Tracking aid flows in light of the Covid-19 crisis
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This tracker is updated monthly. The current data is for January to November 2020. To receive monthly data updates by email, subscribe to our work on financing for sustainable development and crisis response.
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This tracker uses a unique real-time data to track and analyse aid commitments in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and bring forth evidence about how aid trends may be changing.
The data is sourced from the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). Real-time data from IATI is not curated and therefore open to small changes as the data is updated. This could result in changes to aspects of historical transactions as well as movement of transactions from one month to another. This can be due, for example, to adjustments between operations and accounting departments, journal entries to deal with accrual accounting or cumulative reporting over a quarter.
We compare the first 11 months of 2020 to 2018 and 2019 to show the changes in aid flows from pre-Covid levels. Our briefing ‘How is aid changing in the Covid-19 pandemic?’, contains more detail on our methodology. Additional data will be added each month as donors publish more recent information on their aid commitments.
The data in this tool is updated monthly. It shows data for January to November 2020.
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Figure 1: Aid commitments from IFIs have grown substantially in 2020 compared to 2019 – while bilateral donors’ aid commitments have declined
Aid commitments by key bilateral donors, IFIs and multilateral institutions (January–November during the years 2018–2020)
Bar chart showing that aid commitments from IFIs have grown substantially in 2020 compared to 2019 – while bilateral donors’ aid commitments have declined.
Source: Development Initiatives based on IATI.
Notes: IFI = international financial institution; OOF = other official flows.
Figure 2: IFI aid disbursements have accelerated while bilateral disbursements have slightly decreased
Aid disbursements by key bilateral donors, IFIs and multilateral institutions (January–November during the years 2018–2020)
Bar chart showing that IFI aid disbursements have accelerated while bilateral disbursements have slightly decreased.
Source: Development Initiatives based on IATI.
Notes: IFI = international financial institution; OOF = other official flows.
Figure 3: Proportionally, bilateral aid commitments to the poorest countries have slightly increased
Comparison of aid to country income groupings for bilateral donors (January–November during the years 2018–2020)
Bar chart showing that, proportionally, bilateral aid commitments to the poorest countries have slightly increased.
Source: Development Initiatives based on IATI and World Bank country income groups.
Figure 4: Proportionally, IFI commitments to LICs have actually marginally dropped between 2019 and 2020 to date
Comparison of aid to country income groupings for IFIs (January–November during the years 2018–2020)
Bar chart showing that, proportionally, IFI commitments to LICs have marginally dropped between 2019 and 2020 to date.
Source: Development Initiatives based on IATI and World Bank country income groups.
Notes: IFI = international financial institution; LIC = low-income country.
Figure 5: The proportion of aid commitments to countries with the highest rates of extreme poverty has grown slightly, including a slight increase from 20% to 21% from IFIs
Comparison of aid by poverty banding between bilateral donors and IFIs (January–November during the years 2018–2020)
Bar chart showing that the proportion of aid commitments to countries with the highest rates of poverty have grown slightly, including an increase from 20% to 21% from IFIs.
Source: Development Initiatives based on IATI and World Bank PovcalNet.
Notes: IFI = international financial institution. People living in extreme poverty are defined as living on less than PPP$1.90 a day.
Figure 6: Bilateral donors have maintained aid commitments to health, driving proportional increases in social sectors, but at the expense of other sectors
Changes by bilateral donors in broad sector focus (January–November during the years 2018–2020)
Bar chart showing that bilateral donors have maintained aid commitments to health, driving proportional increases in social sectors, but at the expense of other sectors.
Source: Development Initiatives based on IATI.
Figure 7: Aid commitments from IFIs have increased across a range of sectors, with a particular focus on social sectors
Changes by IFIs in broad sector focus (January–November during the years 2018–2020)
Bar chart showing aid commitments from IFIs have increased across a range of sectors, with a particular focus on social sectors.
Source: Development Initiatives based on IATI.
Notes: IFI = international financial institution.
Figure 8: Bilateral donors have focused aid commitments on health at the expense of other sectors while IFIs have seen increases across the board with a proportionally greater focus on social protection, education and health
Sector percentage changes for bilateral donors and IFIs (January–November 2019 and 2020)
Bar chart showing that bilateral donors have focused aid commitments on health at the expense of other sectors while IFIs have seen increases across the board with a proportionally greater focus on social protection, education and health.
Source: Development Initiatives based on IATI.
Notes: IFI = international financial institution.
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