Top down or bottom up?
Poor people are not the problem but the key to eradicating hunger. Such is the belief of The Hunger Project, a global, strategic organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger.
In Africa, Asia and Latin America, The Hunger Project empowers millions of women and men to end their own hunger. The Hunger Project has pioneered low-cost, bottom-up, gender-focused strategies in each region where hunger persists. These strategies mobilize clusters of rural villages to create and run their own programs that achieve lasting progress in health, education, nutrition and family income.
In all their work, the highest priority is the empowerment of women. Women traditionally bear primary responsibility for family health, education, nutrition and – increasingly – family income. Yet women have been systematically denied information, resources and voice in decisions that affect their lives.
Top Down approaches and promotion of Dependency
With few exceptions, conventional top-down plans completely ignore the power of mobilizing people for self-reliant action. Top-down approaches treat people as passive beneficiaries, dependent on government handouts. After decades, people internalize this belief. As promises of assistance fail to materialize, people are left in deep resignation.
The first step in The Hunger Project’s strategies worldwide is to awaken people to a new possibility — the possibility of not waiting to be rescued, but taking action now to meet basic needs. This is achieved through the Vision, Commitment and Action Workshop (VCAW).
Part of the “homework†of the VCAW is to launch a three-month project based entirely on local resources. In achieving this first success, people’s initial inspiration develops into self-confidence.
Among the resources and thought provoking idea on its web site…
“Why We Don’t Teach People to Fish” – taking the conventional wisdom a step further.
The Epicenter Strategy – how they have taught over two million to end their own hunger
National Girl Child Day – The future of Bangladesh resides in the future of its girls. “It “may well be the highest return investment availabel in the developing world.” Lawrence Summers, then Vice-President of the World Bank 1992
Videos describing the various dimensions of projects
Tags: Anti-poverty strategies, Featured, Hunger
