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Program Area: TDF

Transparent Development Footprints

Tracking underreported financial flows

As officially-reported Western aid becomes a smaller and smaller fraction of total financing for sustainable development, AidData is pioneering new methods to track the large and growing number of sustainable development investments made by non-Western governments like China and Qatar, non-state actors like companies and private philanthropies, and low income and middle income countries themselves.

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Blog Posts

June 2018

Chinese public diplomacy in East Asia and the Pacific: Is it working?

A new report from AidData chronicles the nature and impact of China’s diplomatic programs.

Culture ministers representing China (left) and Korea (right) in discussion at the 8th Korea-China-Japan Culture Minister’s Meeting in 2016 in Korea. Photo by Jeon Han/Republic of Korea via Flickr, licensed under (CC BY-SA 2.0).
April 2018

Russia’s foreign aid re-emerges

Little is known about Russia’s foreign aid. We examine the evidence to see what makes Moscow's spending different.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (center) and Kyrgyzstan’s President Sooronbay Jeenbekov (left) at an informal meeting of the heads of the Commonwealth of Independent States in December 2017. Kyrgyzstan is the #1 recipient of Russian foreign aid. Photo by the Office of the President of Russia, licensed under (CC by 4.0).
March 2018

China’s financial statecraft: Winning Africa one Yuan at a time?

Teasing out the nexus of money and influence in China’s development activities in Africa with a recent global dataset and a forthcoming report on leaders’ perceptions.

China’s President Xi Jinping and South Africa's President Jacob Zuma and his wife converse at the 2015 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Sandton, Johannesburg. Photo by GCIS, licensed under (CC BY-ND 2.0).
February 2018

Rogue agent or team player? Beijing’s motivations for aid provision

A new study in ISQ pinpoints the factors that motivate Beijing to provide aid and other forms of government financing to Africa.

At a 2016 meeting of BRICS leaders, from left: President of Brazil Michel Temer, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping, President of Russia Vladimir Putin, and President of the Republic of South Africa Jacob Zuma. Photo by RIA Novosti.
All TDF Posts

Publications

June 27, 2018

Ties That Bind: Quantifying China's public diplomacy and its "good neighbor" effect
54
June 26, 2018

The Effects of Trade, Aid, and Investment on China's Image in Developing Countries
52
May 25, 2018

Aid Curse with Chinese Characteristics? Chinese Development Flows and Economic Reforms
50
May 23, 2018

Chinese Development Assistance and Household Welfare in Sub-Saharan Africa
March 20, 2018

Natural resource sector FDI, government policy, and economic growth: Quasi-experimental evidence from Liberia
February 1, 2018

Apples and Dragon Fruits: The Determinants of Aid and Other Forms of State Financing from China to Africa
46
October 10, 2017

Aid, China, and Growth: Evidence from a New Global Development Finance Dataset
October 9, 2017

AidData's TUFF Methodology, Version 1.3
October 9, 2017

AidData TUFF Coder Instructions, Version 1.3
May 1, 2017

Tracking Underreported Financial Flows: China’s Development Finance and the Aid–Conflict Nexus Revisited
March 1, 2017

International organizations and development finance: Introduction to the special issue
March 1, 2017

Bad neighbors? How co-located Chinese and World Bank development projects impact local corruption in Tanzania
February 20, 2017

Canary in the coal mine? China, the UNGA, and the changing world order
34
February 1, 2017

Natural Resource Sector FDI and Growth in Post-Conflict Settings: Subnational Evidence from Liberia
33
December 2, 2016

Chinese Aid and Local Corruption
32
December 1, 2016

Forest Cover Impacts of Chinese Development Projects in Ecologically Sensitive Areas
October 1, 2016

An Open-Source Methodology for Tracking Natural Resource Concessions in Liberia: Version 1.0
26
May 4, 2016

The Dragon's Curse? China, the World Bank, and Perceptions of Corruption in Tanzania
25
May 3, 2016

What Determines Earmarked Funding to International Development Organizations?
May 2, 2016

'Ground-Truthing' Chinese Development Finance in Africa: Field Evidence from South Africa and Uganda
19
January 1, 2016

Are "New" Donors Challenging World Bank Conditionality?
15
October 1, 2015

Apples and Dragon Fruits: The Determinants of Aid and Other Forms of State Financing From China to Africa
October 1, 2015

Research Summary: China and the Western Donors: More Similar than Different?
September 1, 2015

AidData’s TUFF Methodology, Version 1.2
12
August 1, 2015

'Ground-Truthing' Chinese Development Finance in Africa: Field Evidence from South Africa and Uganda
December 1, 2014

China's Role as a Global Health Donor in Africa: What Can We Learn from Studying Under Reported Resource Flows?
3
November 1, 2014

Aid on Demand: African Leaders and the Geography of China's Foreign Assistance
September 1, 2014

Rising Powers and the Regime for Development Finance
June 1, 2014

Aid to Africa: Helpful or Harmful?
December 1, 2013

AidData's TUFF Methodology, Version 1.1
April 1, 2013

AidData’s Media-Based Data Collection Methodology, Version 1.0

Program Team

Policy Analysis

Samantha Custer

Director of Policy Analysis
Policy Analysis

Brooke Russell

Senior Program and Technology Manager
Policy Analysis

Siddhartha Ghose

Analytics Manager
Policy Analysis

Brook Lautenslager

Java Developer
Policy Analysis

Mengfan Cheng

Junior Program Manager

For Partnership and Media Inquiries

Partnerships & Communications

Alex Wooley

Director of Partnerships and Communications

Partners