private sector

Aid donors increasingly seek to inject private-sector resources into development by ‘blending’ official development assistance (ODA) with private finance. There is little evidence of the development impact, and projects often do not align with country ownership, transparency and accountability.

This paper shows that the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) has specific weaknesses that should be addressed through its national implementation, in order to enhance the benefits for African citizens.

‘Blending’ combines official development assistance with other private or public resources, in order to ‘leverage’ additional funds from other actors. This report aims to clarify what it is, how it works and how it is used, to foster greater understanding of this increasingly prominent development finance mechanism.

After years of international isolation, Myanmar is liberalizing its economy and seeking to attract foreign investment. This paper outlines potential risks to communities posed by these investments, and explores state regulation as a way to promote responsible business practices in the sector.

This report draws on evidence from the South-East Asia region to explore the impacts of special economic zones (SEZs). It shows that without transparency and accountable governance, SEZs are more likely to result in harmful environmental and social impacts.

Gaza's dairy sector has been severely damaged by Israel’s separation policy, blockade and three rounds of hostilities. However, there are opportunities for the sector to grow and reduce its dependence on external markets.

Over the past six years, the International Finance Corporation has channelled over $50bn to the financial sector. However, the evidence continues to grow that this private sector arm of the World Bank Group has little control over how a great deal of this money is spent.

In this report, Oxfam identifies three key issues that need to be tackled for Unilever to move to the next level of social impact and responsible sourcing and for the good intentions of their policies to translate into real impact for the lives of workers.

The DAC’s reform process offers an opportunity to develop rigorous and demanding criteria and standards to better regulate the use of aid in private sector investments. The following recommendations aim at ensuring the reform leads to a principled approach.

Despite progress, much work remains to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to support the millions of people already hit by climate change. This paper presents new data commissioned from the research consultancy CE Delft on the greenhouse gas emissions footprints and water scarcity footprints of major food commodities.