The U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office has published its latest pipeline, showing what it plans to spend on development contracts next year. There’s good news and bad news. Keep reading for more.
Coming up: Tomorrow, Nov. 12, we’re talking to the experts about what a second Trump presidency means for global development, including where funding cuts are likely to fall. Register now to be a part of the conversation.
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Pipeline dreams
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Last month, FCDO published its second commercial pipeline of the year, providing a look into its future priorities and planned procurements.
The report included 72 opportunities, with a total estimated contract value of £1.96 billion, or around $2.5 billion. It’s down from the last pipeline, but up on some of the lows of previous years.
Around £1.1 billion of the total pipeline will be directed to development-related contracts, according to Devex estimates.
Most of the development cash is going to multicountry initiatives, but there are 12 countries named in the contracts, with the most cash going to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Read: How FCDO plans to spend £2 billion in contracts (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 which have been viewed the most in the past 10 days.
The U.S. Department of State has announced a $1.28 million open competition focused on modernization and sustainability in the port sector in South Asia.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has committed an additional €3 billion ($3.23 billion) for sustainable urban development across a network of cities worldwide.
Belgian development agency Enabel is seeking consultants to procure a digital tool to manage engagement with stakeholders in Uganda.
The Inter-American Development Bank has approved a $300 million loan to improve comprehensive literacy in Argentina.
USAID will award grants to enhance effective and sustainable sanitation services in Nigeria.
The World Bank has announced $750 million of support to improve and enhance fiscal governance at local and regional levels in Ukraine.
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COP out
Today, the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP29, kicks off in Baku, Azerbaijan. It’s a smaller affair than in previous years, but it’s likely to have a bigger impact on funding than almost any of the COPs that have come before.
That’s because the conference is due to agree to a new collective quantified goal, or NCQG, which is the arcane name for the new funding target that wealthier nations will commit to, replacing an existing target of $100 billion.
That’s not the only thing on the agenda, of course. Food systems are a big topic of discussion, and there’s the fallout from the U.S. election — more on that below.
Read: 7 things to watch for at COP29, from funding to food systems
Opinion: These 4 concrete steps will help close the climate finance gap
+ The Devex reporting team is in Baku for COP29. Sign up for the daily Newswire and our podcast, This Week in Global Development, for special editions from our on-the-ground coverage.
Are you attending the conference and want to meet? Let us know here.
Trump cards
Donald Trump is back, and his second U.S. presidency is likely to be bad news for international development funding. We’re running the numbers right now on what a Republican sweep might mean for future funding, and we’ll be back shortly with a full report. In the meantime, we’ve taken a detailed look over all the areas where U.S. policy could radically shift.
Read: Donald Trump won. What does that mean for development?
And if you’re in the mood for more on what a Trump win means, listen to the episode of our weekly podcast in which my colleagues, including our President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar, break it all down.
Listen: What does Trump’s election mean for global development?
What would EU do?
With the United States likely to be weaker on development for the next four years, at least, more weight falls on the shoulders of the European Union. Unfortunately, its leaders have also been weaker on development in recent years, so there’s a lot to worry about.
My colleague Vince Chadwick has analyzed how EU spending has moved away from the least developed countries, and toward a more transactional approach.
Read: EU aid to least developed countries is trending way down (Pro)
Meanwhile, Devex’s Rob Merrick was in Brussels to hear members of the European Parliament grill the EU’s proposed new aid chiefs. He’s got the lowdown on what that tells us about the bloc’s future approach.
Read: 10 things we learned when MEPs grilled the EU's new aid chiefs (Pro)
Giving work
Want to work for a grant-giver? In which case, you’ll probably want to know what they pay.
Fortunately, some of the biggest foundations in the U.S. advertise on Devex’s job board regularly, and they provide very transparent salary data. We’ve taken a look at that information, and broken down what it might mean for you.
Read: Top US-based grantmaking employers and insight on their salary (Career)
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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.
