A new examination of corporate involvement in international development, a key issue for the global community in the twenty-first century.

Benedicte Bull and Desmond McNeill look at how and why United Nations organizations and the World Bank are increasingly working with private actors, including not-for-profit companies and corporations and business organizations and private foundations to address key world issues such as health, education, labour rights and water.

Critics have claimed that increased corporate involvement threatens the legtimacy of multilateral organizations and this book assesses this claim, while providing a comprehensive cross-sector study of public-private partnerships (PPP) and detailed case studies on:

• the pharmaceutical industry, exploring health initatives such as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization and the Global Fund to fights AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
• the International Labour Organization and the fight against child labour.
• UNESCO and the partnerships with Intel and Microsoft to develop educational material and community centres for increasing computer literacy in the developing world
• World Bank and PPP efforts to improve water supplies in developing countries, critical for sustainable development, environmental integrity and the alleviation of poverty and hunger.

With new theoretical frameworks and fresh case-studies, this is an important contribution to our understanding of the changing role of private authority in international affairs. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers of IPE, international relations and development.