Introducing the ‘Donor Tracker’

These aren’t bad times if you’re a consumer of aid data. Globally, alongside the good old OECD workhorses, there’s AidData. In the UK, DFID provides a Development Tracker. In Canada, there’s a the excellent Foreign Aid Portal.

In Australia, access to IATI data in a useful form is an ongoing headache. But, on the other hand, there’s some information on the DFAT website, ACFID provides great information on where its members work and, of course, there’s Devpolicy’s very own Australian Aid Tracker.

And now, another interesting new aid transparency tool has just arrived. This is the Donor Tracker, produced by German consultants Seek Development.

When it is fully operational, the Donor Tracker will cover 14 donors, including Australia. (There’s no information on Australia yet, but it is due this month.) In the meantime, the site is well worth visiting. With some digging around, you can use the Donor Tracker to find the standard quantitative information (ODA/GNI for example) both for individual donors and also in the form of cross-donor comparisons. What I found more interesting though, was the qualitative information the tool provided on the covered countries. If, for example, like me, you know nothing about French ODA, the tool provides a quick means of learning the basics on France’s current approach to aid, as well as potential future changes. This is a real innovation and ought to be helpful for anyone who needs to understand different aid donors and how they operate.