The number of consultancy assignments for development experts declined in May 2026. This is the first shrink of the demand in 6 months—we started tracking these trends back in November 2025.
Thus, in May, our tender database had 1,967 contracts available for international development experts. While this number represents a large pool of opportunities, demand has decreased by 7% when compared to April’s numbers.
The decline was reflected across all geographies (except for the Americas), but specific sectors were affected unevenly: some faced huge cuts, while others had only small drops in demand or even an increase in the number of consulting opportunities.
In this article, we present an in-depth analysis of the latest consultancy trends to help you, individual consultants working in international development – anticipate market shifts and plan your career accordingly.
Table I – Five consultancies published during May 2026.
Monthly dynamics of consultancy opportunities
Including this piece, we have published seven exclusive consultancy trend articles since November 2025, based on the expert contracts available on DevelopmentAid—one of the largest databases in international development.
Insight #1: Africa-based consulting assignments took a 20% cut
During May, Asia and Africa continued to dominate the demand for development experts — these regions hosted 70% of the consultancies published on DevelopmentAid. However, both experienced a decline since the past month: Asia registered 4% fewer assignments for experts, and Africa-based ones decreased by 20%. Europe and Oceania also faced a stall, while the Americas had an increased number of contracts available.
Table II – Number of individual consultant opportunities published in May 2026, per continent.
This table also displays the variation (in %) in the number of consultancies compared to our last analysis, in April 2026. Data collected by Sofia Oliveira from the DevelopmentAid database. Note: consultancies can be based on multiple continents.
Insight #2: Individual consultant opportunities decreased across all categories
Goods, works, services: all categories had fewer calls for consultancies in May when compared to the analyses we performed in April 2026. This is not surprising given that the total number of expert contracts decreased 7% this month. Consulting services, however, are still the forefront need, representing 97% of all consulting assignments published.
Table III – Number of individual consultant opportunities published in May 2026, per need category.
This table also displays the variation (in %) in the number of consultancies compared to our last analysis, in April 2026. Data collected by Sofia Oliveira from the DevelopmentAid database. Note: consultancies can span over more than one category.
Insight #3: Environment remains the highest demand sector, but assignments decreased by 13%
It’s as the subtitle says: environment was the priority for recruitment of external consultants but procurement cooled off — a 13% decrease. Similarly, the opportunities in IT & Engineering — the third sector in most demand — were reduced by 15% compared to the past month. And these two were not the only affected sectors either. Research, Marketing & Communications, and Finances were in mid-tier demand (over 150 contracts published for each), but they all experienced cuts of 15% or higher during May 2026.
The availability of expert contracts in Education & Training — the second-best-ranked sector — was also tightened, but only by 2%.
Table IV – Number of individual consultant opportunities published in May 2026, per sector.
Only the 3 sectors with the most published consultancies are displayed. This table also displays the variation (in %) in the number of consultancies compared to our last analysis, in April 2026. Data collected by Sofia Oliveira from the DevelopmentAid database. Note: consultancies can be classified into more than one sector.
Insight #4: Fundraising & Grants consultancies dropped by 43%
In May, Fundraising & Grants had the least demand and the number of consulting assignments decreased by 43%. Nonprofit and Transportation followed a different trend: they both kept their respective places in the bottom ranking, but the number of opportunities did not vary very much compared to the analysis we performed in April 2026.
Table V – Number of individual consultant opportunities published in May 2026, per sector.
Only the 3 sectors with the least published consultancies are displayed. This table also displays the variation (in %) in the number of consultancies compared to our last analysis, in April 2026. Data collected by Sofia Oliveira from the DevelopmentAid database. Note: consultancies can be classified into more than one sector.
Insight #5: The United Nations and the World Bank funded 15% fewer expert contracts
The United Nations and the World Bank — two of the largest funding bodies of individual consultants — supported 15% fewer opportunities than in the previous month, making this one of the major shifts registered in the consultancy landscape during May.
Nonprofit organizations, however, remained the largest contractor of development experts (in terms of number of published assignments) and expanded their coverage to 5% more calls.
Table VI – Top 5 funding agencies with the largest number of consultant opportunities published in May 2026.
This table also displays the variation (in %) in the number of consultancies compared to our last analysis, in April 2026. Data collected by Sofia Oliveira from the DevelopmentAid database.
Next: Take action
While there are still many opportunities across sectors and geographies, the overall decline in consulting assignments signals competition will, at best, remain strong. Or become even tougher.
To succeed as a freelancer, you must target contracts strategically. Understanding which sectors continue to attract funding and identifying the ones where demand is growing can help you improve your chances of success. You should also look at which organizations are actively contracting external experts.
You can easily find this information after registering on DevelopmentAid and using our tender database.
For many professionals, this may also be the right time to diversify expertise and explore emerging sectors, or strengthen relationships with organizations that maintain consistent procurement activity despite broader demand shrinkage.
