Katine: It Starts With a Village

Similar to the Millenium Villages project, the UK's Guardian and Observer created a 3-year development project in rural Katine, Uganda. This project, launched in 2007, focuses on several main aspects: education, health, water, governance, and livelihoods. It is funded by readers of the popular Guardian and Observer magazines. An important aspect of the Katine project is their effort to create a forum for residents to express their views on the successes and failures of the project. Their detailed website contains a blog from people living in the village, photos, news about recent developments, and videos.

Millennium Villages

In 12 different sites across 10 countries in Africa, the UN has set up what they call Millennium Villages. These villages have been selected to demonstrate how African rural communities can lift themselves out of poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Practical and affordable solutions are being put to use, such as free daily school lunches, agricultural training, vitamin supplements, access to anti-retroviral medicines, and insecticide-treated bed nets. The idea is that if these 12 villages can lift themselves out of poverty, the same principles can be applied on a broader scale to combat poverty all over the world. Read more about the specific villages involved and the program itself.