This overview introduces the articles in this theme issue of DPR. Their focus is on how growth can be sustained in the face of a number of challenges, and how it can be made more poverty-reducing. The context against which these issues are examined is dynamic, with rapid change in rural-urban balance, shifts in patterns of regional and global trade and questions about whether existing modes of energy use and environmental management are sustainable. Whether and how new partnerships can be forged - including partnerships between Asian countries and donors - and how they might accelerate poverty reduction in this changing context is a central concern.