Stimulated by work pioneered in Bangladesh, the paper outlines a conceptual framework for using poultry as a tool in poverty alleviation. There is now evidence from several coun- tries that small poultry enterprises with adequate institutional support targeting the poorest rural women and their families can help them take the first step out of poverty. However, for the concept to work as a poverty breaking tool (i) the beneficiaries must come from the poorest segments of the village, (ii) the cost of producing an egg must be lower than in the commercial sector, (iii) an enabling environment must be established to keep a small flock of hens, inter alia, access in the village to feed, vaccine, vaccinations services, micro-fi- nance, marketing and other inputs and services, and (iv) the enabling environment must contain institutional and political space to provide the people involved the possibilities and opportunities to take the next step out of poverty.
In conclusion it is noted that for this concept to remain an important tool in the fight against poverty, it is necessary to have a reliable tool to document the achieved results and have an institutional and political environment in which sharing of information is encouraged. One of the next steps in replication of the concept will be to institutionalise a paradigm, which encourages processes in which experiences are accumulated and dissemi- nated. The involved staff must learn from mistakes and successes and build up a framework that facilitates training, education, and research.