Poverty Alleviation Efforts in Kenya: Combining the Top Down Approach and the Bottom Up Approach
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Poverty Alleviation Efforts in Kenya: Combining the Top Down Approach and the
Bottom Up Approach
Vanessa Nyaboke Onguti
Director: Steven Bradley, PhD
In the quest for poverty alleviation, there are typically two approaches undertaken: the
bottom up and the top down. The bottom up model consists of grassroots efforts focused on programs in specific communities or individuals. This often takes the form of local social movements, small scale investment through micro-finance and savings and
targeted problem solving such as deworming practices to see an increase in school
attendance. On the other hand, the top down entails macro efforts that require scale to
effect efforts for a country as a whole. Education reforms, better health care systems or
limiting corruption via a checks and balances system are all means various governments utilize to decrease poverty levels in their respective countries. This thesis explores both approaches using Kenya as a case study for more careful analysis of a country's causes of poverty. I conclude that both approaches be applied in conjunction with each other to address poverty on both a national and local level as a quicker means of alleviating if not eradicating poverty.