The main theme of this paper is that livestock production can make a significant contribution to the livelihoods of the poor and offers substantial scope for expansion to alleviate poverty. This potential is far from being realized, however, and there is much wider scope for the promotion of livestock, especially among poor rural communities, by national and international policy makers. Using Viet Nam as case study, this paper describes how information distilled from a variety of sources can be combined in an analytical approach termed ‘integrated poverty assessment of livestock promotion’ (IPALP), which aims at improving the general understanding about the role of livestock in poverty alleviation, while at the same time strengthening the basis of evidence on
how policies can best support pro-poor development. Using a national and a sub-national social accounting matrix, policy experiments are conducted to assess the impact of an economy-wide policy of WTO-style trade liberalization, with and without concomitant livestock promotion. The results indicate trade liberalization with concomitant livestock promotion has higher overall positive impacts and plays an important role in offsetting adjustment costs. Tools for this kind of ex ante assessment can support more effective policies for outward oriented growth and poverty alleviation.