In April, the U.K.’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office released its first commercial pipeline for the fiscal year 2024-25 — and it’s at its highest level since the department opened its doors nearly four years ago.
The commercial pipeline contains anticipated procurements worth more than £2 million (about $2.5 million) each. It’s been on a rollercoaster amid aid cuts in recent times, but last year we began to see an upward tick. That’s continued with the latest release, with the pipeline now standing at £2.5 billion in total. It also includes the highest allocation for development-related activities since the chaos began in 2020.
What’s more is that FCDO appears to be returning to publishing four forecasts every year. Over the past couple of years, it had reduced to publishing only one.