IFAD Programmes in India have focused exclusively on rural poverty reduction, working with poor rural populations to eliminate poverty, raise productivity and incomes, and improve the quality of their lives. The projects implemented so far have been in very different natural, socio-economic and cultural environments and some of them have been in remote areas, and targeted some of the poorest and most deprived segments of the rural population. Some of the Innovations that were tested in India include the Self Help Group movement, which was pioneered by IFAD in its Tamil Nadu Women Empowerment Programme. This has been upscaled by the Government of India to such an extent that today it has taken the shape of a mass movement in India with Governments, Donors, Civil Society all using it as a vehicle for Women's Empowerment and Poverty reduction including its use as an important tool for Financial inclusion.

IFAD believes that interventions are sustainable in their impact only if processes learnt during project implementation are used to generate knowledge for ruraldevelopment partners and it is ensured that knowledge can and will be applied in practical and immediate ways. It is in this context that lessons learnt form completed projects are captured in Project Completion Reports for Dissemination.