In the late 1980s the World Bank initiated a process designed both to generate analytic background on priorities for control of specific diseases and to use this information as input for comparative cost-effectiveness estimates for interventions addressing the full range of conditions important in developing countries. The purpose of the comparative cost-effectiveness work was to provide one input into decision-making within the health sectors of highly resource-constrained low- and middle-income countries. This process resulted in the 1993 publication of Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries. A decade after publication of the first edition, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the Fogarty International Center of the U.S. National Institutes of Health have initiated a Disease Control Priorities Project that will, among other outcomes, result in a second edition of Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries (DCP2). DCP2 will provide integrative chapters-e.g. school health systems or surgery or Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI)- that draw together the implementation-related responses to a number of conditions. Case studies and lessons from implementation success will be highlighted.