Dr. William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT, one of the Oasis co-convening Centers, gives a keynote speech to the plenary on 'Implementation Needs for Interventions to Combat Desertification'. He argued that the past pattern of 'managing misery' was no longer enough. Research, he said can play a crucial role in discovering new ways to overcome desertification that change the equation of development to one of hope and promise.