"We can draw several conclusions from this review about both theory and practice in the context of this decade of the Millennium Development Goals. First, the field of C4D remains alive and thriving on the ground, but it has not gained or maintained the center of attention in the larger communication field for some years in its mainstream journals. Much of the work to collect data and even to summarize those data has shifted to those organizations that promote practice or who collect information online. Websites of these organization may serve as better sources for data and writing about C4D than academic books or journals. It is not that there are not a number of academic institutions pursuing theory and policy studies concerning C4D (the Communication Initiative lists a large number globally), but other specialties like health, education, agronomy, policy studies, etc. have sometimes absorbed these pursuits; on the other hand communication studies have renamed their fields even though they pursue some of the same issues as before. Also, we should encourage a renewal of a more direct pursuit of C4D studies within the communication field, especially as this derives from universities close to a set of local issues (the University of the Philippines at Los Baños has provided an example of application and theory in the rural context for many decades). Second, I placed this review in the context of the Millennium Development Goals because these goals manifest the global expression of conscience for all countries. If C4D will again play a practical role in the process of solving the urgent problems of poverty, health, children, women, and the inequities that underlie these issues, then academics need to help create the theories and policies that can help eradicate the problems in both the short and long term (2015 for the MDGs). I premise this belief on the fact that people in every society live in an increasingly connected world where communication is an important reality and the study of communication is critical. This study of communication needs to look at the most urgent problems facing societies and ask how communication can help in their solution. The MDGs have defined the problems and C4D has an important role in these global challenges." (Conclusion, pages 14-15)