Synopsis This volume emerges out of an experience-sharing international workshop of concerned researchers and social activists drawn form nine developing countries. It contains papers on poverty alleviation programmes implemented in Vietnam, Bangladesh, Kerala (India), Egypt, Tanzania and Uganda. The programmes show the wide variety of strategies followed: checking environmental degradation with people’s participation, increasing agricultural production through effective farm management, women empowerment through self-help groups, income generation through micro-credit schemes and forging of rural-urban linkages. These papers shed new light on the nature and characteristics of poverty in diverse socio-economic and cultural contexts and its multi-dimensional linkages at the local level. These papers authored by academics, activists, bureaucrats and NGOs provide profound insights into local-level poverty and strategies for its alleviation.