Most rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa are caught in a poverty trap characterized by chronic hunger, disease, incomes of less than one dollar a day, and little access to clean water, health care, secondary and tertiary education, essential medicines, electricity, sewage, telephone or paved roads. How can a typical impoverished African village of about 5000 people be empowered to achieve all the MDGs? A complementary “bottom up” approach has been established as proof of concept to assist and empower local communities to lift themselves out of poverty and achieve all the MDGs, build capacity, and work on developing village action plans. African villages are being selected are based in hunger hotspots- usually accompanied by poor health, water, sanitation and a degrading natural environment. The concept is to assess the major options for addressing the interrelated problems of poverty, degraded environments, low crop yields, hunger and malnutrition. Multiple interventions related to the different Goals are being conducted simultaneously. The synergies of some interventions, such as agroforestry and increased agrobiodiversity for restoring soils and the environment, as well as hunger and nutrition will be investigated as well as the costs of the interventions. The two initial villages are in Sauri, Western Kenya and Koraro, Tigray Province in Ethiopia. This work is being done in partnership with existing institutions, research and extension organizations, NGOs and other development partners.
Keywords: MDGs, Millennium Villages, Poverty, Bottom Up, Partnership.
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