The Corporate Sector in International Development

Over the past two decades many efforts have been made to engage the corporate sector in the processes of international development. Such efforts have taken many forms. Some large companies have developed internal systems and processes to manage impacts on wider societal issues; a number of donor agencies have begun to focus more on engagement with the private sector; collaborative initiatives have sought to address issues ranging from transparency of extractive industry revenue payments to the use of security personnel in site operations; and institutions have been established to try to encourage and broker relationships between companies and donor agencies.

Yet to date, little effort has been made systematically to study these collected experiences with a view to identifying what actually works. Which approaches and efforts have been most successful in harnessing the corporate sector's capacities for development ends, and what has led to their success? Are we any closer to knowing what works in leveraging corporate abilities to developmental ends?

This book addresses this gap. It examines examples of each of the different approaches taken to date and seeks to establish what works. It compares the different strategies with a view to understanding how effective each has been, how difficult each has been to establish and maintain, and which, if any, offer a potential for reliability which would enable more widespread and effective engagement of the corporate sector as a development actor.

Dr Peter Davis has worked with companies including Anglo American, Northrop Grumman and Diageo, and with government agencies such as the Swedish International Development Agency, the British Department for International Development, and the IFC. From 2006 to 2009 he co-chaired David Cameron’s Working Group on Responsible Business Practice

He is a former Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute, and a member of visiting faculty at Henley Business School.