FCDO plans to procure £95M in global development opportunities

Last week, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office published an update of their commercial pipeline, a publication that provides a forward look at potential procurements managed by the department. This announcement comes at an uncertain time for U.K. aid due to the combined impact of the announced cuts to ODA, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the calls for decolonizing aid. The pipeline currently lists nine opportunities worth almost £95 million ($135 million) to be procured in the upcoming three months. However, it is worth noting that the dates, budgets, and number of opportunities are not confirmed and can change at their discretion. Four of the opportunities were initially published in the pipeline at the end of April: three competitions within the Conflict, Stability Security Fund framework contract for projects in Bosnia Herzegovina, Jordan, and Mali, and one £3.5 million forecasted tender to provide election observers to Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe missions. What’s new? This is the first commercial pipeline published by FCDO that includes only global programs related to international relations and aid. It excludes contracts for logistics, events, or security. The five new opportunities in the pipeline have a total budget of £66.7 million and are exclusively directed to global aid. Out of the five new opportunities, two will be open competitions under the research business area, previously known as the Department for International Development’s Research and Evidence Division. One of them is a procurement worth £16 million to conduct impact evaluations of the investments and interventions made under a program to reduce violence against women and girls through innovative approaches. The other research and evaluation opportunity has an estimated budget of £35.8 million, and it’s part of the Evidence Fund, a new single coordinated platform to deliver research and evidence across the department. The other three are “mini-competitions” within existing framework contracts. In Pakistan, under the Global Evaluation Framework Agreement, £1.2 million is budgeted for an independent evaluation of technical assistance delivered under the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development program. The other forecasted opportunity has an estimated budget of £700,000 and is looking for a third-party evaluation of the Multi-Year Humanitarian Programme, which supports vulnerable people affected by natural disasters and conflict. The last opportunity listed in the pipeline is under the Malawi Trade Investment Programme, and it will be procured as part of the General Economic Development Framework. It has an estimated budget of £13 million for the value chain component with the aim to scale high potential industries by expanding commercial models in high-value export sectors.