Money Matters: Who got USAID's contract funding in 2022?

As USAID’s spending has risen over the last couple of years, the proportion that goes to contracts has fallen, but the total cash amounts have remained similar. The question is, who’s getting the money? We dug into the numbers to give you, dear readers, the scoop. + Are there topics you want to read more about in Money Matters? We want your feedback. Acquisition inquisition USAID spent 16.6% of its money through contracts last year — the lowest proportion in several years. But what didn’t change was the dominance of a few large firms, who accounted for around half of all the money spent — around $2.9 billion. The top 10 did see some changes, including new faces, but it’s clear that if USAID wants to hit ambitious targets to allocate funding beyond the U.S. Capital Beltway area, there’s still some distance to go. Read: Who were USAID’s top contractors in 2022? (Pro) + A Devex Pro membership also lets you read our series of analyses of USAID’s assistance funding in 2022. Not yet gone Pro? Join the community today with a free 15-day trial. 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. AfDB invites eligible consulting firms to prepare an energy transition program for developing energy resources in Africa. ADB has launched a project worth $200 million to support the transition to a stable, inclusive, and sustainable market economy in Azerbaijan. The European Commission has proposed a €50 billion ($55 billion) facility to support macrofinancial stability and recovery in Ukraine. FCDO announced a call for proposals worth £28 million ($35.7 million) to support a program for improving food security, nutrition, and social protection in the Democratic Republic of Congo. JICA signed a ¥1.07 billion ($7.5 million) grant agreement to improve access to education, clean water, and sanitation in Ethiopia. The World Bank announced a $4 million investment to support women-led businesses and small and medium enterprises focused on agriculture in Samoa. + Try out Devex Pro Funding today with a free five-day trial, and explore funding opportunities from over 850 sources in addition to our analysis and news content. The focus of EBRD My colleague Alecsondra Kieren Si’s analysis revealed that last year, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development recorded almost €4 billion more investments than the previous year — €14.5 billion, with the money going to 321 projects. More than half of funding went to eastern Europe, with financial institutions the most likely targets. Alecsondra found that EBRD often invests in projects alongside other institutions and discovered that the bank has €2 billion in the pipeline “to help sustain the provision of services and safeguard business activities in Ukraine and nearby countries affected by the inflow of Ukrainian refugees.” For more, make sure you check out her piece. Read: What's inside EBRD's €14.5B project pipeline? (Pro) ICYMI: Some gas projects 'not incompatible' with Paris Agreement, says EBRD chief (Pro) Macron’s summit Last week, African leaders trudged off to Paris for a finance summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron. It was aimed at producing a rapprochement between the heavyweights of the Group of Seven major economies and the countries of the global south. But things weren’t quite a bed of roses. My colleague Vince Chadwick was there, and he saw clear dissatisfaction from the leaders of the “global south” — a term Kenyan President William Ruto argued should be retired. Vince’s clearsighted analysis suggests there are fracture lines on two critical issues — climate funding and debt — which look likely to dominate this debate for some time to come. Macron’s summit at least put development on the front page of the papers, and there were new funding announcements, which Vince details in his piece. So it may have hastened us somewhat toward finding solutions, but not far enough, and not fast enough, for many of Macron’s guests. Read: Frustration and tentative progress at Macron finance summit Related: Fix 'obsolete' climate funding or risk disaster, warns UN fund chief + Want to dig deeper into these issues? Devex Pro members can join us for an insider's guide to the Bridgetown Agenda on July 10 — and for a limited time only, we're offering new members $100 off an annual Pro subscription to be a part of this event. Ukraine and everyone else For a while now, there has been a concern that Western donors’ assistance to Ukraine may be at the expense of other struggling countries in the world. Last week, my colleague Rob Merrick was at a long-planned summit to fund Ukraine — which was perhaps unfortunate to have clashed with the eye-catching gathering in Paris — where the British government sought to allay those fears. “It is in Ukraine’s interests that we resolve this successfully and quickly, but it is also in the interests of those poor and hungry people around the world that we do so,” U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said. The plight of people “who are already hungry, who are already suffering from the negative effects of climate change” had been made worse because the disruption of grain and energy exports had pushed up prices on food and fuel, Cleverly argued. Read: Billions in Ukraine aid not at expense of 'world’s hungry,’ UK insists Background: Ukraine sucks up donor, media bandwidth from 10 most neglected crises + Catch up on all our coverage of the humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine. Sunshine is the best disinfectant Equity advocates have long argued that more transparency when it comes to pay will help build trust and make sure that employees in the same organization receive the same pay for the same work. My colleagues Justin Sablich and Raquel Alcega report on which organizations are doing a better job of adhering to this principle. Their analysis ranked the top 10 for-profit development employers based on the number of job postings on the Devex job board that included salary data from May 16, 2022, to May 16, 2023. This is what they found. Read: Top 10 salary-transparent for-profit employers in global development (Career) Related: Development organizations face calls for more salary transparency + Start your 15-day free trial of a Devex Career Account today to access all our exclusive career events, including an upcoming virtual development roundtable on June 28 with social impact career coaches. I wrote this week’s Money Matters while listening to the great saxophonist John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme.”