You cannot help the poor by giving them money. Last week, i visited Turkana County in Kenya. The Turkana people have suffered the brunt of poverty, cattle rustling and serious humanitarian crises year in year out.
However, after visiting this area, i am convinced that people are not poor because they have nothing. People are poor because their capacity to move out of poverty is limited. In the above case, the Turkana people have large stocks of livestock at the moment, but the lack of market linkages has proven to be a perennial problem.
It is the high time donors channelled their resources to the right poverty alleviation strategies including creating market linkages for products produced by the poor.
The poor have something to offer to the market place.
No comments:
Post a Comment