The Fourth Annual World Bank Conference on Environmentally Sustainable Development held in September 1996 focused on where the international development community should be heading to bring about rural development and achieve rural well-being. Four key issues for sustaining such a challenge were discussed: poverty reduction; widely shared growth; household, national, and global food security; and sustainable natural resource management. Thematic and regional roundtable discussions included targeting poverty reduction, investing in social capital, improving dryland management, conquering rural poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean, and accelerating rural growth in Africa.