The openness to programmatic evolution is nowhere more important than in development assistance where critics have long chided that the number of countries successfully elevated out of poverty is limited and far between. Michael Woolcock (Manchester), Simon Szreter (Cambridge) and Vijayendra Rao (World Bank) note in their latest report on the subject that institutions matter and history matters too. Vijaya Ramachandran at the Center for Global Development picks up where IFPRI left off and suggests that the FAO be empowered to actively manage price risk. She repeats the call for a hedging mechanism and for U.S. stockpiling of food aid commodities. Bob Kohlmeyer has addressed these suggestions in earlier reports but this is not to discourage outside the box thinking. One suggestion has been for an “aid quality index” to at least objectively measure what works and what does not. At least there is no falling on the sword in defense of the status quo.