Economics for Foreign Policy

Descriptions

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) intend to engage with the market in advance of the procurement of The Economics for Foreign Policy Course, FCDO's flagship economics training offer tailored for FCDO roles.

This notice is NOT a call for competition. It is being issued for the purpose of:

- Informing suppliers of a forthcoming procurement

- Inviting interested suppliers to participate in early market engagement using the Supplier Expression of Interest Form (link below)

Partaking in market engagement does not preclude from proceeding to a future stage of procurement.

Overview:

The contract is for the development and delivery of an online course designed to equip FCDO staff with role-relevant practitioner level economics knowledge and boost their analytical skills. Upon completion, learners will know how to critically appraise data, scrutinise relevant economic indicators, understand how evaluation can support FCDO's work, and use robust evidence to inform decision-making. The intended course structure is below:

Core unit 1. The building blocks of economics - What is economics?

Analyse and explain the behaviour of households, communities, firms and markets. Understand and be able to explain the economic context of a country.

Core unit 2. Macroeconomic management & International economics

Strengthen understanding of the macroeconomic management of countries and evaluate policy responses to crises. Identify and explain interactions between the national and global economy.

Core unit 3. Data & empirical methods

Critically evaluate data sources, including in AI applications, and assess their reliability using principles of trustworthiness, quality, and value, and interpret findings to inform policy decisions.

Core unit 4. Monitoring & Evaluation

Raise awareness of how Monitoring Evaluation and Learning can support the FCDO's work and providing foundational skills to enable staff to tell the story of what FCDO does, be intelligent commissioners of evaluation and users of evaluation evidence.

Elective 1. Cross-border economics 2: global public goods, climate, and resilience to disasters

Understand and explain the main concepts behind the economics of climate change, nature and biodiversity. Learn how the main theories in environmental, ecological and resource economics feed into policy discourse.

Elective 2. The economics of development: economic growth, inclusive development, and the role of development cooperation

Diagnose a country's state of development, barriers to and opportunities for inclusive development. Recognise and assess the role of foreign institutions, foreign aid and globalisation in economic development.

Elective 3. Politics, policy implementation and the economy

Analyse and explain how political institutions and economic forces interact to shape policy and societal outcomes. Compare different political-economic systems and their development paths.

Engagement

The FCDO intend to hold a market engagement call on Tuesday 10th February 2026 -10:00 -11:30 UK Time. Suppliers interested in participating in market engagement can do so by using the following link: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=09Ci08h8Uk-7-YW9Q9lCecrVSZRgRcpDtJxVU1ZowUdUN0dJWlczWVY3SFdUWkRXRzFFRk82TDNNMyQlQCNjPTEu&route=shorturl NOTE: - No procurement documents are available at this stage. - This UK2 notice does NOT formally commence a procurement procedure. - Responding to this UK2 notice or participating in any engagement activity will not confer any advantage in any future procurement. - Participation is entirely voluntary and does NOT form part of any future selection process. - FCDO reserves the right NOT to commence a procurement, amend the approach, or change timelines based on internal or external factors.