UK aid spending during COVID-19: management of procurement through suppliers

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a major realignment of the UK aid programme for 2020. Between March and September 2020, to meet the urgent health and humanitarian challenges facing developing countries, the UK government allocated nearly £800 million in new aid. At the same time, the impact of COVID-19 on the UK economy resulted in a sharp fall in projected gross national income (GNI), triggering a dramatic reduction in the aid budget to avoid exceeding the 0.7% of GNI spending target. These in-year adjustments had major implications for UK suppliers and multilateral organisations, requiring changes to existing grants and contracts, and to the pipeline of planned procurement.