Research Methods
Our interdisciplinary team of more than 35 faculty and staff helps international development organizations more effectively track, target, coordinate, and evaluate their investments. We use precise data and rigorous methods to address the question of: who is doing what, where, and to what effect?
Tracking Underreported Financials Flows (TUFF)
AidData has pioneered an innovative, open-source methodology that provides a more complete picture of the development finance activities of non-traditional donors. Initially created to track Chinese development finance to Africa, AidData has applied the TUFF methodology to track China's global development footprint and better understand the activities of other emerging donors when there is incomplete information in public domain.
Full Methodology Documentation:
- Tracking Chinese Development Finance: An Application of AidData’s TUFF 3.0 Methodology
- Tracking Chinese Development Finance: An Application of AidData’s TUFF 2.0 Methodology
- AidData TUFF Coder Instructions, Version 1.3
- AidData's TUFF Methodology, Version 1.3
- AidData's TUFF Methodology, Version 1.2
- AidData's TUFF Methodology, Version 1.1
- AidData's Media-Based Data Collection Methodology, Version 1.0
- China's Development Finance to Africa: A Media-Based Approach to Data Collection
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Coding
Tracking and analyzing funding for the SDGs is central to measuring development progress—yet aid reporting systems do not currently capture this information. AidData has developed a standardized coding schema to systematically track the resource envelope of financing going to each of the Sustainable Development Goals and Targets.
Full Methodology Documentation:
- Financing Agenda 2030: Are donors missing the mark on the Sustainable Development Goals? (report)
- Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Version 1.0 (dataset and methodology)
- Estimating Financing to the Sustainable Development Goals, Version 2.0 (methodology)
- Estimating Baseline Aid to the Sustainable Development Goals (methodology)
- Financing the SDGs in Colombia (policy brief)
Geospatial Impact Evaluations (GIE)
The growing availability of geo-referenced data on development investments and outcomes has opened up new opportunities to understand what works, what doesn’t, and why at a substantially lower time and financial cost. GIEs can combine this geo-referenced investment, outcome, and covariate data with quasi-experimental methods to measure the intended (or unintended) impacts of development programs. See all our impact evaluations.
Full Methodology Documentation:
- Toolkit for Agricultural Geospatial Impact Evaluations (interactive course)
- A Primer on Geospatial lmpact Evaluation Methods, Tools, and Applications (methodology)
Geocoding
Geocoding tags the locations of specific development projects and activities, allowing people to see who is funding what and where within a given country. AidData’s geocoding methodology has become a global standard, incorporated into the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) Standard.