"The following is the fourth in a series of reports from the Ethiopian village of Koraro, an important testing ground for the Millennium Village Project, an experiment in global development strategy spearheaded by economist Jeffrey Sachs. The reports, written by Jeff Marlow, a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology, consider which parts of the project are working and which ones aren’t, and what can be learned from it to help billions of people escape extreme poverty."
The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) is one of the highest-profile experiments in international development, gaining the attention of movie stars and world leaders alike. Less well-known is the project’s sister program, the Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI), which seeks to help sub-Saharan cities meet hard targets on health, education, and gender issues.
With half of the world’s population now living in urban areas – many enveloped in the crushing hopelessness of slums – cities need wide-reaching development initiatives. Despite the urgency of the challenge, the MCI is having difficulty gaining traction because of political and social complexities and an anemic budget.
With half of the world’s population now living in urban areas – many enveloped in the crushing hopelessness of slums – cities need wide-reaching development initiatives. Despite the urgency of the challenge, the MCI is having difficulty gaining traction because of political and social complexities and an anemic budget.
The cities were selected by default: the closest city to each participating village was incorporated into the program in an attempt to build outward from the village-based model. “We were basically handed these cities,” says Dr. Susan Blaustein, co-director of the MCI, “and they all have different kinds of challenges.”
Kisumu, Kenya, perched on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria, was minted as the first Millennium City in 2006 with the aim of linking goods from the nearby Millennium Village, Sauri, with regional, national, and international markets.
