Since its inception under the mandate of the Poverty Reduction Board (PRB) in 1997, the Poverty Reduction Group (PRMPR) in the PREM anchor has assisted country teams in sharpening the poverty focus of CASs, analytical work and lending operations and has supported senior management in addressing the overall corporate agenda on poverty reduction. Following its merger with the PRS unit in 2000, the Poverty Reduction Group also became the institutional focal point for the PRS process. The Group’s work on PRS-related issues provided an operational focus, but it came at the cost of heavy reporting requirements to senior management and the Board, limiting the availability of resources to work on issues relevant to middle income countries (MICs) or to provide direct support to country teams. With the mainstreaming of the PRS approach in the Bank and a large decline in corporate requirements, there is now an opportunity for the unit to provide more services in response to client demand, address poverty related issues that are of special relevance to MICs, and contribute to other emerging priorities in PREM and the Bank.