Paper short abstract:

The UK's Department for International Development (DFID) is increasingly committed to the private sector as an active development partner. This case analysis reviews the opportunities and conflicting interests in the nexus of UK private sector actors, DFID, and DFID's goals in six African countries.

Paper long abstract:

The UK government's Department for International Development (DFID) is increasingly committed to working with private sector actors to deliver its overseas aid and development agenda. However, this commitment is couched in the concept of 'Shared Prosperity' which is underpinned by the assumption that the interests of both private sector actors and the poor can be accommodated, whilst also achieving mutually beneficial outcomes. Pluralist conceptions of power and conflicting interest from sociological political economy theory are integrated with corporate responsibility literature on business-poverty relationships in Africa. This provides a framework for reviewing the opportunities and conflicting interests in a case analysis of three UK headquartered multinationals, in relation to DFID's goals in Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. The case analysis demonstrates that significant opportunities exist for private sector engagement with DFID where core business functions and commercial interests overlap with DFID development priorities. However, capacity also exists for the case companies to simultaneously undermine DFIDs goals, particularly as a result of largely unaccountable positions of influence within domestic and international arenas. The findings suggest that this DFID-private sector relationship is broadly neo-pluralistic in nature which raises theoretical questions regarding DFID's capacity to manage both private sector interests and the needs and interests of the poor. This has implications for DFID policymakers on how best to adopt a critical attitude in its relationship with private sector actors, whilst maximising the equitable nature of this nexus of business interests; donor interests, and poverty alleviation for DFID's intended beneficiaries.