Poverty contributes to many problems globally and its resultant effects are many,, varied and have their greatest impact in poor countries. One of the major effects of poverty is malnutrition, which has a hold on all facets of life due to the vicious cycle associated with it. In sub-Saharan Africa, malnutrition is rampant and as a result has led to morbidity and mortality, has affected cognitive development and physical growth and has also diminished physical work capacity. The main purpose of this study was to explore the strategies that have been used to combat poverty and malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa and to also be able to understand the reasons why those strategies worked or did not work. To do this, articles written on the topics related to poverty and malnutrition from sub-Saharan Africa were reviewed. From this it has emerged that poverty should be addressed and that education would have the greatest impact in doing so. Community participation has also emerged to be instrumental in ensuring that the poverty and malnutrition combating strategies are embraced and accepted by the community in general. The reason for this is that, a community will participate actively only if it can relate to the objectives of the project or programme being set up and also be involved in the planning, negotiations and implementation of the strategies.