Each morning, when Ketura checks the status of the vegetables she planted on her small plot of land, she wonders how she will stretch their meager crop to feed her family. For now however, the tomatoes, carrots and yams she has coaxed from the denuded soil are too early to harvest.

Ketura fears she may have to feed her children mud cakes. Mud cakes provide no nutrition, but they quiet her small children until the next day. During the “hungry season,” just before harvest, extremely poor families living rural areas often resort to desperate choices until there is food again.

Ketura and her family live in isolation. One the few people that visits their small homestead regularly is their landlord and his visits are increasingly alarming. Because Ketura and Ricot had no savings when he became injured, they have fallen behind in their rent. Their landlord has told them they will soon have to leave.

Putting her 9-year-old daughter in charge of caring for her little brother, sister and father, Ketura has been leaving the home each morning in search of day labor jobs. Her lack of education and skills means she is only qualified for manual labor and the work is inconsistent. On good days, she earns a few dollars and can buy food for her family. On days she cannot find work she returns to her family, comforts the pain and cries of hunger, and hopes tomorrow will be better.

The Context

Ketura’s story is not unusual. Most people who live in extreme poverty–some 78%–live in rural and even remote areas¹ where chronic malnutrition, a lack of enterprise opportunities and poor health are common.

At this level of poverty, deprivation is common. Households often shelter six to twelve individuals and many of these families are dependent upon the sole support of a woman. Overwhelmed by barriers to achieving a stable livelihood, these families experience food insecurity for some or all of the year. This lack of adequate nutrition begins a cycle that leads to ill health, difficulty performing adequately at work, severely limited income, and an inability to educate their children. Houses frequently lack protective roofs, sound walls and hard flooring. Most families have limited access to clean water, sanitation and medical care.

Subsistence farming is a common form of enterprise. Nearly two thirds of those in extreme poverty in rural areas derive their livelihoods from agriculture². Crops, though often meager, are meant to feed both the family and earn an income. Farmers face barriers getting their goods to market including transportation and regular selling spots.

Insecure tenure rights make their situations more precarious. Those in extreme poverty often lack the voice and the rights to demand fair treatment in lease holding. Women are at a particular disadvantage due to discrimination, which further compounds the effects of poverty; the number of malnourished children averages 60% higher in countries where women do not have the right to own land.³ Without secure access to land for farming, extremely poor people seek day labor work or migrate to cities in hopes of finding wage-earning jobs.

Our Approach

Innovation in the field of poverty alleviation has brought new hope. Recent interventions show that the problems of extreme poverty are complex and intertwined and require a holistic approach. They also recognize the assets of extremely poor people, including resolve, resourcefulness, and a determination to help themselves and their families.

We seek to advance programs that equip and empower rural families with tools that stabilize and diversify incomes, reduce risks, offer opportunities to young people and promote social inclusion.

Build Strong Livelihoods

Direct service interventions that strengthen skills and create more enterprise and employment opportunities can grow and stabilize incomes. These include:

• Improving agricultural livelihoods to create secure incomes while reducing food insecurity and malnutrition
• Diversifying income-generating activities to minimize the “hungry season”
• Improving access to education and skill-building
• Increasing access to credit, financing and savings opportunities

Expand Access

Interventions that improve access to vital services including medical care and clean and affordable water and energy, can improve health and increase prosperity. This is an area where numerous technical innovations are rapidly advancing access. They include:

• Clean water and sanitation
• Clean and affordable energy
• Framing inputs
• Financial services
• Medical care

Promote Social Inclusion

Marginalized individuals need their communities, just as their communities need them to achieve greater prosperity. Strategies that promote expanded rights, community participation and access to resources while reducing discrimination can build bridges between extremely poor people and their neighbors. These include:

• Reforming rights related to land tenure
• Increasing financial literacy and access to education
• Creating opportunities for supported social interaction including neighbor-sponsors and mentors

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Urban Poverty →