In solving complex problems involving many different stakeholders, interdisciplinary research is indispensable. But cooperation between disciplines is not always easy. Since 2000 Wageningen University has funded a series of interdisciplinary research programmes. This article looks at the lessons that have been learned.

Codes of conduct are supposed to regulate working conditions in garment and sport shoe factories all over the world. Efforts to coordinate these voluntary initiatives have so far not been effective. Stronger and more binding initiatives are needed.

Following the civil war in Lebanon (1975–1989) various multilateral donors initiated an ambitious programme of administrative reform. But they made a mess of it, concludes Nisrine El Ghaziri.

Non-governmental development organizations are expected to focus on countries with poor governance. New evidence shows that they do not. While they do tend to focus more than bilateral donors on poor countries, they make some curious geographical choices. It seems that they too have their ‘donor darlings’.