DfID's top private sector partners for 2014

The premier development agency for the world’s second-biggest bilateral donor, the U.K. Department for International Development channeled 9 percent of its aid expenditure through private sector partners in 2011-12, the latest year when those figures are available. The latest peer review of the U.K. aid program by the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development confirmed that DfID has been increasing its use of private sector partners since then. In fact, the report found that in Nigeria, the fifth-biggest recipient of U.K. aid, DfID channels 75 percent of its funding through private sector companies — well above the global figure. Amid the U.K. government’s drive for more value for money in its aid program, DfID’s private sector partners have come under intense scrutiny in recent years. Early in 2013, DfID unveiled a new code of conduct for suppliers, part of its efforts to tighten procurement controls. Later that year, a report from the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, the British aid watchdog, found that DfID’s private sector partners performed relatively well against ICAI’s criteria for effectiveness and value for money, even as it pointed out weaknesses in the U.K. aid agency’s procurement process. Below, Devex ranks DfID’s top 20 private sector partners for 2014, based on spend data published for that calendar year on the U.K. aid agency’s website. DfID’s private sector partners provide a range of services including procurement, technical advice and project delivery. DfID’s three prequalified procurement agents feature on our list: Crown Agents, Charles Kendall and Partners and the International Procurement Agency. Strikingly, we found that while all U.K. development assistance has been fully untied since 2001, British firms continue to dominate DfID’s private sector partner base. Thirteen of the 20 firms on our list have at least one of their head offices in the United Kingdom; only one of them is based in a developing country. Citing security concerns, DfID has withheld transactions for Afghanistan, the sixth-biggest recipient of U.K. aid, from publication. Financial intermediaries, such as banks and trusts, are excluded from our ranking. 1. Crown Agents Founded: 1833 Headquarters: London, United Kingdom Chairman: Paul Batchelor DfID funding: 191.6 million pounds ($287 million) 2. PricewaterhouseCoopers Founded: 1998 Headquarters: London, United Kingdom Chairman: Dennis Nally DfID funding: 122.2 million pounds 3. Adam Smith International Founded: 1992 Headquarters: London, United Kingdom Managing director: William Morrison DfID funding: 88.4 million pounds 4. DAI Founded: 1970 Headquarters: Bethesda, Maryland, United States, and London, United Kingdom President and CEO: James Boomgard DfID funding: 58.3 million pounds 5. GRM Futures Group Founded: 2011 Headquarters: Brisbane, Australia, and Washington, D.C., United States Group managing director: Kim Bredhauer DfID funding: 50.5 million pounds 6. Mott MacDonald Group Founded: 1989 Headquarters: London, United Kingdom Chairman: Keith Howells DfID funding: 39.4 million pounds 7. Oxford Policy Management Founded: 1996 Headquarters: Oxford, United Kingdom Managing director: Simon Hunt DfID funding: 26.7 million pounds 8. Coffey Founded: 1959 Headquarters: Sydney, Australia Managing director: John Douglas DfID funding: 23.7 million pounds 9. Abt Associates Founded: 1965 Headquarters: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States President and CEO: Kathleen Flanagan DfID funding: 21.4 million pounds 10. Maxwell Stamp Founded: 1959 Headquarters: London, United Kingdom DfID funding: 19.9 million pounds 11. Health Partners International Headquarters: East Sussex, United Kingdom DfID funding: 19.4 million pounds 12. ECORYS Headquarters: Rotterdam, Netherlands DfID funding: 17.7 million pounds 13. Options Consultancy Services Headquarters: London, United Kingdom DfID funding: 15.4 million pounds 14. IMC Worldwide Headquarters: Redhill, United Kingdom DfID funding: 14.3 million pounds 15. IPE Global Private Limited Headquarters: New Delhi, India DfID funding: 13.6 million pounds 16. Charles Kendall and Partners Headquarters: London, United Kingdom DfID funding: 11.3 million pounds 17. International Procurement Agency Headquarters: Bussum, the Netherlands DfID funding: 10.8 million pounds 18. KPMG Headquarters: Amstelveen, the Netherlands DfID funding: 10.8 million pounds 19. Air Partner Headquarters: London, United Kingdom DfID funding: 9 million pounds 20. Atos Consulting Headquarters: London, United Kingdom DfID funding: 8.5 million pounds We’ll dig into the data on DfID’s top NGO partners next week, so stay tuned to Devex. See our 2013 ranking of DfID’s top private sector partners and our full list of top global development organizations. Check out more funding trends analyses online, and subscribe to Money Matters to receive the latest contract award and shortlist announcements, and procurement and fundraising news.