This clustered PPAR assesses two rural poverty reduction projects carried out by the World Bank in two Brazilian states during 2001–-2009. The Ceará Rural Poverty Reduction project, approved in 2001, closed in 2009 following an additional financing (AF) which was approved in 2006. The Santa Catarina NRMRPRP was approved in 2002 and closed in 2009. The two projects share the objective of improving the economic and social conditions of the rural poor, but under very different conditions. Rural poverty rates in the two states were, and remain, polar opposites. At design, Ceará had the second highest rural poverty rate among Brazilian states, and Santa Catarina had the lowest. The Ceará project mainly focused on basic service delivery such as water and electricity plus some productive assets. The Santa Catarina poverty reduction project also focused on land and natural resource management.