Underlying this article is a recognition of the relationship between poverty and poor health and nutrition and a realization that poverty does not affect al/ the members of a household uniformly. We believe that households as a whole do not operate to promote the common good of all their members. Within conditions of chronic resource scarcity, some family members consistently fare worse than others. It is, therefore, necessary to identify intra-household factors that influence health and nutrition behaviour. Given the fact that household behaviour is determined by a number of factors, several types of intervention are proposed. To improve the chances of lasting success for development programmes, we advocate designing and testing educational messages that address all aspects of household behaviour.