The United States, as you may have heard, is cutting back on its international aid spending. But there are other major players in the field who still have money to spend, and many of them do business in English as a first language.
Technically, one of those is the European Union, whose Global Gateway scheme we look at this week. But we’re also in the process of producing guides to other, smaller, predominantly English-speaking donors.
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An opening into the Gateway
The European Union has a lot of money to spend. It’s potentially on track to become the world’s largest donor, with proposals for big spending boosts in its next seven-year budget, which begins in 2028.
Unfortunately, the EU is designed and run by committee, and continues to provide evidence as to why this isn’t always the ideal approach. To wit, the Global Gateway, an enormous scheme to channel €300 billion into infrastructure and development, which has proven less than easy to understand.
Recently, my colleague Raquel Alcega spoke with experts to help you understand how to access this growing funding source.
Read: How to access the EU’s €300B Global Gateway — key tips from the experts (Pro)
+ This week, we’ve got two in-depth calls with funding experts. Tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. ET (3:30 p.m. CET), Raquel will be speaking with a senior development impact adviser at Finnfund to find out more about how the Finnish development finance institution deploys technical support.
And on Wednesday, at 9.30 a.m. ET, she’ll be speaking with a director at the Ford Foundation about trust-based philanthropy.
Funding activity
We publish tenders, grants, and other funding announcements on our Funding Platform. Here are some of those viewed the most in the past 10 days.
The World Bank has signed a $150 million agreement to provide affordable green housing in India.
The OPEC Fund for International Development has committed $20 million to strengthen transport infrastructure in Liberia.
The Central American Bank for Economic Integration has approved a $300 million loan to enhance the energy sector in Honduras.
The United Nations is seeking consulting services to develop a strategic communication campaign aimed at addressing health challenges in Malaysia.
The Global Green Growth Institute is seeking a qualified consulting firm for a study on barriers to climate resilience and sustainable development in Papua New Guinea.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is inviting qualified companies to establish a monitoring and evaluation system to support its strategy in North Macedonia.
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Who else?
The EU does business primarily in English even though its member states speak 24 official languages. But there are also six other donors in the world that speak English as their primary language. Pause here, and see if you can name them.
OK, no doubt you got the United States and the United Kingdom, but on top of that we also have Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand. We’re in the process of producing a guide to the latter four countries, and this week, we’ve summarized some information on the last two. Check out the primers below for more.
Read: Irish aid — a primer (Pro)
Read: New Zealand aid — a primer (Pro)
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Cliff coming
The United States, as we’ve said before, has actually promised higher levels of aid spending than many might have expected — albeit much lower than last year. But the question is whether it can keep that promise, because it has fired all the people with any expertise in giving money away. That leaves it weeks away from a multibillion-dollar fiscal cliff, with no obvious off-ramp.
On our weekly podcast, I caught up with my colleagues Michael Igoe and Elissa Miolene to discuss this and some other technical issues facing U.S. foreign assistance right now.
Listen: State Department faces $20B spending deadline as fiscal year end looms
Have Mercy
Like many aid organizations, Mercy Corps lost funding when USAID was dismantled. And like many other organizations, the INGO found itself scrambling to find new funding at short notice to complete vital projects. Devex spoke to insiders to find out how Mercy Corps secured new funding for key projects.
Read: Lessons from Mercy Corps’ fundraising playbook (Pro)
’Pore things
Singapore is one of the world’s biggest success stories — a city-state that has seen huge growth. Now it has ambitions to become a global hub for philanthropy, among the other strings to its bow. The island nation will serve as the initial base for ImpactCollab, a new initiative by the Asian philanthropy group AVPN, aimed at engaging Asia’s richest in philanthropic giving.
“By 2030 we want to be able to be at the level of channeling $100 million per year [for philanthropy],” Kevin Teo, head of ImpactCollab, tells Devex.
Read: New initiative targets Asia’s millionaires for philanthropic giving
ICYMI: An insider guide to unlocking funding from Asia’s largest foundations
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About the author
David Ainsworth@daveainsworth4
David Ainsworth is business editor at Devex, where he writes about finance and funding issues for development institutions. He was previously a senior writer and editor for magazines specializing in nonprofits in the U.K. and worked as a policy and communications specialist in the nonprofit sector for a number of years. His team specializes in understanding reports and data and what it teaches us about how development functions.
