Book excerpt: This book provides a set of case studies summarising recent developing country experiences of developing and implementing national sustainable development strategies (NSDSs). These are based directly on the work of country teams that facilitated multi-stakeholder dialogues on NSDSs. Drawing also from this work and from broader international experience, the early chapters explore new thinking and provide key lessons about the development, implementation and monitoring of NSDSs; and explore how the continuous improvement approach now advocated for NSDSs can link their development and implementation with the needs and opportunities for research. The book is a practical complement to the Resource Book on Sustainable Development Strategies (isn 1668215), which provides guidance on how to develop, assess and implement such strategies.