Private Transnational Governance of Economic Development: International Development Aid

Abstract

This paper examines the role of private actors in international development aid, focusing on four new actors or actors who have in recent years taken on new roles: (1) transnational aid NGOs as a channel of delivery for public (governmental) development aid; (2) transnational aid NGOs as development agenda-setters; (3) foundations and corporations as sources of development aid; (4) transnational aid NGOs as private providers of privately funded aid. For each of them, we discuss the sources of their power and influence and examine how ideas about development and aid have shaped the rise of these new players, identifying throughout promising and important areas for future research. In the final section, we consider peer-to-peer development aid and other innovative attempts to solve pervasive accountability problems in development aid. The paper was written as a chapter for the forthcoming Handbook on Global Economic Governance (Routledge), for which is has been accepted for publication in 2013. The posted version is the pre-copyedit manuscript.

Keywords: foreign aid, development assistance, NGOs, private governance, non-state actors

JEL Classification: F35, O10