 | |
| Formation | March 23, 2009[ citation needed ] |
|---|---|
| Type | Aid Transparency, Information Technology, Geocoding |
| Headquarters | Williamsburg, VA |
| Location | |
| Website | www |
AidData is an Aid Transparency, Information Technology, and Geocoding institute formed on March 23, 2009. Its headquarters are in Williamsburg, Virginia. Its website provides access to development finance records from most official aid donors.
AidData was formed in 2009 as a partnership between Brigham Young University (BYU), the College of William and Mary, and Development Gateway. The organization was formed through the merger of two prior initiatives: Project-Level Aid (PLAID) and Accessible Information on Development Activities (AiDA). PLAID, conceived in 2003, was a joint effort between BYU and William and Mary to provide data on foreign aid. AiDA was established in 2001 by Development Gateway to serve as a registry of aid activities to improve aid transparency and coordination. The organization released their searchable data portal of one million past and present development finance activities from over 90 funding agencies.
In 2016, the members of the AidData partnership agreed that AidData would function as a stand-alone development research and innovation lab at the College of William and Mary moving forward. AidData still maintains contact with their co-founders Development Gateway and Brigham Young University, and these organizations continue to contribute to AidData's work, including as members of the AidData Center for Development Policy.
AidData's online resources include:
AidData's main table database includes data from 96 donor agencies and multilateral organizations from 1945 to the present. [1] Most of the aid activity records are republished with permission from the Creditor Reporting System (CRS), the central database for foreign aid compiled by the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC), which is the official source of aid statistics for all DAC member countries. The database also includes information on the aid projects of some donors that do not report to the OECD, such as Brazil, South Africa, and China. The aid activities are classified according to a scheme based on the CRS codebook, [2] but add individual activity codes under each purpose code headline. The beta version of the AidData portal was launched in March 2010 at a conference in Oxford, UK. AidData 2.0 was launched in November 2011 at the World Bank.
Several donors use the International development markup language (IDML) to report directly to AidData.
In collaboration with Uppsala University, AidData developed the UCDP/AidData methodology for geocoding aid activities. The methodology is used to tag development aid activities with geographic coordinates, such that they can be pinpointed to geographic locations and displayed on a map. In partnership with the World Bank, [3] AidData applied this methodology to the Mapping for Results initiative, through which geocoders mapped out more than 16,000 project locations for more than 2,700 active Bank activities across 81 countries, including all IDA recipient countries. [4]
The UCDP/AidData Geocoding Methodology can be freely downloaded from the Open. AidData website.
Publications based on AidData resources include:
AidData is used as a source in the following publications:
An aid agency, also known as development charity, is an organization dedicated to distributing aid. Many professional aid organisations exist, both within government, between governments as multilateral donors and as private voluntary organizations or non-governmental organisations. The International Committee of the Red Cross is the world's second oldest humanitarian organisation and is unique in being mandated by international treaty to uphold the Geneva Conventions. The Sovereign Order of Malta, established in 1099 as the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, has an unbroken tradition of over 900 years of hospitaller activities, continuing to this day. Even in its modern guise under international law, it was recognized at the Congress of Verona of 1822, and since 1834 headquartered in Palazzo Malta in Rome, decades before the Red Cross.
Official development assistance (ODA) is a category used by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to measure foreign aid. The DAC first adopted the concept in 1969. It is widely used as an indicator of international aid flow. It refers to material resources given by the governments of richer countries to promote the economic development of poorer countries and the welfare of their people. The donor government agency may disburse such resources to the government of the recipient country or through other organizations. Most ODA is in the form of grants, but some is measured as the concessional value in soft (low-interest) loans.
Development aid is a type of foreign/international/overseas aid given by governments and other agencies to support the economic, environmental, social, and political development of developing countries. Closely related concepts include: developmental aid, development assistance, official development assistance, development policy, development cooperation and technical assistance. It is distinguished from humanitarian aid by aiming at a sustained improvement in the conditions in a developing country, rather than short-term relief. Development aid is thus widely seen as a major way to meet Sustainable Development Goal 1 for the developing nations.
Aid effectiveness is the degree of success or failure of international aid. Concern with aid effectiveness might be at a high level of generality, or it might be more detailed.
In international relations, aid is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another.
The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, abbreviated BMZ, is a cabinet-level ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its main office is at the former German Chancellery in Bonn with a second major office at the Europahaus in Berlin.
Japan has been establishing its foreign aid contributors since the 1990s. The three government institutions involved in disbursing this are: the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the Japanese Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC). This is now the nodal agency for all Japanese concessional loans, and replaced Japan Export-Import Bank (JEXIM) and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) in 1999.
The Project-Level Aid (PLAID) database has now become AidData: Tracking Development Finance, a portal for information on development finance. As AidData, it now contains records of over 900,000 international development projects financed by bilateral and multilateral donors from 1950 to 2010. Up until the official launch of AidData in March 2010, the PLAID database was the primary output of PLAID, a research partnership between the Institute for Theory and Practice of International Relations at the College of William and Mary, and the Political Economy and Development Lab at Brigham Young University. It was begun in 2003 to build upon the existing work of the OECD's Creditor Reporting System. In August 2009, PLAID merged with the Development Gateway's Accessible Information on Development Activities Database to form AidData. The beta version of the AidData portal was launched in March 2010, and continues to be accessible to the public.
The Directorate-General for International Partnerships is the European Commission department responsible for international development policy. It operates under the authority of the European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) is a forum to discuss issues surrounding aid, development and poverty reduction in developing countries. It describes itself as being the "venue and voice" of the world's major donor countries.
The Japan Bank for International Cooperation, JBIC, is a Japanese public financial institution and export credit agency that was created on October 1, 1999, through the merger of the Japan Export-Import Bank (JEXIM) and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF).
The Humanitarian Response Index (HRI) is an independent civil society initiative to annually assess and rank wealthy countries against their commitment to improve the quality and effectiveness of their humanitarian assistance. Developed by DARA, the HRI's intended purpose is to assist the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Development Assistance Committee (OECD/DAC) donor governments ensure that their humanitarian assistance has the greatest impact on beneficiaries. The HRI's aim is to improve the quality and effectiveness of aid, and promote greater efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of government donors. The first edition was published in 2007, followed by subsequent editions in 2008, 2009, and 2010.
The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) is a global campaign to create transparency in the records of how aid money is spent. The initiative hopes to thereby ensure that aid money reaches its intended recipients. The ultimate goal is to improve standards of living worldwide and globally reduce poverty. The IATI also publishes a standard to be used by organizations, allowing different datasets to be combined and shared.
Development Gateway, Inc. is an international non-profit organization that provides technical tools and advisory services to country governments and development organizations.
Chinese foreign aid may be considered as both governmental (official) and private development aid and humanitarian aid originating from the People's Republic of China.
Irish Aid is the Government of Ireland's official international development aid programme. Irish Aid is managed by the Development Co-Operation and Africa Division (DCAD) of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). According to the OECD, Ireland’s total ODA increased in 2022, mostly due to higher in-donor refugee costs and higher contributions to international organisations. ODA represented 0.64% of gross national income (GNI). The Irish Aid programme is an integral part of Ireland's foreign policy.
Humanitarian crowdfunding is an emerging, donation-based crowdfunding vertical recognized by the humanitarian community. It is classified as child category, nested under the generic term "charitable giving".
Four high level forums on aid effectiveness were held between 2003 and 2011 as part of a "continuous effort towards modernising, deepening and broadening development co-operation and the delivery of aid" coordinated through the OECD. They took place at Rome (2003), Paris (2005), Accra (2008) and Busan (2011).
The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) is a Saudi Arabian government agency that provides development assistance to developing countries by financing social and infrastructure projects. The fund seeks to support the economies of recipient countries by enhancing economic growth and promoting job opportunities. SFD was established in 1974 and began operations in 1975. Through actions including development, finance, trade, and funding, the SFD has continued to expand. Today, it is involved in 3750 projects in 71 countries. The fund is led by H.E. Mr. Ahmed bin Aqeel Al-Khateeb who also serves as the Minister of Tourism for Saudi Arabia.