Focusing on some of the poorest and most vulnerable countries and regions of the world, we have worked with government, international agencies, research organisations and civil society organisations to increase the impact on poverty of policies and programmes in agriculture and natural resources. Our contributions have included the analysis of complex current livelihood patterns; advice on developing alternatives and the monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment of research and development programmes, including the development of methodologies for assessing institutional change. Examples include livelihood analysis in Afghanistan and an assessment of the livelihood impacts of humanitarian removal of land mines in Yemen. In agricultural research we have conducted a review of the Networks, Programmes and Projects of ASARECA (the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Southern Africa and for the last five years we have participated in the monitoring of EC support to projects within the International Agricultural Research Centres. Continuing our work on impact assessment related to Natural Resources and Ethical Trade, we are collaborating in a ESRC funded project examining the implications of private standards initiatives for governance in supply chains.