INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND AGENCIES. FUNDING DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS.

Course Contents (Back)

The European Union. The European Commission and the other European institutions.
The World Bank Group
The United Nations Agencies: UNDP, WFP, FAO, WHO, etc.
The Regional Development Banks: IADB, ADB, AfDB, EBRD; and other sub-regional banks (CAF, CABEI, CDB, BOAD, IsDB, ...)
Bilateral Aid Agencies. Bilateral Donors (USAID, GTZ, SIDA, AECI, France Cooperation, DANIDA, JICA, etc.) and private foundations and large development NGOs.

Objectives

The objectives of this Learning Unit are to:

Acquire sufficient knowledge of the structure activities of the main International Institutions, their programs and procurements of goods, services and works.
Become acquainted with the websites of these institutions, their procurement notices, loans and technical assistance programs, project databases, and the main portals announcing tenders and grants, databases of experts, etc.

Available Languages:

Learning Unit Summary

In this module we will study the advantages and disadvantages of working in projects with funding from the main European and International Institutions. We will analyze the business opportunities offered by these institutions.

Moreover, we will become acquainted with the websites of the different Institutions and with the main bilateral agencies working with developing or transition countries.

Various Financial and non-financial institutions have appeared in the last decades in the international community, with purposes varying from one another, but generally trying to promote economic and social development and fight poverty. These institutions can be classified into various types according to the nature of their key activities. Sometimes these organisations are known as “multilateral financial institutions” (or “Multilateral Development Banks”), but formally this term refers to the group of banks (the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, EBRD, etc.) of a multilateral structure, that is, they belong to a series of countries which own their capital, and enjoy the benefit of having a number of different instruments to promote development in the target region.

But some of the international institutions tendering projects are not of a financial nature, but rather provide technical assistance, trade-related or research activities.

Both the financial and the non-financial institutions are an important source of business and employment opportunities for companies, individual experts and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs).

Business opportunities with International Institutions represent approximately 60 billion UDS per year (a large proportion of the total International Development Assistance or ODA, over 100 billion USD in 2006). Funds provided by the countries of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), whether disbursed as grants, loans or credits for emerging and developing countries are used for financing programs and projects which contribute to the development and improvement of quality of life of beneficiary countries, these programs and projects in turn buy services and goods according to strict procedures, such as national or international tenders and calls for proposals.

The International Institutions fund programs the following sectors: