Who’s winning the World Bank’s consulting contracts?
Ahead of its annual Spring Meetings alongside the IMF, we looked into how the World Bank spent nearly $1.7 billion on consultant services.
Next week, the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund will hold their annual Spring Meetings, where world leaders, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders will discuss the world’s most pressing issues. As we have previously reported on the World Bank’s overall biggest contractors for the fiscal year that ended in June 2024, we now crunched the same dataset to see how the bank spent on consultant services and identify its biggest borrower countries, priority sectors, and largest contractors and awards. Note that the use of “World Bank” in this article only refers to its two largest arms — the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association. Based on the data, the World Bank awarded more than 26,000 contracts, worth nearly $15 billion, in FY 2024. Of that, 9,510 contracts, worth almost $1.7 billion, were for consultant services. Where is the money going? More than half of World Bank’s consulting contracts were intended for projects in the African region. About 27.1% of the total spending on consultant services, worth $448.7 million, went to Eastern and Southern Africa, while 24.1%, worth $398.9 million, went to Western and Central Africa. The largest borrowers in the region were Mozambique with $76 million, the Democratic Republic of Congo with $71.2 million, and Tanzania with $63.2 million. Another $49.1 million was allocated to the Middle East and North Africa. Outside of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean also received a substantial sum, worth $216.9 million. Then South Asia, with $209 million; East Asia and Pacific, with $191.7 million; and Europe and Central Asia, with $144 million. Sectorally, 10.5% of the total, or $173.9 million, was for health-related projects. Transportation was also among the most supported areas, receiving $148.3 million; then energy and extractives with $113.5 million; education with $77.7 million; and water, sanitation, and waste management with $73.4 million. <div class='tableauPlaceholder' id='viz1744523465085' style='position: relative'><noscript><a href='#'><img alt='World Bank's borrower countries ' src='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Wo/WorldBanksborrowercountriesconsultantservices/WorldBanksborrowercountries/1_rss.png' style='border: none' /></a></noscript><object class='tableauViz' style='display:none;'><param name='host_url' value='https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.tableau.com%2F' /> <param name='embed_code_version' value='3' /> <param name='site_root' value='' /><param name='name' value='WorldBanksborrowercountriesconsultantservices/WorldBanksborrowercountries' /><param name='tabs' value='no' /><param name='toolbar' value='yes' /><param name='static_image' value='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Wo/WorldBanksborrowercountriesconsultantservices/WorldBanksborrowercountries/1.png' /> <param name='animate_transition' value='yes' /><param name='display_static_image' value='yes' /><param name='display_spinner' value='yes' /><param name='display_overlay' value='yes' /><param name='display_count' value='yes' /><param name='language' value='en-US' /><param name='device' value='desktop' /><param name='showShareOptions' value='false' /></object></div> <script type='text/javascript'> var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1744523465085'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 800 ) { vizElement.style.width='590px';vizElement.style.height='477px';} else if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 500 ) { vizElement.style.width='590px';vizElement.style.height='477px';} else { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height='727px';} var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement); </script> <i style="font-family: Georgia;">Place of performance of World Bank consultant services, based on its contracts data.</i> Who’s winning the contracts? Nearly 14% of the total spending on consultant services, worth $226.4 million, were awarded to individual consultants and multilaterals. Under such circumstances, the World Bank simply tagged the supplier country as “World.” Among awards tagged to a country, India emerged as the top supplier to the World Bank for consultant services, winning 180 contracts worth $124.2 million. Although a large number of these — 121 contracts — was for work delivered within India, those contracts were only worth $36.2 million. The larger sum, worth $41 million, was for six contracts delivered in Nepal. Germany ranked next with $58.4 million for 36 contracts. None of these awards was for work to be carried out in Germany, but for projects primarily located in Africa. German consultants won $37 million for consultancy work in Eastern, Southern, Western, and Central Africa, and an additional $13.8 million for projects in MENA. Consultants based in France came next, with $57.6 million for 92 contracts. These were primarily for regional activities in Western and Central Africa, where French suppliers won $12.9 million for 12 contracts. The other top supplier countries were: the Democratic Republic of Congo, with $56.4 million for 69 contracts; Mozambique, with $49.8 million for 265 contracts; and Italy, with $48.2 million for 41 contracts. <div class='tableauPlaceholder' id='viz1744523595722' style='position: relative'><noscript><a href='#'><img alt='World Bank's supplier countries ' src='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Wo/WorldBankssuppliercountriesconsultantservices/WorldBankssuppliercountries/1_rss.png' style='border: none' /></a></noscript><object class='tableauViz' style='display:none;'><param name='host_url' value='https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.tableau.com%2F' /> <param name='embed_code_version' value='3' /> <param name='site_root' value='' /><param name='name' value='WorldBankssuppliercountriesconsultantservices/WorldBankssuppliercountries' /><param name='tabs' value='no' /><param name='toolbar' value='yes' /><param name='static_image' value='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/Wo/WorldBankssuppliercountriesconsultantservices/WorldBankssuppliercountries/1.png' /> <param name='animate_transition' value='yes' /><param name='display_static_image' value='yes' /><param name='display_spinner' value='yes' /><param name='display_overlay' value='yes' /><param name='display_count' value='yes' /><param name='language' value='en-US' /><param name='device' value='desktop' /><param name='showShareOptions' value='false' /></object></div> <script type='text/javascript'> var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1744523595722'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 800 ) { vizElement.style.width='590px';vizElement.style.height='477px';} else if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 500 ) { vizElement.style.width='590px';vizElement.style.height='477px';} else { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height='727px';} var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement); </script> <i style="font-family: Georgia;">World Bank's supplier countries of consultant services, based on its contracts data.</i> The Pan American Health Organization, or PAHO, a United Nations special health agency in the Americas, received the biggest contract among suppliers. PAHO was awarded $53 million for the delivery of results related to the Nicaragua COVID-19 response project. The World Food Programme ranked next, with $37.9 million for two contracts: $25 million for the operation of school canteen programs in Haiti and $12.9 million for the implementation of food and nutrition security activity in the Republic of Congo. Then WAPCOS Limited, a water and power consultancy company in India, with $30.7 million for a single contract to oversee tender design and bidding and supervise construction for the Upper Arun Hydroelectric Project in Nepal. Two consortia from the Democratic Republic of Congo also ranked among the top suppliers. Each won a single contract for the implementation of community-based services in different areas in DRC — the consortium of SANRU, ICHESS, and FONLIVE, with $21.9 million for the province of Kwilu; and the consortium of Caritas Congo, TPO-DRC, and CHWIQ, with $20.6 million for South Kivu. Both activities were funded under the DRC Multisectoral Nutrition and Health Project. 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
Next week, the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund will hold their annual Spring Meetings, where world leaders, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders will discuss the world’s most pressing issues.
As we have previously reported on the World Bank’s overall biggest contractors for the fiscal year that ended in June 2024, we now crunched the same dataset to see how the bank spent on consultant services and identify its biggest borrower countries, priority sectors, and largest contractors and awards.
Note that the use of “World Bank” in this article only refers to its two largest arms — the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association.
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Miguel Tamonan is a Senior Development Analyst at Devex, where he analyzes data from public and private donors to produce content and special reports for Pro and Pro Funding readers. He has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a Major in International Relations from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
