The World Bank is one of the biggest spenders in the world of development. But which companies are winning its business? We take a look.
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Is less more?
It looks as if the World Bank spent less on contracts in the last financial year, which ended in June 2023. But that probably just represents a return to business as usual after a sudden pivot to deal with the pandemic.
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Gone are the big awards to pharmaceutical companies which dominated the previous years’ lists of contractors, and back are the construction and engineering firms which have dominated in the past.
So who did win the most business? There’s a familiar name at the top of the list.
Read: The World Bank’s top 10 contractors in 2023 (Pro)
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Funding activity
We publish tenders, grants, and other funding announcements on our Funding Platform. Here are some of the ones that have been viewed the most in the past 10 days.
The International Monetary Fund has granted Kenya a loan of $941 million to bolster the country’s struggling economy, which is facing debt, inflation, and currency woes.
The United Nations is seeking partners to aid in food and nutrition emergency response activities in Burkina Faso.
USAID intends to award a $30 million cooperative agreement to bridge the education gap for out-of-school youth in Niger through flexible nonformal learning and vocational training.
BMZ, the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, has donated €1.95 million ($2.1 million) to boost trade in low- and middle-income countries through improved food safety and animal and plant health standards.
The U.S. Department of State is seeking proposals for a program to train journalists and boost investigative reporting for increased government transparency in Albania.
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What are you doing, USAID?
A Devex investigation into USAID’s largest-ever contract has drawn attention on Capitol Hill.
Following on from the deep dive by my colleague Michael Igoe and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism into the problems with USAID’s global health supply chain contract, U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican from Iowa, has asked what the agency is doing to crack down on overspending, and how it plans to direct more funding to local players.
The written question to USAID Assistant Administrator Atul Gawande, who leads the agency’s Bureau for Global Health, must be answered by the end of the month.
Read: US lawmaker questions $9.5B USAID health supply chain project
ICYMI: 'Too big to fail' — How USAID's $9.5B supply chain vision unraveled
+ Check out our page dedicated to the future of U.S. aid.
Surely some mistake?
Development spending is up, you say, at the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office? Are you sure?
After several years of chaotic aid cuts, U.K. development minister Andrew Mitchell instituted measures a year ago to get a grip on spending. For the most part, that involved wrestling back control of the checkbook from the Home Office, which had been splurging the aid budget on refugee costs. My colleague Rob Merrick has a guide to all the details.
Read: Why UK aid spending is finally rising after years of painful cuts (Pro)
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Health billions
This year is a key year for global health. Many of the largest agencies in the sector are asking for more cash, at a time when there are more demands than ever on development funding. We’ve looked at some of the key calls, and tried to understand their prospects for success.
Read: The 4 most important calls for global health funds in 2024
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Tough times
It’s not just health where demands are growing. Refugee costs are rising. Humanitarian costs are rising. More and more funding is being sought for climate emergencies.
Meanwhile, it’s an election year. There are crucial polls everywhere — particularly in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, and Indonesia.
What does all this mean for stretched development budgets?
Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar addressed all of this and more in a wide-ranging ask-me-anything session.
Read: How tighter ODA budgets will change development this year (Pro)
ICYMI: A global development wake-up call in 2024
Podcast: What to expect from development in 2024
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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.
