Globally, semi-arid lands are home to almost one billion people and make major contributions to national economies, with the private sector playing a major role in their economic development. Yet they have long been marginalised. In this paper, the Pathways to Resilience in Semi-Arid Economies (PRISE) research project challenges some of the myths around semi-arid lands and highlights the exciting potential these regions, and the communities and economies in them, have to be agents of climate-resilient economic development.