Top down . . . bottom up . . . what works? This book explores development from the

perspective of the poor. Who are they? What lives do they live? What matters to

them? And most importantly, what can they do about it?

Martin and Mathema debate how people can be given legitimate control of their

own environment, and how governments can work with them. How do communities

and conditions drive behavior? What interventions are appropriate and how can we

approach development imaginatively?

This is not about usurping governance – but revisiting structures that the developed

world has come to accept, and placing the power of decision in the hands of the

people it affects.

Nor it is about money . . . it’s about people, and about how we can make our world

work for everyone.