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This article focuses on the relationship between governments and markets in development aid policymaking. It argues that the spread of market-oriented mechanisms within international assistance is an institutional process that is linked to the changing foreign policies of major donor countries. First, this article shows that the integration of government and market spheres mostly results from donor countries’ efforts to reform the existing global aid architecture in the name of development effectiveness. Second, it argues that the proliferation of international private norms used in development practices partly reflects a process of delegation of authority through which states have transfered regulatory powers to private organizations, while preserving a capacity to influence the implementation of norms. Eventually, this article demonstrates that the market is a way for donor countries to steer their international aid policy, transferring part of the burden of development aid to private actors and, in return, giving them access to new, often lucrative, markets.