AidData has proven expertise in designing rigorous and replicable methods to analyze China's expanding portfolio of overseas investments and soft power activities—from infrastructure projects to public diplomacy initiatives. We organize convenings of leading policymakers and scholars; conduct outreach to media outlets worldwide; provide custom analysis to senior public sector decision-makers; and collaborate with an international network of researchers to publish peer-reviewed articles and books as well as influential policy reports, such as Chasing China, How China Collateralizes, Power Playbook, Anchoring Global Ambitions, Belt and Road Reboot, Banking on Beijing‍.

AidData has established itself as a leading innovator in new methods to quantify which economic and soft power tools China, Russia, and the U.S. use, with whom, and to what end. We have produced first-of-its-kind analysis to measure Beijing’s public diplomacy footprint in the Asia-Pacific and South and Central Asia; designed novel metrics to monitor the Kremlin’s ability to influence civic space, media resilience, and energy security in Europe and Eurasia; and convened thought leaders to understand U.S. strategic communications and foreign assistance options in an era of great power competition. AidData regularly provides advice, training, custom analytics, public-facing dashboards, policy reports, and data for government agencies, multilaterals, NGOs and think tanks to monitor and counter foreign influence.

Women’s economic empowerment is critical for the overall development of societies. Yet, understanding which policies and programs are most effective is incredibly difficult. AidData is putting its proven track record in geospatial data, machine learning, remote sensing, and impact evaluation methods—as well as deep subject matter expertise on the role of gender in development—to better measure and contextualize women’s economic empowerment. By combining household survey data and high-resolution satellite imagery, we can produce gender-disaggregated outcome measures at local scales and more nuanced insights about the effectiveness of gender-focused policy interventions in rural settings. Our analysis gives funders insight into how to increase future program impacts while addressing outcomes particularly important to women, including crop selection, household bargaining power, and intimate partner violence.

AidData is a recognized leader in geospatial impact evaluations (GIEs). Over the last ten years, we have led a wide-ranging, global effort to use causal inference tools and subnationally georeferenced data to measure program impacts. GIE methods are especially useful and cost-effective in under-evaluated sectors and settings where measuring outcomes over space and time is challenging. AidData has deployed GIEs to evaluate infrastructure, public health, land rights, irrigation programs, and more. We also use artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to build next-generation development outcome measures of crop productivity, food security, and local resilience to climate change. Finally, AidData’s free spatial data integration and extraction tool, GeoQuery, lowers the barriers to geospatial analysis by helping users more easily measure local conditions in data-poor environments.

AidData is a market leader in fielding regular surveys to 100,000 government, civil society, and private sector leaders across 140 developing countries. AidData triangulates information from its biennial surveys, snap polls, and interviews to produce public reports and bespoke analysis that help development agencies be more responsive to partner priorities and maximize their impact with Global South leaders. Our analysis regularly feeds into agency-wide evaluations and strategy reviews, as well as international standard-setting bodies, such as MOPAN, Paris21 and the OECD. Our team members advise both development agencies and Global South policy research organizations on how they can build stronger in-house capabilities to assess policy influence.

With its pioneering Tracking Underreported Financial Flows (TUFF) methodology, AidData shines a light on the activities of donors and lenders that do not fully participate in global reporting systems. We publish uniquely comprehensive and granular project-level datasets; create interactive dashboards and maps; and analyze the nature, scale, composition, and effects of underreported financial flows. We support government officials who need transparent data and tools to scrutinize incoming proposals and negotiate more favorable contracts. We are also engaged in a wide-ranging effort to understand the impacts of underreported development finance on environmental protection, public health, debt sustainability, socio-economic welfare, and governance.