Sauri, Kenya: the first Millennium Village
P.K. Mutuo
Poverty Forum: UN - NY,16th Nov 2006
The MDGs – Our Focus

The MDGs are the world’s first shared set of
integrated, quantitative and time-bound goals for
poverty reduction
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Goal 6: Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and
other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
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Millennium Villages Project
Purpose:
To demonstrate that the MDGs, as adapted to local
circumstances, are achievable while operating
within realistic financial, human resource and
institutional constraints.
Goal:
To inform and support national growth and
development strategies and to provide a model for
sustainable investments leading to an economic
transformation in rural areas
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Defining Elements of the MV Approach
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Uses an integrated multi-sectoral approach focusing on
practical interventions
Applies the best science, knowledge and experience
available
Encourages and benefits from community participation,
ownership and leadership
Implements through a partnership of communities,
Government, UN, and other development partners
Invest about $110/person/year, of which ODA comprises
about $50-70/person/year
Driven by a rural economic transformation (“growth”) goal
within a 5-10 year time frame – backed by capacity building
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Nyanza province, western Kenya: a hunger hotspot
Siaya District
1200-1500 masl
1200-1800 mm rain
2 rainy seasons
Facts about Sauri sub location
Has 11 villages
5504 people
975 households
8 km2
690 people/ km2
Hunger periods 3-7
months
Map of homesteads
67% below poverty
line ($1/day)
Agricultural production: the handicaps
Degraded soils
Low crop yields - Hunger
Limited extension services
High price of fertilizers
Unstable market prices
Low labor productivity
Agricultural interventions: the plan
Transformation of sub-subsistence farmers to small entrepreneurs
Fertilizers, improved crop germplasm, and water management
• Targeted, smart subsidies
Agro input dealers – certified and trained, sufficient capacity
Storage facilities
Credit and savings
Crop diversification
• Cash crops
• Nutritious crops
Links to markets
• School meals with locally produced foods
Environmental sustainability – biological, chemical & physical
Agricultural input supply
First steps toward
targeted, smart subsidies
with payback to school
meals program
• diminishing each year
• eventually handled through
agro-input dealers
Maize (corn) yields in Sauri, 2004-6
Area planted Maize grain
(ha)
yield (t/ha)
Input
subsidy
2004
220
1.9
0%
2005
327
4.9
89%
2006
447
6.2
40-50%
Magnitude of surpluses in 2004 -2006
Average production per
household (tons)
1.8
1.5
10% of surplus paid
back for sch. Feeding
programme
1.2
0.9
Annual Household
food (maize) demand
0.6
0.3
0
2004
Pre-Project
year
2005
2006
Year
•These yields exclude maize eaten while green and post
harvest loses (estimated as 39% of total production)
•10% of the surplus is about 27 – 34 tons
Cereal banking and marketing
Why cereal banking
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to protect large surpluses
to buffer market prices
to allow farmers to get cash
Crop diversification – production groups
Crops farmers are engaged
in growing
Number of
farming
households
Maize and beans
376
Ground nuts
411
Soy beans
285
Poultry
384
Diary goats
333
Diary cows
227
Horticulture (tomatoes, onions,
kales, fruits)
472
Sweet potatoes
51
Tissue culture
bananas
Kales
Soy beans
Annual cost of the school meals and cost
sharing with the community for 1600 pupils
Contributor
USD
($)*
Proportio
n of cost
Per capita cost
($) in village
Project
30,624
0.60
6.1
Parents
6,000
Parents
8,000
Harvest
Contributions
6,167
Totals
50,790
Type of contribution
Cash for buying food
18 kg maize per child
0.28
2.8
0.12
1.2
Total cost per child per year = $32
*1 USD = 72 Ksh,
#one 90 kg bag = Ksh 1,200/=
10.1
12 kg beans per child
370 – 90kg bags#
Health:
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Provide basic health care
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Preventive health care
e.g., bed nets,
immunization, health
education
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Management of HIV/AIDS
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Training of community
health workers
E.g., Malaria prevalence monitoring 1 yr after
interventions (LLIT bed nets and effective treatment)
Malaria prevalence
0.7
0.6
Outside Sauri
0.5
0.4
0.3
Sauri
0.2
0.1
0
Education:
New
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School meals
programmes
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Bursaries for high school
education (needy and
bright children)
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Adult education and
Community learning
resource centre.
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Infrastructural
development in schools
Water:
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Rehabilitation of
water springs
Piped water revival
and extension
Rain water harvesting
(water tanks)
Bore well construction
Environment:
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Rehabilitation of
degraded areas afforestation
Soil and water
conservation
structures
Water catchment
protection
Infrastructure:
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Electrification - GoK
Rechargeable lanterns for students
Upesi stoves for households
Village truck
Road graded - GoK
Communication – phones and ICT
Business development: Rural wealth creation
Private sector linkage on
agro-based processing,
value addition and
contract farming
Cereal banks
Market survey/information
Financial services e.g.,
savings and micro-credit
Community philanthropy
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Re-building falling houses
– project provides
iron sheets + nails
Community meeting
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Created a food ‘trust kitty’
for hungry and AIDSaffected households.
First Scale up (2006): covering 55,000 people