Serving Public or Private Interests?

Aid can be a powerful business strategy in a globalized world. The current trend of increased reliance on private actors to obtain development has led to increase of public-private partnerships in aid. When public and private actors meet, research has shown that private interests outweigh public objectives. This book sets light on power relations in aid, contextualized by a study of Norway's Oil for Development initiative in Ghana. Oil for Development allocates few resources, but operates in 26 developing countries with oil resources. It uses private sector experts in its projects. Oil for Development is here analysed as a public-private partnership with focus on why it was created and what it means in Norwegian foreign and national politics. Who benefits from it? Does it represent a conflict of interests, as claimed in an article in the Financial Times shortly after its launch in 2005? How is power exercised among the main actors: the Norwegian state, Ghana and Norway's oil industry? The book reveals an example of sophisticated use of power where the donor's interests are seemingly perfectly aligned with the interests of the developing countries