Outsourcing the Business of Development: The Rise of For-profit Consultancies in the UK Aid Sector

Whitty, Brendan; Sklair, Jessica; Gilbert, Paul Robert; Mawdsley, Emma; Russon, Jo Anna; Taylor, Olivia

Abstract

While much attention has been paid to the ways in which the private sector is now embedded within the field of development, one group of actors - for-profit development consultancies and contractors, or service providers - has received relatively little attention. This article analyses the growing role of for-profit consultancies and contractors in British aid delivery, which has been driven by two key trends: first, the outsourcing of managerial, audit and knowledge-management functions as part of efforts to bring private sector approaches and skills into public spending on aid; and second, the reconfiguration of aid spending towards markets and the private sector, and away from locally embedded, state-focused aid programming. The authors argue that both trends were launched under New Labour in the early 2000s, and super-charged under successive Conservative governments. The resulting entanglement means that the policies and practices of the UK government's aid agencies, and the interests and forms of for-profit service providers, are increasingly mutually constitutive. Amongst other implications, this shift acts to displace traditional forms of contestation and accountability of aid delivery.

Citation

Whitty, B., Sklair, J., Gilbert, P. R., Mawdsley, E., Russon, J. A., & Taylor, O. (2023). Outsourcing the Business of Development: The Rise of For-profit Consultancies in the UK Aid Sector. Development and Change, 54(4), 892-917. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12782

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 21, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jul 31, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-07
• Deposit Date: Dec 17, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 20, 2024
• Journal: Development and Change
• Print ISSN: 0012-155X
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-7660
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 54
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: 4
• Pages: 892-917
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12782
• Keywords: Accountability ; Attention ; Contractors ; Development Studies ; Government agencies ; Government spending ; Outsourcing ; Private sector ; Social Sciences ; Trends
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/38903039
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dech.12782
• Additional Information: Published: 2023-07-31