About a third of development projects fail to achieve satisfactory outcomes, according to agencies' independent evaluation units. To a large extent, these outcomes appear to be baked into projects at their inception due to inadequate project design or relevance. This prompts questions about the...

Costa Rica's pioneering environmental services program seeks to maintain socially optimal forest cover by compensating landowners for the external benefits provided by their forests. The National Forestry Fund proposes to sell carbon sequestration services to the world market and hydrological...