Mott MacDonald shuts international development arm amid UK aid turmoil

Mott MacDonald has decided to close its international development arm, which was one of the United Kingdom’s biggest aid contractors, halting all new bids and winding down current projects, according to multiple current and former staff. The move, understood to have been communicated verbally to staff in August, was first mentioned publicly in a blog post by former Cambridge Education managing director, Andy Brock, who worked at the unit for 33 years until April 2023. He wrote that “reputable sources indicate that Mott MacDonald, my old company, of which Cambridge Education is a subsidiary, will withdraw from development work.” He added that it was “heartbreaking” that the company’s international development arm, which was the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office’s fourth-biggest development contractor last year — receiving more than £52 million from FCDO to deliver three contracts in 2024/25 — was now being wound down. The decision, which has since been corroborated by several sources and which two current employees said has kickstarted a termination process for all 500 staff in the unit worldwide, brings to a close Mott MacDonald’s international development portfolio — including its long-running Cambridge Education brand and sister teams working in health, governance, and climate resilience. Cambridge Education, which was established more than 40 years ago, is widely regarded as one of the U.K.’s largest and most influential global education providers. Staff said the closure reflects not only shrinking aid budgets but also a shift in corporate risk appetite under new leadership appointed in 2025, and a lack of confidence in the future of large-scale FCDO contracting. “They used the cuts to make a decision they already wanted to make,” a former employee who did not wish to be identified told Devex, adding that the unit’s margins had been “pretty low for some time.” Mott MacDonald operates across approximately 140 countries globally and maintains around 160 principal offices, according to its website. It is unclear how many of those offices or country operations were tied directly to its international development business. John Shotton, who worked at Mott MacDonald for more than two decades and held senior roles in its international development division, told Devex he was informed by former colleagues that the company had decided to wind up its international development business. Reflecting on the leadership changes that preceded the closure, Shotton said: “When personnel with only an engineering background rose to executive positions, they just didn’t understand international development. They saw it as messy and risky.” Another source who used to work at the company agreed, saying: “It’s about risk. Engineers see what we do as too uncertain, too messy. They want everything to be zero risk, and development doesn’t work that way.” A third source told Devex that it had “long been a concern” that none of the remaining Mott MacDonald leadership team had any direct experience of international development, including working in or visiting the types of countries where the international development work occurred, such as Pakistan, Nigeria, or China. The source said the international development team was left with “no advocates” on the main board. “As the group strategy moved towards a narrower focus on the most profitable sectors, the values behind international development were increasingly lost,” the source said. Shotton said Mott’s move to close its international development business had been in motion as early as 2018, but was accelerated by U.K. aid cuts and concern “about the risks in terms of where the international development work was taking place.” Mott’s international development activities were active in numerous fragile contexts, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Somaliland, South Sudan, and parts of West Africa, according to Shotton. Two current employees said staff were informed of the closure during a brief meeting at 1 p.m. on Aug. 6, at which no questions were taken. Several insiders described staff as being “shocked” by the decision. A former staff member said: “Former colleagues are despondent at the decision to wind down development operations because good work was being done, was commercially viable, and could with a little imagination have been sold on to another organisation as a going concern. Instead the livelihoods of our hundreds of national colleagues and their households are being cut off, and the positive impacts in education, health, climate etc for communities and countries are being terminated prematurely.” According to Shotton, Mott MacDonald explored selling its international development business several years ago but these discussions — with a potential buyer in the international development space — did not result in a deal. “They pulled the plug on the deal at the very last minute,” he said. Shotton said some staff were being redeployed into other divisions of the company, but that redundancies were widespread — something numerous sources corroborated. LinkedIn updates reviewed by Devex suggest a handful of international development staff at Mott have recently been reassigned to other divisions. Since August, sources said the company withdrew from bidding for new international development contracts, with existing FCDO-funded projects being wound down or renegotiated, according to multiple current and former employees. Shotton said he understood that some projects in Rwanda and the DRC were continuing only long enough to close out existing commitments, with what he described as a “shell staff.” In a message sent to bidders, seen by Devex, FCDO’s commercial team said it had “taken the very difficult decision to cancel” the tender for Education for All South Sudan, or EFASS, the successor program to Girls’ Education South Sudan, or GESS, which helped quadruple girls’ enrollment in school from about 928,000 in 2014 to 2.7 million by 2020 and was rated “A++” by DFID for impact, according to implementing partner CGA Technologies. Yet the note for bidders described its successor program as “no longer viable” due to the government’s decision to redirect aid spending into defense. It added that the department would “review future requirements” in line with new budgets. Sources believe the FCDO’s longstanding relationship with Mott may have influenced its decision to cancel the tender rather than seek a new implementer. Brock told Devex: “In the past, FCDO would have found another supplier. My concern now is they might use this as an excuse to cut contracts early.” Programs which may be at risk include those jointly financed with other donors such as UNICEF or the World Bank, although this has not been confirmed. One person familiar with Mott MacDonald’s development work said the company could have handled its exit differently. “Even if they saw no future business prospects for themselves in international development, they could have honoured their history, their contribution to the field and their staff better by mapping a different exit,” the person said. “One that ensured that they left a strong legacy, maybe in the form of an independent non-profit organisation that could continue to provide technical assistance to new and old clients. Instead, as a result of their decision, the countries in which they work will lose aid in the immediate term and possibly face years of uncertainty, and so much talent will be lost.” Asked to comment on the details shared in this article, a Mott MacDonald spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Mott MacDonald Group is currently restructuring its international development business. We are continuing to honour our contractual commitments.” An FCDO spokesperson said Mott MacDonald’s organizational changes were a matter for the company.