This paper addresses the potential to further enhance the impact and sustainability of national poverty reduction efforts through legislative-civic coordination or cooperation. The first section offers a brief survey of global experience in building constructive legislative-civic partnerships and identifies opportunities for cooperation that strengthen each of a legislature’s three main areas of responsibility—representation, legislation and oversight. The second portion of the paper overviews mechanisms by which legislatures can strengthen their own contribution to poverty reduction efforts through cooperation with civic actors at each stage in the domestic policy cycle—issue identification, policy formulation, policy implementation and evaluation/ monitoring. Although relationships between civic and legislative actors have been historically challenging in some countries, this paper argues that numerous opportunities exist for mutually beneficial coordination to the advantage of MPS, civil society and the population at large.