How has the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the international donor-funded market?

In an attempt to diminish the consequences caused by the ongoing COVID crisis, international donor organizations have adjusted their investment strategies to fit current emergency demands. This report aims to provide an overview of how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the international donor-funded market by analyzing the number of tenders and grants published on DevelopmentAid between January 2020 and May 2021 that contained pandemic-specific keywords and by making a general comparison between the number of projects published under certain selected sectors in 2018, 2019 and 2020. The analysis shows that between 60 and 65% of COVID-19-related projects were distributed across 11 sectors with the majority of these being located in Asia and Africa. In 2020, the number of tenders and grants in the ‘Health’ sector increased by 100% and 162% respectively.

Keyword search

The total number of tenders published on www.developmentaid.org between January 2020 and May 2021 was 139,029 and 8,571 matched the keywords of “COVID-19” or “Pandemic response” out of which 2,995 tenders (35%) were for Asia followed by 2,497 (29%) projects for Africa, 906 (11%) for Latin America & the Caribbean, 854 (10%) in the EU-27, 726 (8%) in Europe non-EU 27, 303 (4%) for Oceania and lastly, 290 tenders or 3% for North America.

Of 8,571 tenders, 47% were categorized as ‘consulting services’, followed by the ‘goods’ category with 38%, ‘non-consulting services’ with 9%, and ‘works’ category with 7%. A detailed description of the categories can be found here.

The total number of grants published on Developementaid between January 2020 and May 2021 was 15,702 and 2,682 matched the keywords of “COVID-19” or “Pandemic response”. Of these, 668 projects or 25% were open for North America, followed by 561 (21%) grants for Europe non-EU 27, 394 (15%) for EU-27, 376 (14%) grants for Asia, 338 (13%) for Africa, 201 (7%) for Oceania and 144 grants or 5% for Latin America & the Caribbean.

Sectoral distribution of COVID-related projects

Around 60% of COVID-19-related tenders were distributed between 11 sectors. The largest share of tenders was observed in the ‘Health’ sector with 21%, followed by the ‘Laboratory & Measurement’ and ‘Industry, Commerce & Services’ sectors with 6 % each.

NOTE: The ‘Other’ category is comprised of 73 sectors with few or no projects

About 65% of COVID-19-related grants were distributed across 11 sectors with the ‘Health’ sector holding 13% of the total, followed by the ‘Social Development’ sector with 9% and 7% in the ‘Youth’ sphere.

NOTE: The ‘Other’ category is comprised of 73 sectors with few or no projects

According to senior DevelopmentAid data analyst, Mircea Chiriac, in May 2021 the number of new COVID-19 cases is fluctuating between 500,000 and 1 million per day which, according to the World Health Organization is unacceptably high.

“It is true that many countries are reporting fewer new coronavirus infections, but global data indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. In the near future, we expect the financing to healthcare and social sectors to continue, even if that displaces other development goals”, added the source.

Sectoral comparison

The objective of this study was to highlight the distribution of the projects funded by international donors worldwide based on seven sectors for the 2018-2020 period and to analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the distribution process. Of the 84 sectors that DevelopmentAid uses to group funding opportunities, we have carefully selected seven that are large enough to feature an adequate number of projects, do not overlap with other sectors, and are sufficiently representative for each class (tenders/grants).

The total number of tenders published in 2018, 2019, and 2020 was 50,690, 67,867, and 94,544 respectively. For 2018, the largest share of tenders was observed in the ‘Civil engineering’ sector with 8,594 projects, followed by the ‘ICT’ sector with 6,005 tenders and 2,797 tenders in the ‘Health’ sector. Interestingly, for 2019 the most significant growth was observed in the ‘Macro-economy and Public Finance’ sector with 34% or + 942 tenders accompanied by a 32% and 28% increase in the ‘SME & Private Sector’ and ‘ICT’ sectors respectively. The ‘Education’ sector saw the lowest growth with 23% or + 436 projects. The data for 2020 shows an increase of more than 100% or + 3,946 in the number of projects published in the ‘Health’ sector, and thus demonstrates that international donor organizations were quick to respond to the threats caused by the pandemic crisis. Moreover, both the ‘Education’ and the ‘SME & Private Sector’ spheres saw a 36% increase in the number of tenders. The ‘Energy’ sphere saw modest growth of 15%, the lowest when compared to other sectors.

The total number of grants published in 2018, 2019, and 2020 were 3,688, 5,081, and 11,067 respectively. In terms of grants published in 2018, the largest share was observed in the ‘Human Rights’ sector with 820 projects followed by the ‘Health’ sector with 763 projects and ‘Gender’ with 597 grants. The ‘Agriculture’ sector, being that with the lowest number of projects in 2018 (211), saw the most significant increase in 2019 with 82% or + 172 projects. The ‘Civil society’ and the ‘Education’ sectors had an increase of 73% and 57% respectively while the ‘Health’ sector had a modest growth of 14%. In 2020, the number of grants in the ‘Heath’ sector increased by 162% and reached 2,273 projects. Interestingly, another significant growth of 93% was observed in the ‘Culture’ sector while the number of grants in the ‘Agriculture’ sphere increased by 73%.

The keyword search was performed by looking for the following keywords either in the name or description of a funding profile: “COVID-19” or COVID or “Pandemic response”. The results displayed can be considered as the aggregated response measures to the COVID-19 crisis by 180+ international donors covered by DevelopmentAid.