The United Nations have established eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) during the Millennium Summit in 2000. Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger before 2015 has been the first of them. To achieve these goals, funding has been provided by several foundations and International Organizations such as the International Found for Agriculture and Development (IFAD). Goat activities are considered pathway out of poverty for poor smallholder farmers in the developing world and many projects have been implemented to promote goat raising. Unfortunately, references to scale up their successful factors are still very scarce and many projects were failures by lack of references, basic initial information, and business planning. The present study has been realized for IFAD to scale up and transfer successful practices and know –how on projects involving goats. A comparative analysis of more than 12 significant cases all over the world has been realized to scale up the successful factors on sustainable pro-poor small ruminant development projects. Dairy, meat and fiber commodities have been considered. By using Knowledge Harvesting methodology and exchanges with experts and actors involved in the several projects, the context of each case and the actors system have been described as well as the main productions systems. For each situation, Strong and Weak internal points, external Opportunities or Threats (SWOT) have been identified and discussed within two working group meetings and one seminar. After these general considerations on goat production systems and commodities, a typology based the possible objectives of each project has been built. The most accurate investments for each type are described and a methodology is proposed to choose them and how to monitor the implementation of each project. A special focus has been on the importance on the Goat Value Chain and a full Goat Value Chain specific tool kit has been prepared to support operationally the project leaders. A cost–benefits analysis evaluating the Investment Return Rates (IRR) and based on the studied cases has been realized by a FAO agro-economist expert. This collective project has shown that by using simple tools and indicators, it is possible to monitor professionally the development projects by minimizing the risks of failure. Besides, it confirmed that the development of livestock by small holders can be in many cases profitable and economically, environmentally and socially sustainable solutions for many territories. The organization of a competitive intelligence and information system is necessary in these specific situations for a better governance of development projects.