Economists have long been questioning the usefulness of the traditional, highly regulatory international commodity policy. In recent years, the failure of this policy has become evident. Could price and earnings stabilisation through price risk management instruments represent a viable alternative?

In 2011, the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group made its project ratings database public. With broad geographic and sectoral coverage, this database is a valuable resource for research on development effectiveness, what works and what does not. This chapter first provides an overview for...