Asia, particularly South Asia, has the highest number of poor people in the world today. Many of these people are rural and depend on natural resources for their livelihoods and growth. If the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals are to be achieved in the region urgent action is needed on rural poverty. The critical linkages between natural resources, growth and poverty alleviation, and governance and democracy are becoming more evident every day. And these linkages and complementarities are providing a powerful framework with which to analyze and attack rural issues.