Following development money: what 24,700 World Bank and UN tenders show

Development banks and UN agencies buy goods, works and expertise in some of the places where national procurement is hardest to reach. We analysed the 24,744 notices FreeTender collected from them between August and mid-November 2026.

Two publishers dominate

The UN system and the World Bank together publish 93% of the development notices we see. Most World Bank notices are issued by the borrowing government’s own agencies under World Bank procurement rules, which is why they appear under ministry and project names rather than the Bank’s.

Where the World Bank money is being spent

UN procurement follows emergencies and fragile contexts more closely. After multi-country and global notices, the leading UN markets were Afghanistan (291), Ukraine (282), the Philippines (272), Pakistan (251), Nigeria (250), Colombia (240) and Syria (216). The AIIB’s largest market was India (118 notices), ahead of Uzbekistan and Bangladesh.

A consultant’s market

• For the World Bank, construction leads (2,219 notices), but consulting services are close behind (1,502), followed by IT (1,104), education (765) and agriculture (730).
• On UNGM, professional and consulting services are the largest category by a wide margin (2,256 notices), ahead of education and training, construction and IT.
• At the African Development Bank, almost half of the notices we classified are consultancy assignments.

This is the part of public procurement where a small specialist firm, or an NGO with field presence, can compete with large companies: assignments are selected on qualifications and approach, often through an expression of interest that costs very little to submit.

How to get in

• Register on UNGM once; it is the entry point for more than 30 UN agencies. See UN procurement step by step.
• Learn the World Bank selection methods (QCBS, CQS, individual consultants). See QCBS and evaluation methods.
• Partner locally. Many assignments in Ethiopia, Nigeria or Pakistan score local presence and language. A joint venture often beats a stronger firm bidding alone.

Related: development bank tenders explained, and the World Bank and United Nations funder pages with every open notice.