This blog was first published in Dutch on Vice Versa Magazine How can investments in and for the private sector contribute to development cooperation? This is more or less the key question on the agenda during the current Financing for Development (FfD) negotiations in New York. According to the European Union (EU), the answer lies with the risky use of public resources as a catalyst for private investment. However, this outsourcing of development cooperation to the private sector is accompanied by a serious lack of evidence about the real development impact, transparency, accountability and developing country ownership. In a way, you have to give the EU credit. By means of a well thought-through communication strategy, the EU has managed to place private finance at the heart of the ...