Private consultants and policy advisory organizations: a blind spot on policy transfer research

Abstract

The literature on policy transfers has focused on learning among governmental agentes, especially states. However, in the contemporary era, agents such as consultancies, international organizations, and specialized private agencies have acquired progressively a more relevant role in policy design and delivery, knowledge production and transnational transfers. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored projects on food security across Southern Countries. Ayala Consulting Group has been assisting to different governments to design Conditional Cash Transfer Programs. Mckinsey is developing and advocating for housing models for African cities. The Rio+ Center in Brazil have fostered sustainable development goals across the world, via the diffusion of best practices. In many instances, these organizational agents partner with counterparts to amplify messages, best-practices, benchmarks and international standards. Partnering with international organizations can provide official patronage and indirectly, legitimacy for the policy instruments or models being diffused. The effect is a convergence among models, which are not necessarily adapted to contexts where they are implemented. Considering the changes in the empirical landscape of policy transfer and the proliferation of new actors both private and intergovernmental, our aim is to present the main issues and questions about the role of the private sector on public policy transfer, as well as their type of engagement, interests, interactions and operational styles.