Synopsis (short abstract)The United Nations Inter-Agency Roundtable on Communication for Development is an informal forum convened every two years under the leadership of UNESCO for UN agencies, donors and practitioners to share progress, harmonize approaches and develop partnership arrangements in this field. The 9th UN Roundtable (Rome, September 2004), was hosted and organized by FAO in collaboration with UNESCO, the World Bank, CTA, IDRC, and the Government of Italy and was attended by some 150 participa nts. The Roundtable focused on “Communication and Sustainable Development” and addressed three key inter-related themes that are central to this issue: Communication in Research, Extension and Education; Communication for Natural Resource Management; and Communication for Isolated and Marginalized Groups. The selected papers presented in this publication provided the background to the working sessions of the Roundtable offering views and perspectives that contributed greatly to its r esults. The 9th UN Roundtable marked a turning point in the advancement of Communication for Development to meet the challenges of the 21st century, through increased collaboration and networking among the UN agencies and partner institutions. It reaffirmed that Communication for Development is a worthy approach to respond to the needs of people and development institutions promoting knowledge, information and participation in an integrated manner.