About two years ago, an effort was launched to try and harmonize the World Bank's considerable experience with community participation in a number of African countries. This effort was initiated by a group of organizations including the Benin National Research Institute, the Benin National Extension Service, the Royal Institute for the Tropics, and the World Bank. Very quickly, this group of organizations was expanded to include a variety of research, extension and other rural development organizations in about ten countries, with active support from bi, and multilaterals such as Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ, and others. The goal of the effort was to make community participation truly multi-sectoral and to use the approach to cover entire countries over a relatively short period of time.