Paper short abstract:

We analyse DFID/FCDO procurement decisions and its intended and unintended effects on the contractor market. Situating the procurement relationship within wider political and market dynamics, we develop a critical procurement analytical lens to understand market and project outcomes.

Paper long abstract:

In this presentation, we draw on a critical analysis of DFID/FCDO procurement decisions and supplier market governance and its effects on the contractor market. We examine the FDCO/DFID procurement and supplier management at three interlocking levels – procurement policy, pipeline and supplier management decisions, and organisationally distributed project management decisions. We show how DFID/FCDO have increasingly split the supplier market in two by setting tendering conditions that are so demanding they are driving out small and medium organisations. A turbulent aid policy period and loss of strategic direction in the UK have created an increasingly competitive arena, incentivising providers to emphasise low prices and managerial expertise over technical expertise. We suggest that these evolving dynamics and their impacts across and within development contractors are in part unintentional. In doing so, we develop a critical procurement lens which expands on critical theorisations of public sector use of consultants, situating framings of procurement policy within broader political and market dynamics.