What did USAID primes spend on subawards in 2022?

Over the past few months, Devex has reported extensively on the U.S. Agency for International Development’s assistance mechanism — which includes grants and cooperative agreements. In this analysis, we are capping off the series by looking into the subawards data in the fiscal year that ended in September 2022. The Office of Management and Budget guidance defines subawards as “an award provided by a pass-through entity to a subrecipient for the subrecipient to carry out part of a Federal award received by the pass-through entity.” Subawarding allows other organizations to receive money from USAID without having to compete with larger implementers. In a way, this mechanism helps the agency achieve its localization goals. Devex looked at data from USASpending.gov, which tracks how much of USAID’s prime awards to bilateral recipients was subawarded to other organizations. Overall, the data suggests that USAID assistance prime awardees made somewhere between $2.4 billion and $2.5 billion of subawards in FY 2021-22 — with some of the leading prime awardees accounting for the biggest share. However, only a third of the money went to local organizations in low-,middle-, and upper-middle-income countries. More than half still went to organizations in the U.S. and U.K. Moreover, the current reporting process also makes it difficult to accurately assess how much was spent on subawards. Below is our analysis. How accurate are the reported subawards? When Devex analyzed USAID subawards, we found some discrepancies. According to USASpending, nearly 4,000 subawards, worth $2.6 billion, were awarded in FY 2021-22. The money came from assistance awards made between 2016 and 2022, with a maximum total prime amount of $13.4 billion. However, we found in our analysis that over 200 entries — worth $147.9 million — were duplicates. This brings the total down to somewhere between $2.4 billion and $2.5 billion. We also found a number of transactions where the total subaward amount exceeded the prime amount. USASpending stated on its portal that this shouldn’t happen since “the total value of all sub-award amounts for any given prime award is a subset of the Current Award Amount for that prime award.” One example is Save the Children USA, which was also the top source of subawards in FY 2021-22. In total, Save USA made subawards worth $610 million, according to USAID figures. Of this, $570.6 million, or 93.5%, went to Save the Children International — the organization’s headquarters in the United Kingdom. It is unclear whether this was then passed on to local offices in the recipient countries. However, the data shows that Save the Children USA received just $483.2 million in prime awards — $126.8 million less than the stated total subaward amount. A Save the Children USA spokesperson said that the organization did not subgrant more than it received, but more internal investigation was needed to explain the figures. Devex will update the article to reflect any further response. In total, we found 24 transactions where the subaward amount is equal to or more than the prime award amount. Meanwhile, 103 transactions were somewhere between 50% and 99% of the prime award amount. These transactions have a total value of $1.1 billion. In an email correspondence with Devex, USASpending said that prime awardees enter the data directly to the FFATA Subaward Reporting System, or FSRS, operated by the General Services Administration. This means that there could be duplicates or errors if prime awardees deviate from the intended process. The agency also confirmed that there’s no process for validating the data to remove double entries or checking for the accuracy of other information. Who spent the most on subawards? Aside from Save the Children USA, some other biggest recipients of assistance funding from USAID were also the leading sources of subawards in FY 2021-22. FHI 360 spent a significant amount, worth $206.5 million for 792 subawards. This went to a mix of local and international organizations, whose subawards ranged from a few thousand to over $10 million. The leading recipients were Jhpiego, with $10.7 million, and Internews, with $10 million. Catholic Relief Services, or CRS, ranked next, with $178.4 million for 234 subawards. The biggest went to the Ethiopian Catholic Church Social and Development Commission Branch Office of Harar, worth $35.3 million, followed by the Organization for Rehabilitation and Development in Amhara, or ORDA, worth $17.9 million. Then World Vision USA, with $170.6 million for 18 subawards. The top recipients were ORDA, with $91.6 million, and CARE USA, with $65.1 million. Meanwhile, a total of $242.3 million came from unspecified prime awardees. Are prime contractors going local? Overall, $824.9 million went to local implementers in LMICs — a third of the total. As with our previous analyses, local refers to organizations implementing projects in their own countries. FHI 360 was the biggest source of local subawards among prime recipients, awarding grants worth $147.8 million. CRS followed, with $104.5 million, World Vision USA, with $94.7 million, and Population Services International, or PSI, with $33.2 million. The biggest chunk of the money still went to organizations in high-income countries, worth $1.6 billion — 63.9% of the total. Subawardees in the United Kingdom accounted for $706.9 million — 28.7% of the total. Although again, this mostly went to Save the Children International. Meanwhile, U.S.-based subawardees received $700.3 million, with the top recipients including CARE USA, with $70.1 million; JSI, with $65.5 million; and the National Democratic Institute, with $32.6 million. Who received the money among local organizations? Organizations based in lower-middle-income countries received the biggest share, worth $367.1 million. Meanwhile, local subawardees in low-income countries got $304.1 million, while those in upper-middle-income countries received $153.8 million. Local implementers in Ethiopia accounted for the biggest share among countries, with $159.2 million. Of this, $91.6 million came from one grant from World Vision USA to ORDA — with subawards ranging from supporting agricultural initiatives, distributing food aid, to supporting epidemic control projects. Myanmar followed, with $63 million. Then Zimbabwe, with $45.2 million, and South Africa, with $34.4 million. A further $62.1 million went to implementers in LMICs for subawards in other countries. ORDA was the overall top local subawardee, with $111.2 million. The relief organization received $91.6 million from World Vision USA to support the implementation of the Resilience Food Security Activity in Ethiopia. The Women’s Organizations Network of Myanmar ranked next, with $60.3 million. The entire money will support community empowerment activities in Southeastern Myanmar. The primary awardee was unspecified. Population Solutions For Health followed, with $24.4 million, which came wholly from PSI to support several HIV control and response activities in Zimbabwe. 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.