An island of success in a sea of failure? The MDGs and Sauri Millennium Village in Kenya

i Acknowledgements v List of Figures and Images xiii List of Tables xiv List of Abbreviations xv Glossary of Local Words used in the Thesis xvii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Kenya’s development initiatives 2 1.2.1 Colonization, post-colonial legacies, development and poverty 4 1.2.2 Kenya’s poverty alleviation strategies 6 1.3 Aims and objectives of the thesis 9 1.4 Significance of the thesis 9 1.5 Structure of the thesis 10 Chapter 2: LINGERING POVERTY THE IDEA OF MILLENNIUM VILLAGE PROJECT AND KENYA VISION 2030 13 2.1 Millennium Development Goals and the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) 14 2.1.1 The Millennium Village Clusters and their socio-economic, ecological and agricultural backdrop. 15 2.2 The Sauri MVP: Project/Research Site 19 2.2.1 The Sauri Millennium Village 19 2.2.2 Foreign aid, Sauri and KV2030 23 2.3 Summarising the context of Sauri Millennium Village Project (SMVP) and the research questions... 24 Chapter 3: LITERATURE REVIEW 27 3.1 Critical review of poverty theories and practices 27 3.1.1 Poverty definitions 27 3.1.2 Theories of poverty in contemporary literature 30 3.1.2.1 Individualistic perspective 31 3.1.2.2 Cultural perspective 32 3.1.2.3 Structural perspective 33