USAID allocated $5.5 billion in contracts last year, and most of it went to a small number of companies. We analyze who got the money.
And Jutta Urpilainen, European commissioner for international partnerships, speaks to Devex ahead of the flagship summit between the African Union and the European Union about the €300 billion ($339 million) Global Gateway scheme.
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Expanding on contracting
USAID’s 10 largest contractors received just under $3 billion from the agency last year — over half of all contract funding — according to a new analysis by my colleague Miguel Antonio Tamonan. He’s picked out the top 50 contractors ranked by obligated funding. Of the top 10, seven are the same as last year.
Top of the pile by a very long way is Chemonics International, off the back of its work on the global health supply chain program.
However, total USAID funding through contracts is down more than $500 million from last year, largely as a result of a fall in funding through the supply chain contract.
Devex Pro on USAID: Who were the top contractors in 2021?
Catch up: Here’s a recap of our reporting on the global health supply chain program since USAID’s award decision seven years ago.
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Funding activity
ADB. $5M to help finance the COVID-19 response in the Solomon Islands.
EU. $21.5M (€18M) to accelerate climate-smart and inclusive investments in South Asia.
JICA. $302M (¥35B) to increase road capacity and improve traffic safety in Tanzania.
OFID. $50M to facilitate trade and improve access to jobs, markets, and social services in Papua New Guinea.
WB. $40M to improve and expand sustainable access to finance and trade in Liberia.
Local lending
$200M from IDB for Paraguay
Paraguay will borrow $200 million from the Inter-American Development Bank for its State Transformation Support Program, which will improve public sector effectiveness. The program will back reforms in management systems and enabling systems such as national statistics, digitalization, and public employee integrity. It will also help make gender equality an overarching principle for the civil service.
The Inter-American Foundation is a gold standard funder, according to the Center for Effective Philanthropy. But why? My colleague Teresa Welsh investigates, and finds a funder that is open to ideas and collaboration and offers manageable amounts of money, with a flexible and helpful evaluation process.
The agency can act as an example for USAID, which is working hard to fund more locally led development. Right now, USAID is still looking to define what local means.
Inter-American Foundation: Lessons for localization
ICYMI: My colleague Adva Saldinger reports on where USAID can begin to define “local.”
No € in Team?
Jutta Urpilainen, the European commissioner for international partnerships, gave an exclusive and wide-ranging interview to my colleague Vince Chadwick last week, in which she talks about the EU’s funding plans for Afghanistan and the need to set a long-term strategy.
She also discussed the need to bring European member states together more effectively to fund the "Team Europe" initiatives. These initiatives are viewed as necessary for the success of the €300 billion European Global Gateway scheme to mobilize European investment abroad, widely seen as an answer to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Q&A with Urpilainen via Devex Pro: EU aid, tricky partners, and a possible return to Finland
The free read: Urpilainen tells EU states to step up financing ahead of Africa summit as Brussels pushes for a new partnership.
Enemy of the state?
A cyberattack affecting the International Committee of the Red Cross was so sophisticated it fits the profile of a state or “state-like” hacker, according to the organization’s head of data protection, Massimo Marelli.
The hack targeted ICRC servers that held information on more than 500,000 people. It sets a worrying example. ICRC is widely regarded as having strong data protection practices, and it has warned that there are limits to what humanitarian organizations can do to protect data if state actors are determined to access information.
Exclusive: ICRC says cyberattack was 'state-like' in nature
Funding loss and damage
At COP 26 in Glasgow, governments began to discuss how loss and damage caused by climate change should be paid for. No funding mechanism was agreed, but there are hopes that next year’s conference will see real progress.
What principles should any loss-and-damage fund follow? My colleague Will Worley listened to the experts to find out.
Loss and damage: Experts outline governing principles for funding
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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.
