Library & Cultural Services: Economics: Development Economics. Aid. Corruption

Aid. Economic Assistance. Remittances. Microfinance

AidData
Collaborative project to make available donor aid data from 1945 onwards. Extremely comprehensive
Development Finance International
DFI is a non-profit research, advocacy & capacity-building group which works with more than 80 governments, and with organisations worldwide. It seeks to help citizens and governments, especially in developing countries, to mobilise the best quality financing for their development. Subsidiary organisation: Debt Relief International (DRI). Funded by a mix of governments, foundations & agencies
FinDev Gateway
Formerly Microfinance Gateway. Portal to papers & much else on financial inclusion, global coverage
ForeignAssistance.gov
State Dept. & USAID website providing details of official US overseas assistance for all purposes since 1996.
Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office
UK aid agency Department for International Development (DFID) now incorporated into the FCDO. Effectiveness of UK aid is scrutinised by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact and see also the House of Commons International Development Committee. Statistics can be found in the following publication held by the Library:
Statistics on international development (DFID) 1993/94- HC 60.5.G7 and Online from DFID/FCDO (2011-) & Data.gov.uk (2004/05-)
Continuation of: British aid statistics 1961/65-1991/92 f HC 60.5.G7
International Aid Transparency Initiative
Seeks to make data about aid spending easier to understand, see especially the IATI Data section, which includes detailed lists of projects.
Migration Data Portal - Remittances
Useful links to data and questions how accurate the data can be
OECD Official Development Assistance
Freely available data through the OECD Data Explorer platform. Includes the Creditor Reporting System for granular data (1973-), comparable across providers, on who is giving what aid, to where, and for what purpose, on a flow basis. UKDS also offers the OECDs International Development Statistics (Debt + Aid) 1967-2017
Principled Aid Index
Annual (2013-) attempt by the UK's Overseas Development Institute to rank donor countries by how altruistic their ODA is.
Project Performance Database 2.0
The world's largest database of development projects, developed by Dan Honig. Includes project outcome ratings of holistic project performance. The dataset contains project evaluations from 12 bilateral and multilateral aid agencies from 1956 and 2016, with data on more than 20,000 unique foreign aid projects (21,198 projects) taking place in 183 recipient countries around the world. It is unique among large foreign aid datasets in that it provides a measure of overall project success.
USAID
Extensive development-related data from the government supported US aid programme, notably Foreign Aid Explorer (data from 1946-) and the Development Data Library. [Note June 2025: due to decisions taken by President Trump data & publications from USAID website are currently unavailable. ForeignAssistance.gov website is still working]
World Bank: Remittances
Annual data on inflows & outflows, with bilateral data. Flagship publication Migration & Remittances Factbook (none since 2016). See also World Development Indicators database and Remittance Prices Worldwide, which tracks the cost of remitting between countries -
https://remittanceprices.worldbank.org/

Corruption

European Commission: Anti-Corruption
Kleptocracy Initiative
Project of the conservative think tank Hudson Institute.
European Research Centre for Anti-Corruption & State-Building (ERCAS)
EU research centre, with new (2015) Index of Public Integrity, attempt to measure corruption for countries around the world
Our World in Data - Corruption
Useful overview of the topic with links to relevant data sources
Quality of Government Institute
Major academic research institute in this area. Basic data set includes many corruption-related variables (includes composite indicators from TI, WGI, etc.)
Transparency International
Anti-corruption NGO committed to raising awareness about corruption, advocating reform & implementation of multilateral conventions, and monitoring compliance. Its website includes various surveys & indices, such as the Corruption Perceptions Index, and its major publication - the Global Corruption Report (from 2001). Has over 100 chapters around the world if you are looking for further research on a country
Worldwide Governance Indicators
The WGI project is an initiative of the World Bank. Annual data from 1996- for over 200 nations using 6 measures of governance: political accountability; political stability and violence; government effectiveness; regulatory control; rule of law and extent and control of corruption.
For data on business corruption specifically, see the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys (2007-) - https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/en/enterprisesurveys

Development Indicators

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Flagship is its Human Development Report (HDR) and Human Development Index (HDI).
From 2010- the HDRs have included a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) developed with the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative, and the MPI also has its own annual report.
See also the UNDP Projects database of development projects around the world, and the UN MDG Indicators now replaced (2015-) by the SDG Indicators database.
The UNDP Data Futures Platform draws together datasets aimed at policy makers looking for development solutions aligned with the 2030 Agenda
World Bank - World Development Indicators
Has figures on ODA. See also its:
Global Development Finance and International Debt Statistics plus flagship publication:
World development report (World Bank) 1978- HC 1.W65 and Online (1978-)
Legatum Prosperity Index
Attempts to include measures of well-being as well as economic factors. Annual, all countries, 2007- onwards.
World Economic Forum Inclusive Development Index
Note: none since 2018

See also Steve H. Hanke's "Misery index", produced annually (no website). Simply a list of countries ranked by misery total comprising: unemployment rate (%) + inflation rate (%)

Food. Hunger. Agriculture. Rural Development

Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net)
Created by USAID in 1985 to provide unbiased, evidence-based analysis to governments and relief agencies who plan for and respond to humanitarian crises.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO)

FAO databases

FAOSTAT is the main database, offering free access to time series data on food & agriculture for all countries (data from 1961-).
FAOLEX database provides access to treaties, laws and regulations on food, agriculture and renewable natural resources

Global Information & Early Warning System (GIEWS) has data on food production, prices & security, and alerts the international community to impending severe crop losses & famines

FAO publications
Many, including flagships:
FAO statistical yearbook Online (2004-). Continuation of: FAO bulletin of statistics 1963-2004 (title varies, in library at HD 1.M6)
FAO yearbook. Fishery and aquaculture statistics Online (1998- title varies)
State of food and agriculture Online (1947-)
State of food security & nutrition in the world Online (1999- title varies)
State of world fisheries & aquaculture Online (2000-)

Global Food Security Index
From EIU (registration required to access some data)
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Well established organisation, offering a wealth of data, for example: Food Security Portal, Global Hunger Index, Statistics on Public Expenditures for Economic Development (SPEED). Flagship publication Global food policy report.
International Fund for Agriculture & Development (IFAD)
UN agency providing financial investment to support rural development
National Agricultural Library (US)
The NAL search brings together a number of collections that were formerly separate, such as AGRICOLA. See also USDA's Ag Data Commons - https://agdatacommons.nal.usda.gov/
World Food Programme
UN food aid agency. See annual reports and other publications

Portals. Organisations. Other Resources on Development Economics

Center for Global Development
Think tank aiming to reduce poverty through research informing policy. Includes new (2018) Commitment to Development Index, ranking top donor countries
Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex
Housing the British Library for Development Studies - an international leader in this field. Includes:
Eldis - free access to research on international development issues (1996-2024), sourced from thousands of partners around the world. Note: Eldis closed in 2024
BRIDGE (Siyanda) - gender & development database. Please note, the BRIDGE website was archived in 2018. Publications are included in the IDS Open Docs digital library
International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD)
Independent NGO based in Geneva. Full text of some publications is available

International trade statistics 1953, R.G.D. Allen & J.E. Ely HF 1017
International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
Major Canadian government organisation in the field. Free access to extensive Digital Library (mainly 1970s onwards).
MEDevEcon
Handy portal to numerous data resources for development economics, but not updated since 2016
Overseas Development Institute
Britain's leading independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues. Includes Principled Aid Index, which ranks countries by how altruistically they provide ODA
Oxfam

Sustainable Development Goals
Taylor & Francis Sustainable Development Goals Online collection is a curated interdisciplinary collection of digital content mapped to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDG Online collection includes more than 12,000 book chapters and journal articles covering all 17 SDGs
Institutional login

Third World Network
Independent international network of organizations and individuals involved in issues relating to development.
UNICEF
UN organisation dedicated to research and programmes in support of children around the world. See UNICEF Data, and flagship publication State of the world's children
VoxDev
Founded in 2017, VoxDev aims to connect research & policy in development. Supported by CEPR, IGC, and others. Includes some detailed & highly useful literature reviews (VoxDevLit) on selected topics
World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) at the United Nations University