Who are AfDB's top NGO contractors?

The list of top contractors to the African Development Bank has included no NGOs for the past 16 years, according to analysis by Devex identifying the bank’s top 10 contractors each year between 2000 and 2016. As can be seen in our visualization of AfDB awards to its top NGO contractors, there were 39 awards during these years, worth just under $65.4 million dollars in total. The paucity of NGOs among top AfDB awardees could be due to the bank’s own sectoral priorities: More than 60 percent of AfDB funding over the last 16 years has gone to transport and energy infrastructure projects. These have often involved large-scale works requiring funding and resources that only the largest engineering or construction firms were equipped to provide. The data shows that NGOs typically play a larger role in sectors such as agriculture, social development and environmental conservation. This makes sense, given that these areas aren’t as capital intensive as infrastructure, and rely more on the kinds of people-based skills and local cultural fluency that NGOs can offer. While the top 10 list of NGO contractors to AfDB is diverse, they share a focus on these three sectors. The lion’s share of NGO awards were directed towards agriculture, including those centered on refugees and displaced people, with projects to integrate these groups into local agricultural value chains. Although AfDB’s awards data does not distinguish between awards to NGOs, private firms or other types of organizations, Devex has combed through 16 years of data to identify those NGOs most successful in winning AfDB funding. Here, we look at the top 10. 1. International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, or IITA Total AfDB awards, 2000-2016: $21,850,194 Headquarters: Ibadan, Nigeria Founded: 1967 The most AfDB-funded NGO between 2000 and 2016 was the IITA, a research institute focused on the challenges of poverty, hunger and natural resource degradation in sub-Saharan Africa, and a member of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, a consortium of research institutions dedicated to “a food-secure future.” Aside from AfDB, they are supported by a variety of multilaterals, bilaterals, national governments and private institutions. All of IITA’s AfDB awards have been for agricultural projects. They began with a small AfDB contract worth $23,000 in 2004 to evaluate a pest management project for subsistence farmers in the Lake Chad Basin. Their success with the bank has taken off over the past two years in particular, with awards to support the Nigerian government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda; increase production and commercialization for Liberian smallholder farmers; and support youth entrepreneurship in agriculture in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They appear to be strong competitors for West and Central African agricultural projects, particularly in Nigeria, where they are headquartered. 2. Réseau des Aires Protégées de l’Afrique Centrale, or RAPAC Total AfDB awards, 2000-2016: $7,459,597 Headquarters: Libreville, Gabon Founded: 1980 RAPAC, or the “Network of Protected Areas of Central Africa,” is a regional NGO focused on the conservation of 82 protected reserves across eight Central African states. All RAPAC’s awards come from a single, large conservation-focused project in Central Africa called PACEBCo — Programme d’Appui à la Conservation des Ecosystèmes du Bassin du Congo, or Support Program for the Conservation of the Congo Basin. AfDB awarded RAPAC contracts for this project in 2015, and it is listed as “ongoing” in the AfDB’s Project Portfolio, although there is no further data on the progress of implementation. According to PACEBCo’s own web page, RAPAC was responsible for increasing the size and number of protected areas in Central Africa; improving surveillance and preservation of existing protected areas; and developing the ability of people within these areas to benefit from their natural richness in a sustainable, ecofriendly way. 3. Caritas Development Total AfDB awards, 2000-2016: $7,143,642 Headquarters: Vatican City Founded: 1897 Formally named Caritas Internationalis, Caritas is a confederation of 160 Catholic relief, development and social mission agencies. It is considered the unofficial aid agency of the Catholic Church. All of Caritas’ awards from AfDB were won for social development work between 2008 and 2012. Just over $4 million came from an Agricultural Rehabilitation project in the Kasai province of DRC, with the rest coming from a single three-year project — PARSEC, or Projet d’Appui à la Réinsertion Socio-Économique Post-Conflit, or Support Project for Post-Conflict Socioeconomic Reintegration — directed at reintegrating ex-combatants into local society and economies. Caritas has 46 constituent organizations across 46 African countries. Different country organizations within Caritas have considerable autonomy, though they are led and guided by regional and central organizations. All of Caritas’ AfDB contracts won since 2000 have been for projects in DRC, which may indicate localized knowledge of AfDB bidding processes within the Caritas Congo branch of the organization. 4. World Wide Fund for Nature Total AfDB awards, 2000-2016: $5,897,153 Headquarters: Washington, D.C., USA Founded: 1961 WWF, as it is more commonly known, is one of the world’s foremost natural conservation organizations. Over the past five years, it has won a variety of AfDB contracts in different African countries. However, all of these contracts have been related to conservation, and most of them have been for technical assistance. Three awards were related to a conservation program in the Central African Republic undertaken in 2015, while others were linked to sustainability assistance in the Mayombe forest of southwest Africa, and Virunga National Park in Central Africa. 5. GOAL Global Total AfDB awards, 2000-2016: $5,639,145 Headquarters: Dublin, Ireland Founded: 1977 GOAL Global is a large humanitarian agency focused on helping “the poorest of the poor.” They operate in the areas of emergency response, health, child protection and livelihoods. Between 2010 and 2012, they won four awards in Kenya linked to livelihoods as part of AfDB’s Restoration of Farm Infrastructure and Rural Livelihoods project. The contracts related to a broad range of topics — from public sector reform, to education, to agricultural infrastructure. The charity is in a period of “consolidation” after a turbulent 2016, when allegations of misconduct were levied against it by its biggest donor, the United States Agency for International Development, prompting a suspension of funds from the Irish and British aid agencies. It appears to have weathered the worst of this storm: Following a reform process, its funding has recently been reinstated and it managed to avoid a slated merger with Oxfam Ireland. It remains to be seen whether it will return to bidding for AfDB funding, too. 6. Danish Refugee Council Total AfDB awards, 2000-2016: $5,173,483 Headquarters: Copenhagen, Denmark Founded: 1956 The Danish Refugee Council is an implementing NGO that works on a broad range of activities related to displaced people and refugee camps. All of the Council’s AfDB-funded work was performed in Kenya, linked to the same Restoration of Farm Infrastructure and Rural Livelihoods project that was worked on by GOAL Global. The Council’s awards for this project were divided roughly in half between the areas of agriculture and education. Despite only operating in Kenya since 2005, the Danish Refugee Council has made great strides in the country. For example, it is now the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ primary partner in the area of livelihoods in the Dadaab camp, the second largest camp complex in the world; and it is also active in the Kakuma Refugee Council, which runs urban refugee programs in Nairobi and Mombasa. 7. Norwegian Refugee Council, or NRC Total AfDB awards, 2000-2016: $4,163,209 Headquarters: Oslo, Norway Founded: 1946 The Norwegian Refugee Council is similar to its Danish counterpart in sixth place — an implementing organization focused on refugee-related work. Similarly, NRC has only won AfDB contracts in Kenya, in 2011 and 2012, again linked to the Restoration of Farm Infrastructure and Rural Livelihoods project. As a result, three of the organizations on this list derived all their AfDB awards from this single project, reinforcing the small role that NGOs have played as implementers of AfDB projects. However, the sectoral diversity of NRC’s individual awards may also give some insight into how NGOs can better compete for AfDB funds. The limited contract information available suggests that NRC has been one of the few NGOs involved in large-scale infrastructure projects. NRC awards have included technical assistance and planning contracts such as the “National Water Development Plan” and “Electricity Transmission System Improvement Project.” While AfDB-funded infrastructure projects are typically dominated by well-capitalized engineering firms, research and policy NGOs may be able to win opportunities to technically assist such projects. 8. International Food Policy Research Institute, or IFPRI Total AfDB awards, 2000-2016: $2,900,393 Headquarters: Washington DC, USA Founded: 1975 IFPRI is an agricultural research institute based in the U.S. Like the IITA in first place on this list, it is a member of CGIAR, and focused on policy that targets the reduction of poverty, malnutrition and hunger. The organization is supported by a range of African and global donors — both directly and indirectly through donations to CGIAR. Every two years, CGIAR meets with representatives of all its donors to present its strategic plan and funding needs for their review. In 2013 and 2015, a portion of AfDB’s contribution to CGIAR was earmarked for IFPRI through the Support to Agricultural Research Project in Africa program. The specific objective of the contribution was to increase agricultural productivity, production and utilization of maize, cassava, rice and wheat in AfDB’s regional member countries on a sustainable basis. 9. Africa Rice Center Total AfDB awards, 2000-2016: $2,755,260 Headquarters: Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire Founded: 1971 “AfricaRice” is an intergovernmental research institute owned by various African governments and operational in 26 African nations. It is also a CGIAR member organization. AfricaRice has won only one AfDB award since 2000 — a 2015 contract associated with the Smallholder Agricultural Productivity Enhancement and Commercialization project in Liberia, which is a multidonor initiative to accelerate agricultural development in eight rice-producing counties of the country. 10. France Volontaires Total AfDB awards, 2000-2016: $2,325,497 Headquarters: Ivry-Sur-Seine, France Founded: 1963 Formerly known as L’Association Française des Volontaires du Progrès, France Volontaires won a single AfDB award in 2002 to support an agricultural development program in Benin. The organization runs volunteer programs mostly funded by the French government, similar to the U.S. Peace Corps. It helps to organize development programs, mainly in developing Francophone countries or territories, and staffs them with young French volunteers. This AfDB award appears to have been in support of one such program in Benin. For more information, explore our visualization of top AfDB NGO contractors since 2000; see our list of the top 10 AfDB contractors overall in 2016 — which highlights the gap between private firms and NGOs among AfDB awardees; and delve into Devex’s Contract Awards and Shortlists data. 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