Synopses & Reviews
Over the past decade, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) have significantly grown the number and scope of their partnerships with the private sector. In this context, IGOs have launched policy initiatives and projects that make the private sector's core competencies, expertise, and activities essential parts of the solution to poverty, inclusiveness, and development. As a result, the policy agendas of almost all IGOs currently incorporate the design and implementation of innovative business models and inclusive market strategies at the base of the income pyramid in developing countries. These organizations are also actively involved in the process of development, promotion, and diffusion of norms of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility. Despite the objective importance of the private sector to contemporary development policy and practice, the causes of recent changes are among the least conceptualized and examined in the fields of IGOs, international relations theory, and development policy. Concerned with the implications that these changes in IGOs' engagement with the private sector may have for our understanding of contemporary development policy and practice, this book asks how and why these changes occurred, and to what extent the process of norm development influenced this transformation.
Review
"The UNDP's Engagement with the Private Sector begins with a great puzzle: why has the UNDP taken a U-turn in its attitude to engaging with business since the late 1990s? In answering it, the book suggests that changing norms on corporate social responsibility played a more significant role than state interests or functional concerns. Drawing on interviews and document analysis, Razeq has written a thoughtful and original contribution to our understanding of how international organizations work in a changing global context." - Jacqueline Best, University of Ottawa, Canada
Synopsis
An engaging explanation and unique analysis of the increased involvement of the private sector in one of the world's most influential development organizations, the United Nations Development Programme.
About the Author
Zarlasht M. Razeq is a political economist with graduate degrees in international development, international relations, and international economics. Her research interest focuses on international development policy, corporate social responsibility, and international relations.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. International Organizations and Policy Innovation in the Theories of IR
3. The United Nations Development Programme and the private sector for development
4. Explaining the Causes of Policy Innovation
5. Conclusion