Simple measures can boost war on poverty

When it comes to helping the poor, people react in different ways. There are different schools of thought that drive the development policy with regard to assisting third world countries. Over the years, adaptation of policy to fight poverty has gone through a metamorphosis. From the London School of thought, which puts more emphasis on aid as an investment to reduce poverty to the Massachusetts School, which talks of trade instead of aid, the development practitioners had to constantly adapt to the production of new terminologies to understand how best to help.

However, there is a greater response when the requested support is affordable and easier to understand. A friend recently narrated the following example: Imagine if you are shown a leaflet full of statistics about global poverty. Nothing but misery and the leaflet explains how more than 70 per cent of the population lives on less than Sh200 a day. Yet another person comes with a leaflet sharing the story of a young orphaned girl who needs help to go to school. “Which of the two fliers appeals to a donor and warrants support?”