This book examines the record of the European development cooperation agencies in pursuing their poverty reduction goals in the 1990s. It assesses their commitment and approach and the way they managed their spending and interventions to help poor people. Evidence from field studies estimates the poverty reducing effectiveness of their projects programmes as well as their good and bad practices. New concepts like 'partnership' and 'sector wide approaches' for more effective pro-poor use of aid are examined. Changes in the agencies management systems are recommended to ensure that poverty reduction is more effectively 'mainstreamed' and performance improved.