This conference brings together a group of development practitioners from governments in South Asia and Africa, World Bank, IFAD, UNDP, Foundations, and academia who are at the forefront of development, implementation and study of Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods Program. With the financial and professional support from the World Bank and related international development agencies, various regional governments in Asia and Africa have implemented or are implementing such programs. Individually, these programs have been monitored, evaluated, and studied, but the lessons learned from them are scattered, highlighting the need for a comprehensive, rigorous synthesis of steps involved in their development; an examination of the challenges in their implementation; and a discussion of the evidence of their impacts.

This 3-day conference is designed to meet the above goal by allowing in-depth discussions on a select number of livelihoods programs in Asia (e.g., JEEViKA and the National Rural Livelihoods Mission) and Africa, and by inviting the perspectives of the three key stakeholders: the international development organizations, regional governments responsible for the implementation of the programs, and researchers who have systematically evaluated and studied these programs for their economic and non-economic aspects, as well as their short- and long- term impacts. More specifically, the workshop will look at what has been achieved, what lessons have been learned, and what the implications are for programming the implementation of similar programs in other countries.