The number of tenders released by international donors has jumped by 13% in the second quarter of 2020, reaching a total of 16,215. One of the reasons for this was a substantial growth in procurement in sectors that can be directly linked to the COVID-19 pandemic such as ‘health, education, media and communications, and laboratories. Experts believe that the role of the International Development sector as a driving force will increase as the economic crisis is expected to hit the most vulnerable communities.
Sectorial view
The sector of greatest interest to international donors remains that of civil engineering. As many as 2,390* open and forecasted tender notices were published on the DevelopmentAid platform in Q2 relative to this sector. The funding opportunities anticipate the construction and maintenance of roads, bridges, dams and other infrastructure.
The coronavirus pandemic had a significant impact on multiple industries. The construction business is no exception”, says Mircea Chiriac, PhD, senior DevelopmentAid data analyst. “However, the data we collect and analyze suggests that the number of tenders in this sector has grown by almost 8% in the second quarter which is above expectations, he added.
With over 1,800 tender notices, the ‘health’ sector is the second-most targeted by donors. As healthcare systems struggle under the immense pressure caused by an increasing number of COVID-19 patients, development assistance is being channeled to procure the most needed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and medical products, as well as to develop healthcare infrastructures and build medical staff capacities.
Another sector with increased funding that is directly related to the fight against the corona-pandemic is that of laboratory and measurement. In Q1, this did not fall into the TOP-10 sectors with only 512 notices being published relating to it.
Mircea Chiriac explains this trend: “The testing and isolation of COVID-19 infected patients are the actions that the World Health Organization recommends to be taken to tackle the spread of the virus. Developing the capacities of laboratories to face the increasing volumes of patient testing is one of the purposes of the tenders posted in this sector”.
The geography of the tenders
Asia and Africa were the main regions targeted by the donors in their procurement. Thus, Asia accounted for 32%, or almost 5,150 tender notices, while 31%, or a little over 4,900 tenders, focused on the African continent. Just over 2,100 tenders, or 13% of the total number of notices, related to the Latin America and Caribbean regions. The EU27 region accounted for 8% (1,300 announcements) of the tender notices while Northern America and the non-EU 27 had 6% each (990). The region targeted by the fewest number of tenders was Oceania and the Pacific with only 703 tenders representing is 4% of the total of 16,000 notices published in Q2, 2020.
Compared to the first quarter of this year, donors have increased their activity in Latin America, Europe, Northern America, and Oceania. At the same time, the share of tenders relating to Asia dropped by 5%. The geographical share of the African continent in the spread of the tender notices remained almost the same with a decrease of just 1% compared to the Q1 value.
Tender champions
The World Bank group accounted for 25% of the tender notices made public in the Q2 2020 and, with over 4000 notices, the group was by far the most active donor in Q2. Compared to Q1, the number of tenders published by the World Bank increased by over 800 notices. UNDP intensified its activity by announcing over 2,200 tenders (adding roughly 300 notices to its Q1 figure) in the period April – June 2020.
The Asian Development Bank, whose main focus is the Asian region, made public almost 1100 tender notices which is 200 announcements fewer compared to Q1, 2020.
The Inter-American Development Bank has the most impressive growth rate in published tenders when compared to Q1. During the period January -March 2020, the organization did not appear in the top ten donors listed by the number of tenders whereas in Q2, IADB published almost 500.
At the same time, the United States Department of Agriculture doubled its procurement activity, publishing nearly twice as many announcements in Q2.
The TOP-10 most active donors account for nearly 67% of the total number of published tenders.
The hawk-eyes of the DevelopmentAid Data Entry department spotted 175 international donor organizations and more than 850 sources of tender information in the second quarter of 2020 with 123 of the organizations announcing funding opportunities via tender notices.
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*Editor’s note: Some of the published tenders relate to multiple sectors. In this case, the tender is counted as a single entry while the predicted sectors are counted accordingly.
