Development Against Poverty: A Systemic Model Design Based on Empirical Evidence

Abstract

The world’s poor numbered almost 2.8 billion in 2001, and 2.5 billion in 2005. During a decade of participatory research in a village in Yucatan, Mexico, we built a systemic model of transition from poverty to wellbeing. Households are the basic units because they are the source of human biological and cultural reproduction. Poverty is characterized by low levels of basic needs (i.e. education, health, income and capital). We applied a strategy of innovation and multiple goals, and exploited interaction between variables, in successive approaches within time cycles. Model application improved child nutrition, investment and savings, and credits levels