On Tuesday, USAID will hold its next quarterly call to give details of its business forecast. In advance of the call, Devex digs into the data.
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SWIFT funding, slow progress
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USAID will hold its quarterly business forecast call on Tuesday. My colleague Miguel Antonio Tamonan dug into the data on future opportunities that accompanies the forecast and found only one major change: a new opportunity in the field of peace and democracy, known as Support Which Implements Fast Transitions 6 — or SWIFT 6 — worth $2.8 billion. The addition of this latest contract takes the opportunities listed to over $30 billion in value.
What the forecast doesn’t show is any progress on the NextGen contracts, USAID’s largest-ever procurement. The next round of requests for proposals now has a June 30 due date. But there is skepticism around this date since the contracts have already been pushed back several times.
USAID: Business forecast for Q3 2022 (Pro)
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Funding activity
AFD. $150M (€140M) to support small- and medium-sized enterprises in Egypt.
AfDB. $170M for budgetary support and economic recovery in Kenya.
JICA. $200M to support human resource development in Ghana.
KfW. $32M (€30M) to increase access to electricity in rural parts in Cambodia.
See more funding opportunities.
A growing problem
We’ve written about how things are looking pretty tough in the world of development over the past few weeks. The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have seriously damaged low- and middle-income economies and led to a global spike in food and energy prices. World Bank data shows that fertilizer prices have doubled while wheat supply will decline for the second successive year. Last year, around 139 million people faced crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity, and that number is only likely to grow.
There is a sudden and growing debt crisis too, partly as a result of the same factors, which we’ll write more about in the coming weeks.
On food, the bottom line is that there is enough to go around, but not everyone can afford it. The factors behind this are relatively complex, and the effects are not all straightforward to predict. My colleagues Teresa Welsh and Shabtai Gold have looked into what’s going on, and their conclusion is that it’s likely to get worse before it gets better.
Food: Why the crisis might get worse before anything gets better
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Featured opportunity: $80M from World Bank for WASH in Nepal
The World Bank will fund an $80 million project to help Nepal improve the supply of water and sanitation services.
The Water Sector Governance and Infrastructure Support Project will improve infrastructure, strengthen the institutions supplying water, and improve their accountability in Karnali and Sudurpashchim provinces. Both provinces are relatively low-income and vulnerable to climate change, and they currently have limited access to water supply and sanitation services.
A textbook example of funding issues
Some €225 million (over $240 million) of European Union aid to Palestine is being delayed by an argument over textbooks — a good example of why EU funding can be complex to navigate.
The Hungarian commissioner overseeing the funding process in Brussels has suggested that books used in Palestinian schools may not promote “standards of peace, tolerance, co-existence.” That’s put the European Commission in a tussle with EU member states, with the former still trying to find a way to make some money conditional on an educational review.
France and other EU countries are not impressed. An excoriating Gallic broadside was fired off from Paris recently, arguing that the commission’s strategy undermines everything the EU has been trying to achieve in the region for years, Vince Chadwick reports.
Brought to book: France takes aim at European Commission for Palestinian aid delay (Pro)
Looking up down under
Our monthly summary of job moves in the sector brings news that the Labor government in Australia has appointed a new development minister following its election victory. Plus, a new leader at PEPFAR and a reelection at WHO.
Who’s who: May 2022 executive appointments (Pro)
Recap: Australia welcomes new era for aid (Pro)
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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.
