This study is prompted by the challenge for effective mass mobilisation and community participation in rural development and service delivery. The study critically surveys mass mobilisation and community participation in rural development, at the grass roots, as a medium for minimising the problem of insecurity occasioned by poverty and criminality. Notably, sub-Saharan Africa is home to some of the 10 poorest countries in the world. The region has one of the most porous and unregulated borders through which large volumes of drugs, small arms and terrorists flow across the region. This paper examines poverty and the growth of criminality in sub-Saharan Africa and stresses the need for effective mass mobilisation and community participation to curb crime at the grass roots. This paper relies on a mixed method for data collection. It argues that the increase in the number of people living below the poverty line, in the region, escalate