The Undugu Community Empowerment Programme implements integrated community development interventions in areas with high poverty levels, mainly in the urban areas.

Programme areas include development education, economic empowerment, health (including HIV/AIDS awareness) and improvement of infrastructure. Health and HIV/AIDS interventions are centered on prevention through awareness creation and behavioral change as well as facilitation of community based support structures for people affected by the pandemic.

Lobbying and advocacy, building the capacity of community based organizations (CBOs) and establishing linkages for access to resources and services are important strategies for the programme. Areas of capacity building include leadership, management, governance, access to information and knowledge aimed at strengthening community organization capabilities.

One of the recent community empowerment initiatives is the introduction of a Self–Help Group (SHG) model. The model, which targets poor women, is anchored on the principle that every human being, however poor and vulnerable has a potential, something the model seeks to help unleash. The building of three tier people’s institutions namely, Self–Help Groups, Cluster Level Associations and Federation are the critical tenets of this model, which is already being implemented in Eastern Kenya (Machakos) and Western Kenya (Kisumu).