This special issue addresses a theme that mainstream development has persistently neglected: sexuality. Over the last decade, development policymakers and practitioners have come to endorse a multi-dimensional approach to poverty, and growing attention has been placed on achieving greater freedom, wellbeing and human rights for all. It is no longer possible to ignore discrimination, inequality and social exclusion: yet when it comes to the economic, social, political and rights implications of sex and sexuality, there is a silence. Why is sexuality a development concern? Because sexuality matters to people, and is an important part of most people's lives. Because development policies and practices are already having a significant - and often negative - impact on sexuality. And because sexuality and the social norms that seek to contain and control it - such as the assumption that women are sexually vulnerable and that men are not supposed to talk about fears or vulnerability around sexuality - in turn have a significant impact on poverty and well-being. Development needs to move beyond the current limited and negative approaches, to embrace the significance of sexuality for development in more affirmative ways. We need to go beyond victim approaches that consider only rights to be free from violation. Positive approaches, which include the right to ask for or say 'yes' to the pleasures we seek as well as 'no' to that which we do not desire, can be an entry point to challenging social and economic inequalities.