Attempts by the developing countries to replace the largely voluntary provision of development aid by a system that would free official resource flows from the possibility of political interference by the donors and from the need for yearly budgetary allocations have been going on for some time....

After five years of tough negotiations at numerous conferences about an integrated Programme for Commodities (IPC) the participating countries agreed in March 1979 on basic and operational regulations for the key instrument of this programme, a Common Fund. In its present version it is closely...