARED GREEN DEAL project it articulated a bioregional weaving experiment with assemblies in Sep 2023 (Walled Garden CSA, Renkum) and Feb 2024 (Remeker).Neighbourhood Network in Palliative Care (NNPC)La Voragine - integrated ecological water and sanitation system (ASOVORAGINE)Peri-urban community on the banks of the Pance River, near Cali, that since 1997 has autonomously operated an integrated, ecological drinking water and wastewater treatment system through ASOVORAGINE. It manages the aqueduct (new system delivered in 2025), operates a treatment plant (PTAR) that treats the wastewater before discharging it into the Pance River, and carries out micro-watershed reforestation and environmental education. Evaluated as a historical case of the DESAFIO project by CINARA.SEWA Sangini Child Care Workers' CooperativeFresh Life Toilets (The Sanergy Collaborative)A network of container-based sanitation toilets operated under a franchise model in informal settlements of Nairobi, Kisumu and Eldoret. Local entrepreneurs (Fresh Life Operators) buy and install the toilets and charge for their use; Sanergy collects the waste and, at Regen Organics, converts it into organic fertilizer and insect-based animal feed input, closing a circular economy loop. More than 6,000 toilets provide daily service to more than 250,000 people.Mobile Creches