Full text can be accessed at http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-007-6107-0_9Why is poverty such a challenging problem in small-scale fishing communities, despite noble efforts to eradicate it? This chapter argues that poverty requires a governability lens to be understood and effectively alleviated. More specifically, the chapter uses the interactive governance approach’s three systems model, i.e., the system-to-be-governed, the governing system and governing interactions, to discuss poverty as a “wicked problem” that involves challenges pertaining to governability. We explore the limits of, and conditions for, governability and how these affect poverty. Our point of view is shaped by the poverty conditions prevalent in the fishing communities of Lake Victoria in Tanzania.