IFAD, is a specialised agency of the United Nations, and was established as an International Financial Institution in 1977 with a mission to enable poor rural people to overcome poverty. IFAD focuses on country-specific solutions, which can involve increasing rural poor peoples' access to financial services, markets, technology, land and other natural resources.

The India Country Presence (ICP) office decided to bring out a publication, to highlight the success stories and lessons learned from its on going projects. These stories from the field/ projects were printed for larger dissemination, as a part of ICP’s Knowledge Management (KM) activities to embolden IFAD’s work on providing pro-poor solutions for the communities at large.