Rebecca Holmes and John Farrington were commissioned by NR International on behalf of DFID to prepare two thematic papers on two themes (impact of poverty and vulnerability - respectively) for presentation at the 'Sustainable Livelihoods and Rural Development - Two Decades of Impact and Learning' conference being held in Delhi in April 2010. The regional conference is being organised by the Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods Project (WORLP), a DFID funded development project.

The overall objective of the conference is to discuss the impact of the donors' investmentsin rural livelihoods programmes over the last decade, to assess the learning which has come from that, and to discuss the implications for various stakeholders.

Under the thematic area selected, the terms of reference were to review relevant reports of 8 selected DFID India - and one DFID Bangladesh - projects, extract and analyse data and write a paper with a focus on identified impact and learning, and the implications of these for future policy.