FCDO pipeline contains just £30.7M of development opportunities

In the last week of October, the U.K.’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office finally published its only commercial pipeline in 2022. The pipeline shows a sharp fall in opportunities compared to the previous release, and an even sharper fall in development-focused opportunities. The latest pipeline included 33 opportunities worth £359.4 million — a 64.5% dip from the £948.4 billion previous pipeline in December 2021. Of the total, only £30.7 million worth of opportunities are focused on development — a massive decrease from the £842.7 million budget in the December 2021 pipeline. FCDO pipelines typically contain future development contracting opportunities worth more than £2 million. They had previously been published several times a year, but this year has seen a number of factors that may explain why none had been issued until now. Earlier in the year, the release of new opportunities may have been delayed by the development of a new aid strategy — finalized in May but potentially already out of date. A release date for the first pipeline of the year was set for September — as confirmed by FCDO in an email to Devex — but the period since has seen a suspension of government business following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, two changes in prime minister and foreign secretary, a substantial raid on the aid budget to pay for the cost of looking after Ukrainian refugees, and a freeze on nonessential official development assistance until October 31. Recent weeks, however, have seen a more positive sign, with the appointment of Andrew Mitchell — a known defender of aid — to U.K. development’s top leadership. The reduced pipeline is consistent with reports throughout the year that FCDO is facing a sharply reduced budget. However, the reduced level of activity may not tell the whole story. For example, uncertainty around aid priorities may have meant that officials have not yet been able to finalize development contracts. FCDO has stressed that the details of the current and past pipelines are tentative and may change without prior notice. Since the first publication of a commercial pipeline in December 2020, FCDO has seen a downward trend in available opportunities — possibly driven by a cut in the aid budget from 0.7% of gross national income to 0.5%. However, the latest issue has an extremely low allocation for development-related contracts. Past pipelines have varied considerably in size. The second pipeline, published in April 2021, contained only £27.5 million earmarked for development activities. However, that pipeline contained contracts drawn up only during a much briefer period, and the allocation for development has tended to be significantly higher in pipelines since that point. A noticeable change in the latest pipeline is the lack of country-level, development-related opportunities other than contracts under global projects. In the December 2021 pipeline, there were 35 country-level opportunities, worth £772.5 million. The bulk of the 2022 forecast, worth £328.7 million, will go to nondevelopment procurements, mostly for refurbishment works in country offices. What is left for development? Only five contracts are development-related. All are funded through the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund — the U.K.’s fund intended to address fragility and conflict worldwide. This amount is less than half the budget for CSSF contracts in the December 2021 pipeline, which was worth £70.2 million. These five contracts are: • £12.5 million under the U.K.-Pakistan Cooperation on Serious Crime Programme, or CSCP, which aims to improve U.K.’s ability to address shared threats with Pakistan. • £10.2 million under the Overseas Territories project to review, assess, recommend, and deliver U.K.’s climate action plans. • £4 million under the Iraq Military Education Development Project to train staff and officers in the country on updating their curriculum by integrating a systems approach to training. • £2 million under the Sri Lanka Landmine Clearance project, which will support resettlement in landmine-affected areas. • £2 million under the Regional Monitoring, Evaluation, Research & Learning for South Asia & Asia-Pacific for advisory, research, and program evaluation services. Try out Devex Pro Funding today with a free 5-day trial, and explore funding opportunities from over 850 sources in addition to our analysis and news content.