"Even in extreme poverty, a person has ideas. If these ideas aren't recognized, people fall even deeper into poverty" (participant in the Ouagadougou MDG seminar). To understand the successes and failures of the current MDG agenda, it is essential to think together with people living in extreme poverty. This is both a matter of efficiency and a moral duty, since participation in public affairs is a fundamental human right.
People living in extreme poverty see the day-to-day problems that arise from the current way development policies are designed and applied, and they have ideas on how these problem could be fixed.