Interactive: Exploring the trends in World Bank procurement
Devex digs into data covering IDA and IBRD's billion-dollar contract awards over the past two years. Here's a look at where the money went and who won it.
With $62.3 billion in commitments in 2019, the World Bank Group is one of the largest international financial institutions supporting global development. For the first time ever, its annual Spring Meetings were held virtually last week due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, member countries and project implementers have been on the lookout for targeted issues for the bank to invest in. Every year, the bank’s lending produces thousands of contract opportunities to support the financing plans discussed at the annual meetings. Devex has been tracking and analyzing these contract awards over the years to help development professionals better understand the key trends in World Bank procurement. Now, we’re digging deeper into major contract awards over the past two years from the bank’s two lending arms — the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and International Development Association, which are responsible for over 70% of its annual commitments. With an annual average of over $10 billion in funding channeled through contract awards from the two institutions, we’ll review their priority sectors, where contracts are being procured, and which countries suppliers are from — creating an opportunity for business developers and policymakers to see how the bank’s big funding figures end up being implemented. World Bank procurement can be further explored on our funding platform. What’s the overall picture? From 2018 to 2019 there was a 10% decrease in the number of contracts awarded (from 3,132 to 2,812) and a 1.9% decrease in allocated funding ($10.5 billion to $10.3 billion), continuing a downward trend in the number of contracts and total amount of funding over the past four years. Geographically, sub-Saharan Africa was the focus of most contracts and funding. In 2018, it had a total of 1,470 contracts worth almost $3 billion, and in 2019 around 1,354 contracts worth $3.6 billion. Meanwhile, the top procurement category by allocated funding was civil works, with a total investment of $7.5 billion in 2018 and $5.9 billion in 2019. India was the top recipient of civil works contracts both years, despite a 60% decline in funding from 2018-2019, from $1.6 billion to $635 million. The second-largest procurement category was the purchase of goods, with a total of $1.4 billion in 2018 and $2.4 billion in 2019. China was the top recipient country of goods contracts in 2018 with $126 million, and Turkey was the top recipient in 2019 with $1.1 billion. Is the World Bank still funding the same priority sectors? Between 2009 and 2019, the majority of the bank’s contract spending was concentrated on three sectors: transportation ($51 billion); energy and extractives ($30 billion); and water, sanitation, and waste management ($29 billion). This remained the case for fiscal years 2018 and 2019. In 2018, the transportation sector got the most funding at $3.8 billion. A design and construction of civil, structure, and track work project in India received the biggest chunk of funding at $443 million, which was awarded to a local service provider, Larsen & Toubro. In 2019, the energy and extractives sector received the highest funding with $2.8 billion, thanks to an ongoing Gas Storage Expansion Project in Turkey being awarded $1 billion. That went to Turkish consulting firm Cinar Muhedislik Musavirlik A.S and Chinese engineering company China CAMC Engineering CO. LTD. Which regions and countries is the money going to? The bank works in over 170 countries and its contract spending has remained geographically diverse. However, in both 2018 and 2019 it mostly focused on sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Europe, and the Central Asia region, which collectively received more than 75% of the total funding each year. The rest went to Latin America, East Asia and the Pacific, and the Middle East and North Africa. In terms of country distribution, there is a big difference between the number and value of contracts. For instance, Somalia received the most contracts in 2018 (204) but didn’t rank among the top recipients in terms of total funding, receiving just $23.3 million. Meanwhile, India came in second by number of contracts (168) and received the largest total funding at $1.8 billion. This is primarily because the majority of awarded contracts in India were civil works, while most of the contracts in Somalia were lower-value consultancy services. The same pattern is seen again in 2019, with Somalia receiving 138 contracts worth $22 million, while Turkey received the largest allocation of funding at $1.2 billion for only 22 contracts. Where are the contractors from? Indian and Chinese suppliers won most awards, both in terms of quantity and funding, each vying for top place each year. In 2018, 226 contracts worth $2.2 billion were awarded to Indian suppliers; 182 contracts worth $2.1 billion went to Chinese suppliers; and 38 contracts worth $520 million to Turkish suppliers. In 2019, 157 contracts worth $2.9 billion were awarded to Chinese contractors; 140 contracts worth $1 billion to Indian contractors; and 50 contracts worth $752 million to Turkish ones. The World Bank data also allows us to see whether contracts were awarded to local suppliers, with the bank holding a decade-long commitment to partnering and working with local suppliers. Both years, more than half of the awardees were based in the recipient country, with local suppliers winning 57% of contracts in 2018 and 56% in 2019. In 2018, eight recipient countries saw all their contracts won by local suppliers. In 2019, five countries achieved the same. In terms of the total number of contracts won by local suppliers, India ranked ahead of other countries with 147 contracts in 2018. The other top countries included Somalia (136), Bangladesh (94), Ukraine (76), and Mozambique (61). For 2019, Somalia took first place with 95 contracts awarded locally, while Vietnam (88), India (87), Afghanistan (84), and Brazil (77) closely followed. With the COVID-19 pandemic currently shaking the global development sector, changes could be coming to some of the trends identified here. For example, the transportation, energy, and water sectors have been heavily funded in the past, with health receiving less than 10% of the World Bank’s total contract award funding over the past four years. But with its recent announcement of a $14 billion commitment for COVID-19, that share is likely to increase in the coming months and years. <div class='tableauPlaceholder' id='viz1587741081749' style='position: relative'><noscript><a href='#'><img alt=' ' src='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/WB/WBMajorContractAwards2018to2019Geographicalfundingdistribution/Dashboard1/1_rss.png' style='border: none' /></a></noscript><object class='tableauViz' style='display:none;'><param name='host_url' value='https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.tableau.com%2F' /> <param name='embed_code_version' value='3' /> <param name='site_root' value='' /><param name='name' value='WBMajorContractAwards2018to2019Geographicalfundingdistribution/Dashboard1' /><param name='tabs' value='no' /><param name='toolbar' value='no' /><param name='static_image' value='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/WB/WBMajorContractAwards2018to2019Geographicalfundingdistribution/Dashboard1/1.png' /> <param name='animate_transition' value='yes' /><param name='display_static_image' value='yes' /><param name='display_spinner' value='yes' /><param name='display_overlay' value='yes' /><param name='display_count' value='yes' /></object></div> <script type='text/javascript'> var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1587741081749'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 800 ) { vizElement.style.width='650px';vizElement.style.height='850px';} else if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 500 ) { vizElement.style.width='650px';vizElement.style.height='850px';} else { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*1.77)+'px';} var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement); </script> Interact with the data: The bank’s major contract awards (2018 to 2019) by geographical funding distribution. 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With $62.3 billion in commitments in 2019, the World Bank Group is one of the largest international financial institutions supporting global development. For the first time ever, its annual Spring Meetings were held virtually last week due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, member countries and project implementers have been on the lookout for targeted issues for the bank to invest in.
Every year, the bank’s lending produces thousands of contract opportunities to support the financing plans discussed at the annual meetings. Devex has been tracking and analyzing these contract awards over the years to help development professionals better understand the key trends in World Bank procurement.
Now, we’re digging deeper into major contract awards over the past two years from the bank’s two lending arms — the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and International Development Association, which are responsible for over 70% of its annual commitments.
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Janadale Leene Coralde works as a contributing analyst for Devex. Based in Manila she reports on development donors activities and designs funding data visualisations. She has a degree in political economy, specializing in international relations and development, and has previously worked as a researcher for Chemonics, the REID foundation, and the Philippines House of Representatives.
Miguel Tamonan is a Senior Development Analyst at Devex, where he analyzes data from public and private donors to produce content and special reports for Pro and Pro Funding readers. He has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a Major in International Relations from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
