The strengths and weaknesses of the agency approach and the institutional approach will be discussed by means of applying them SDG one: no poverty; with a focus on poverty alleviation. Structural and actor-oriented approaches to development are conceptually different, imply different definitions of development and different methodologies. However, it is important to stress that there is an ongoing relationship between human agency and social structure as they are interactive and reciprocal (Van Westen, 2017).
The agency approach refers to a theoretical and methodological approach to understanding social processes (Long & Van der Ploeg, 1994: 80). Long & Van der Ploeg define agency as something that generally: ‘… attributes the individual actor the capacity to
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Within the limits of information and other constraints’ (1994: 65). The agency approach thus refers to organizing the capacities of local populations through a bottom-up and micro-perspective approach (Long & Van der Ploeg, 1994). An example of the organization of capacities and bottom-up approach is the Manobi project in Senegal. Manobi started with interviews that took place under small scale farmers. The reference groups were asked what they needed in their agro-business to organize their capacity. One of the result was that they need better access to market information and current pricing of crops to improve their sales on the local market. Manobi, therefore started gathering data on current prices of crops for locally sold commodities in and around Dakar. They then provide pricing information through mobile