This paper seeks to make a contribution to the understanding of how poverty alleviation may be linked to targeted income transfers that encourage micro-enterprise development. For the purposes of explication, the analysis is based on the characteristics of coastal communities in general, and the subsistence fisheries sector in particular. The main objective of the paper is to empirically guide the understanding of the impact of income transfers on a given population, and to assess whether those transfers could possibly lead to more sustainable forms of income generation activities in poor communities. Thus, the possibility of micro-enterprise development is used as a reference point in the discussion rather than investigated in detail as a related topic. Although specific emphasis is placed on the fisheries sector, the real utility of the analysis lies in its adaptation of a reproducible method to quantify the impact of poverty alleviation expenditure while simultaneously exploring the scope for micro-enterprise development given these transfers.