With billions of US dollars being allocated to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on world economies, the number of tenders and grants related to coronavirus reached 470 in the period January to April 2020. The announcements, subject to international public procurement mechanisms, have been gathered together by DevelopmentAid and access to this information is publicly available in an effort to speed up the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Having posted 87 out of the total of 384 COVID-related tenders gathered by DevelopmentAid, the World Bank Group has been the most active donor. It is followed by the Asian Development Bank with 31 tenders and the United Nations Development Programme with 30 tenders. The European Commission has posted 29 announcements while the German GIZ has issued 12 announcements.
Government tenders account for 55 notices in DevelopmentAid’s database of COVID-related tenders.
One third of the tenders posted target the Asian region while Africa and Europe are the focus of 27% and 26% respectively. Twelve percent of the announcements refer to the Americas while Oceania is targeted by 4% of the funding opportunities.
The procurement category with the highest share of tender announcements is Consulting services with 43% of the total while approximately 28% of the tenders relate to the acquisitions of goods, 15% to the work demand and 14% being listed as “non-consulting services”.
Out of the 76 grants relevant to COVID-19, the vast majority – 24 notices – have been posted by non-profit organizations with USAID being the second highest with seven grant notices posted to date. EuropeAid and the Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education have each posted six notices while the French Development Agency has made public four grant notices.
The Americas are the destinations for the majority of the grant notices – with 27% targeting the two continents. The remaining donor announcements are fairly evenly distributed between Europe, Africa and Asia with shares of 25%, 24% and 22% respectively. Oceania is targeted by 2% of the tender notices.
DevelopmentAid has previously reported the rising number of tenders and grants relating to the health and humanitarian sectors. Over 930 tenders and 340 grant notices relating to these sectors were posted on Developmentaid.org in Q1 2020. Compared to Q4 2019, when 786 tenders and 213 grants were available, these numbers have increased by 18% and 60% respectively.
This increase is explained by the allocation by development organizations of substantial funds to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 related tenders and grants can be accessed publicly on DevelopmentAid, one of the leading providers of business intelligence in the international public procurement sector.
