Mohammed Bah Abba has invented an innovative earthenware cooling system to preserve perishable foods in developing countries with arid climates. As a Nigerian teacher, Mohammed was motivated by his concern for the rural poor and by his interest in indigenous African technology to develop practical, local solutions to rural problems. His simple and inexpensive earthenware “pot-in-pot” cooling...
Spain’s small rural towns face a crisis. As more people flock to over-crowded cities, they leave behind empty shells of communities once sustained by small-scale production, traditional wisdom, and skills. Drawing on the knowledge and resources of long-standing communities, Jerónimo (Jeromo) Aguado is promoting a revitalized rural world where economic ventures are linked to cultural and social...
Through training in and support for management information systems, Jasmine Aguilar is enabling rural citizens' groups in Mexico to draw lessons from their work and develop long-term strategies by expanding their access to information about their own and one another's programs and successes.
Manoel Andrade is ensuring that low-income, rural Brazilian youth receive the education they need to attend universities, become self-sufficient, and inspire future generations of students to attend school. His program focuses on strengthening rural communities themselves; creating bonds between academic institutions and students, developing forums for discussion, and transforming the way...
Salah Arafa pioneered the concept of community based participatory development in Egypt. With a focus on both rural squatter communities and on emerging desert communities (the future of Egypt), Salah’s Basaysa model combines local resources with rural civic engagement to promote social advancement and modernization while preventing the rural outflux from the villages to urban areas. Since the...
Sergio Arango and his organization, Fundación Espavé, are developing community enterprise initiatives in Colombia’s Pacific coast region that identify latent business opportunities in these communities’ traditional use of forest resources. As a result, Espavé is achieving economic development and environmental conservation in one of the economically poorest and most environmentally rich but...
Oscar Arruda has devised a strategy for enabling farmers in Brazil's semi-arid northeast to exploit an abundant local plant as an alternative crop that provides economic self-sufficiency in an otherwise depressed local economy.
Martin Ascacíbar is creating vibrant, profitable new businesses in rural Spain by restructuring value chains and processes related to biomass. These structures engage local small producers and businesses who then reap significant economic benefits that previously only went to larger non-resident investors and industries. The new vertically linked enterprises are accelerating rural development...
Josephina Bacarica directs an agricultural community center in Sao Paulo which promotes directed educational programs to avoid migration to the city.
Vincent Bagiire is increasing incomes in poor farming communities by using communication technology both to facilitate the sharing of indigenous farming knowledge and to enable poor farmers to obtain better prices for their products.
By establishing the first locally-rooted union of farmers in Central Java, Bahruddin is meeting villagers' needs for information, training, technical assistance, credit, and other services and resources.
Dilip Banerjee is integrating disaster relief into the long-term management of local needs and resources. His approach represents an important shift in thinking about disaster management, and results in effective strategies for local governance and planning.
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