In addition to our programmes on chronic poverty, global humanitarian assistance and aid information, we are currently working with:

• Irish Aid
• ONE/DATA
• Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• World Food Programme (WFP).

You might also like to see our past projects or learn more about the type of work we do by visiting the themed sections of this site, as listed in the left-hand menus.

Over US$100 billion is allocated to poverty reduction and international development in the form of official development assistance (ODA) alone each year. But information on exactly how such funds are allocated and the extent to which they reach the poor is limited, difficult for many people to access and understand, and often only available up to two years after money has actually been spent.

aidinfo's ultimate goal is detailed 20/20 information, available in real time, which would enable:

• people in poor countries to find out what donors are funding – how much money is coming in to the country, where it has been spent and on what terms – a level of accountability that can help build the social contract between people and their governments
• governments in developing countries to manage resources more effectively – an essential part of the shift from donorship to ownership
• donors, NGOs and firms to plan future activities – thereby increasing the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of aid on poverty
• people in rich countries to find out more quickly exactly where and how their money has been spent – and the impact it has had
• researchers, journalists, parliamentarians and advocacy organisations access to information that can help focus resources on areas in greatest need and also help people to check whether governments are delivering on timetabled commitments.

aidinfo's current focus is about making the resource information that already exists more specific, timely, transparent and accessible to those that need to use it - it's not about creating a new database. It aims to secure an agreement in principle to the need for a new transparency standard and for donors to set themselves a deadline for agreeing the detail and implementing it.

aidinfo is a partnership between Development Initiatives, Brigham Young University, The College of William and Mary and the Stimson Institute, with grant funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

What is aidinfo? (PDF) >

For further details of our work to improve the transparency and timeliness of data on aid resources for poverty reduction, please email or phone Victoria Room on +44 1749 671343.

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At the Millennium Summit in 2000, world leaders took a major step forward in agreeing the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) for 2015. If governments north and south deliver on aid and prioritise the needs of more than a billion people living on less than US$1 a day, the proportion of the world's population living in poverty can be halved within a decade.

But at the 1995 Social Summit, governments also accepted that absolute poverty could not just be halved – but eliminated within a generation. An MDG+ strategy is required to see beyond 2015.

Development Initiatives and HelpAge International have been working with the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC) and its partners since 2000 to increase understanding of the factors that entrench and perpetuate poverty.

Key aims for the next five years include:

• highlighting the need to put an MDG+ strategy in place by 2010
• establishing a consensus on the affordability and achievability of absolute poverty elimination by a specified date (2025?).

For further details on our work on chronic poverty, please email or phone Tony German on +44 1749 671343.

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The Global Humanitarian Assistance programme exists to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and coherence of humanitarian response by further increasing access to reliable, transparent and understandable data on humanitarian assistance. The aim is to contribute to an authoritative and comparable shared evidence base for people and institutions involved in humanitarian policy, programming and performance.

Since 2000, GHA has been working closely with donors, NGOs and organisations not only to capture spending on humanitarian assistance – but also to build a common understanding of the data and what it really means.

Our programme is about to enter an exciting new phase. As well as continuing to work on access to data on international humanitarian financing, we are hoping to explore ways of:

• capturing and analysing information on domestic response to crises
• developing a programme of work to improve the comparability and application of data on the number, scale and severity of crises globally.

Between 2004 and 2007 our research, analysis and reports were sponsored by the donor governments of Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK.

globalhumanitarianassistance.org >

For further details on Global Humanitarian Assistance, please email or phone Lisa Walmsley on +44 1749 671343.

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The concept of 'vulnerability' has repeatedly emerged as one that can help inform and frame thinking and approaches towards enhanced poverty reduction.

Development Initiatives is working with Irish Aid with a view to identifying if/how its current programme can be improved to better meet the needs of vulnerable populations. It is:

• clarifying the rationale for a vulnerability-focused approach to pro-poor development
• enhancing knowledge within Irish Aid of the vulnerability concept
• conducting comprehensive mapping to identify opportunities for enhanced vulnerability reduction within Irish Aid's programme
• identifying a possible strategy for Irish Aid to refine its approach to vulnerability reduction.

For further details on our work with Irish Aid, please email or phone Judith Randel on +44 1749 671343.

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The G8 nations made a number of historic commitments to Africa at the 2005 summit in Gleneagles.

Working closely with ONE/DATA, Development Initiatives:

• provides research, monitoring and analysis on the extent to which G8 countries are fulfilling commitments made on progress towards the MDGs
• writes chapters and contributes to the overall analysis and positioning of the annual DATA reports
• identifies sources of information (DAC statistics, finance and development ministries, statistical offices, NGOs, relevant academics), including identifying missing information and potential strategies for obtaining/researching it
• clarifies exactly what was agreed on each commitment and determines a baseline against which these can be measured
• determines critical paths that each G8 member would have to follow to meet each commitment, sketching out an annualised schedule that would put each donor on track for meeting each of the goals
• works closely with donors, particularly in the data collection and indicator identification phases, as achieving a shared analysis of the facts is important in facilitating constructive dialogue on progress.

For further details on this piece of work, email or phone Dan Coppard on +44 1749 671343.

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Humanitarian aid flows through a number of layers on its way from donor to recipient – bilateral donors disburse funds to UN agencies, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, NGOs and commercial service providers. When funding flows through an organisation, it is often subject to an overhead charge.

Development Initiatives is:

• researching and documenting basic information on overhead charges in the context of the cost structures of the organisations concerned
• reviewing the implications of the current approach to overheads
• identifying possible recommendations for consideration by the Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD) initiative.

For further details on this piece of work, email or phone Tasneem Mowjee on +44 1749 671343.

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We are currently working with WFP to see how pooled funding mechanisms – such as multi-donor trust funds and the DFID-proposed recovery fund – can be better used to support WFP’s strategic objectives and overall programming needs.

The work feeds into the WFP's resourcing strategy for 2008–2011, which is linked to its strategic plan and the UN reform process. It is being carried out under the overall guidance of the Government Donor Relations Division in close liaison with other divisions and field offices.

For further details on this piece of work, email or phone Tasneem Mowjee on +44 1749 671343.

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