Paper short abstract:

Building on the direct experience of the author, the article describes the features and dynamics of contractors in development actions of funding institutions.

Paper long abstract:

The article aims at contributing to the recent debate about the role of consultancies in international development. Building on the author's direct observation conducted upon more than seven years of professional activity, this paper proposes an analysis of the actors, tools and dynamics of this development arena. An analysis of the literature shows this segment of development cooperation, which intervenes mainly on global and national scales, has been so far scarcely studied. After an overview of main funding schemes and services requested, the contribution provides an analysis of the vast ecosystem of large and medium-sized consulting firms, research centers, and specialized boutique firms identifying some typologies and patterns. Contr'actors' are competing/partnering in call for tenders for technical assistance procured by development donors (international organizations, banks, national agencies and climate funds inter alia) to increase their market share and defend their position. Attention is paid to describe these organizational and operational strategies and labour related dynamics. The article concludes with a reflection about the spatial impacts of these actions on the territories of target “beneficiaries", thus proposing further points for debate. The hypothesis is that by implementing these projects, for profit contr’actors’ become territorializing agents of the socio-economic and spatial reproduction of the development model proposed by these funding institutions. By defining new territorialities, and reshaping power relations between countries, they become a syntagmatic actor (to quote Raffestin), not only of international development, but also of the geopolitics of the world system.