The Kenyan Harambee Self-help movement offers an interesting example of "bottom-up" development of more than one decade, with little and often no government financial support. The movement appears to reflect pragmatic local priorities and offers an opportunity to test what local people "really want". Harambee self-help existed before the ideological calls for self-reliant development, and raises the issue whether in fact ideological build-up can or should precede actual development efforts.