The First Tranche

Making data work for refugee and migrant children Overcoming blind spots in how we produce and use data about refugee and migrant children will help decision makers better direct resources to them. Sasan Faraj, Soren Patterson

Powerful lessons for global development How much foreign direct investment are China and Russia putting into low- and middle-income countries? How much of China’s foreign aid supports their own strategic economic development? These are just some of the questions students are helping to answer at AidData. Leslie McCullough

Evaluating the impacts of a food security program in the face of climate shocks A recent evaluation highlights how severe climate shocks hindered the long-term impacts of a USAID food security program in Malawi. Soren Patterson

Five lessons on counting the costs of sustainable cities We share lessons learned from our work with UN-Habitat to understand the financing needed to achieve SDG 11 at the city level. Mihir Prakash, John Custer

Unlocking geospatial data for global development AidData looks back, looks ahead. Seth Goodman, Dan Runfola, Elizabeth Teare

How does China’s development model affect state stability in African countries? Both World Bank and Chinese aid projects are associated with a reduction in violence against civilians, but regions with Chinese aid see an increase in government repression. Melvin H.L. Wong, Lennart Kaplan, Kai Gehring

Beijing's public diplomacy spending in South and Central Asia quantified and evaluated AidData, a research lab at William & Mary, today released new data and analysis capturing the results of the Chinese government's strategic public diplomacy efforts in 13 countries. Alexander Wooley

New report, dashboard captures Beijing’s influence in East Asia & the Pacific New AidData report details how Beijing mobilizes media and students to bolster China’s image abroad. Soren Patterson

Where are we going, where have we been? What we’ve learned about promoting data and evidence uptake An update on AidData’s three-year strategic vision to promote data and evidence uptake by policymakers and practitioners, and where we are going next. Bradley C. Parks

Are democracies more likely to give development aid? The answer is surprising. All things being equal, poor democracies are less likely to give aid than poor autocracies, new research finds. Andreas Fuchs, Angelika Müller

Getting on target: A new approach for tracking financing to the SDGs We tracked over $44 billion in donor financing to the SDGs in four countries, using an updated methodology for estimating SDG-related financing. Jennifer Turner, Soren Patterson, Jacob Sims

How Cambodia’s program to strengthen local governance built roads and saved lives A new report on the long-term impacts of locally-led development projects provides insights for those who work in post-conflict settings. Christian Baehr, Soren Patterson, John Custer