After the UK Government’s announcement, last year of its intention to cut a possible £4 billion from its external aid budget, local and international stakeholders have been searching the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) pipeline and prospects for 2021. This April, the UK’s largest aid contributor renewed the commercial pipeline of projects scheduled from April 2021 to September 2022. DevelopmentAid offers you a deeper dive into the FCDO funding opportunities pipeline for 2021 and 2022.
The FCDO is a department within the United Kingdom (UK) Government that acts as a bilateral donor promoting sustainable development and poverty reduction. It was formed in September 2020 following the merger of the former Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DfID).
The total amount of UK’s official development assistance (ODA) in 2020 was £14.471 million, of which £9,492 million was allocated as bilateral ODA and £4,979 million was earmarked for multilateral ODA. The FCDO spent £10,662 million in 2020, £1,124 million less than in 2019. The largest share (55.4%) of FCDO bilateral ODA spending was directed towards Africa, amounting to £2,226 million.
As a response to the COVID-19 crisis, last year the UK Government announced significant cuts to external aid from 0.7% of gross national income to 0.5%, a reduction that corresponds to over £4 billion. Local and international stakeholders expressed their opposition to this decision with the Save the Children NGO stating that “the government had lost its moral compass”.
FCDO priorities for 2021/2022
The largest share of the FCDO budget for 2021/2022 will be directed towards Ethiopia with a project budget worth £188.6 million followed by Nigeria with a dedicated budget of £170.8 million and Pakistan with £145.2 million. Malawi and Myanmar close the top 10 beneficiary countries with budgets set at £76.9 million and £76.9 million respectively.
FCDO’s bilateral investment policies for 2021/2022 will focus on 10 sectors with the largest part of the budget directed towards the ‘Health’ sector set at £1.14 billion followed by the ‘Banking and Financial Services Sector’ with £729.8 million and the ‘Government and Civil Society’ sector with a budget equal to £579 million. The ‘Agricultural’ and ‘Social Infrastructure and Services’ sectors will receive the lowest share of the budget with £183.8 million and £153.6 million respectively.
Funding Opportunities in the Pipeline
At the end of April 2021, the FCDO published a list of projects that had been recently added to the commercial pipeline that are scheduled for approval/implementation between April 2021 and September 2022. The document highlights nine projects with a total value of £198.5 million, the general details of some of these are:
- Project 5621 – “US Benefits – Medical (Stop Loss, Pharmacy & Admin)” targets the Americas and is designed to extend the current procurement contract that ends on 31 March 2022. The project value is £16,970,800
- Project 6274 – “Improving Public Space & Public Discourse in Mostar (Bosnia & Herzegovina)” targets Western Balkans and is a newly designed project planned for initiation on 5 May 2021 with a value of £3,000,000
- Project 6301 – “Provision of OSCE Election Observation Monitors” is a multilateral project, due to start on 30 June 2021 involving a budget of £3,500,000
- Project 6422 – “Inclusive and Accountable Governance Project” is to be implemented in Jordan. With a start date of 7 May 2021, the project has a budget of £16,000,000
- Project 6434 – “Support to Stabilisation in Central Mali” project is managed via the Africa directorate and it is planned to extend the contract due to expire on 12 October 2021. The value of the project is £4,999,999
- Project 6334 – “Procurement of Internet Connectivity through a Dynamic Procurement System (DPS)” relates to the procurement of IT systems and has a value of £70,505,000. The start date is yet to be confirmed
- Project 1293 – “Provision of Legalisation Office International and Domestic courier services” project is set to extend the current contract that ends on 31 October 2022 and involves a budget of £4,000,000
- Project 6483 – “Procurement of Consular Integrated Case Management system” project is planned to extend the current contract that ends on 31 March 2023 with a value of £17,000,000.
The commercial pipeline projects published by the FCDO provide a forward look at potential funding and partnership opportunities. DevelopmentAid is the leading provider of business intelligence and recruitment tools for those active in the development sector and offers the exclusive capability to source and monitor funding opportunities placed in the pipeline by international donors such as FCDO from the early intelligence stage.
