Abstract/Summary: The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating poverty in the rural areas of developing countries. Seventy-five per cent of the world’s poorest people, 800 million women, men and children, live in rural areas. Most depend on agriculture to survive. The IFAD team working on agricultural water management and rural infrastructure is developing its operational approach to water and rural poverty (WRP), under the aegis of the project for Learning and Knowledge on Innovations in Water and RuralPoverty (InnoWat). In light of the changing rural context within which poor rural people find themselves, the overall goal of InnoWat is essentially twofold:• strengthen IFAD capacity as a knowledge management broker for development partners interested in WRP, in accordance with IFAD’s mandate; and• provide IFAD country programme managers (CPMs) and their design teams with practical tools for project development, implementation and pro-poor, water related interventions. The team has created the present kit – InnoWat: Water, innovations, learning and rurallivelihoods1 – with the expectation that it will be useful to IFAD CPMs and will enhance IFAD’s comparative advantage with respect to rural poverty reduction and water issues.