The Super MoneyMaker Pressure Pump by KickStart can irrigate up to 2 acres of land. Photo: KickStart

What does someone in poverty need most? Martin Fisher's answer: “A way to make more money.” Fisher is co-founder of KickStart, which pledges "a systematic approach to the end of poverty" by helping people create small enterprises selling simple but highly desirable tools like irrigation pumps.

He was recently named OneWorld.net’s person of the year, and gave an online interview with readers in which he challenges widely held views on poverty and the often incomplete ways we attempt to solve the issue of poverty.

Fisher says, "There is too much of 'us' giving 'them' what 'we' think 'they' need." For example, a women-only training program in a community with a lot of unemployed men, or solar-powered stoves that cause more problems than they solve. Fisher believes that the best way to lift people out of poverty is to help them start an enterprise. His website explains why giveaways don’t reach as many people and aren’t as efficient.

But Fisher isn’t just looking at how we address poverty, but how we measure our success:

“You want to reduce malaria? Great. But don't tell us about your success based only on the number of bed nets you gave out. That tells us nothing. Go out and measure the proper use of those nets. Measure the pre and post incidence of malaria and prove that you are cost effectively reducing the number of people suffering and dying from malaria.”

He even challenges microcredit firms to stop evaluating their success on the rate of loan repayment. If the businesses being created are really profitable, how profitable? Is it getting people out of poverty, or as Fisher says, "[is it] just making it a little easier for them to survive?"

Fisher says he's not trying to be harsh or confrontational; he's only trying to ensure that the resources go to where they are needed — to plans that will help to end poverty instead of just making it "less awful."

Read how Fisher distinguishes "Real Good" from "Feel Good."