About

Through our own work at SEEK Development on global development policy, we recognized a need that others in the global development community shared: where could advocates for global development go to find a comprehensive, understandable source of information and analysis of major donors’ official development assistance – not just the numbers but analysis that sheds light on donors’ ODA strategies, priorities and decision-making processes? 

Ask the question and the answer is usually something like, “There isn’t any single place where I can find everything I need – I have to piece together lots of different sources to get a comprehensive picture.” 

Most people working in advocacy for global development don’t have the time or the resources to do this research themselves. So in 2012, we created the Donor Tracker to meet that need – to make essential data and analysis easily and quickly available as a public good, for all those looking for critical information on donors’ strategies, priorities, and decision-making processes.  Funding for the Donor Tracker is provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Advocates for global development, researchers, policy-makers, think-tank analysts, journalists, and academics around the world should be able to benefit from the site. Those with a focus on the topics of agriculture, nutrition, education, global health, and global health research and development may find the Donor Tracker especially useful. These sectors are at the center of the SDGs, are intrinsically linked to each other, and together have a strong effect on poverty alleviation.  The Donor Tracker may expand to include other ‘Deep Dive’ topic areas over time.

All Donor Tracker content is created by SEEK Development and is independent. The Donor Tracker is provided as a public good without any charges.

The Donor Tracker has two main sections

• the Donor Profiles
• the Policy Updates and Events

covering the 14 largest OECD donors, each include:

• At a Glance: a snapshot of the donor’s funding trends, strategic priorities, and key opportunities
• Questions: the ‘big six’ key questions (the same for each profile) about how each donor’s ODA funding works: who decides on overall funding and on allocations, how the formal decision-making works, how ODA fits into the donor’s budget cycle
• Outlook: a snapshot of how this donor’s funding for ODA may develop, what it will focus on in the near future, and any key opportunities in the coming year
• Deep Dives: a closer look at each donors’ funding and approach to the five topics of agriculture, nutrition, education, global health, and global health research and development (for poverty-related and neglected diseases)

Every donor profile is downloadable as a PDF, in its entirety or in separate sections. The charts in the donor profiles are also  downloadable. 

Relevant portions of the Donor Profiles are updated when changes in the political and policy environments impact any of the data and analysis we publish. (Users who register with the Donor Tracker will receive alerts of updates to the site.)

The Policy Updates and Events monitor highlights, on a weekly basis, news associated with global development, and important upcoming events of interest to our global development advocacy audience. We publish new updates and event listings every Wednesday. 

• Compare donors: Selected charts in every donor profile have a ‘compare donors’ function that allows you to customize your charts across donors.
• Download profiles: Every donor profile has a download function that allows you to download, save, and print all or selected sections of a profile.
• Use the Data Comparison Tool: This is a unique tool that allows users to customize ODA variables in different types of charts, letting you compare different characteristics of ODA across Donor Tracker countries.
• Download the Donor Tracker app: Available on Google Play and in the App Store.
• Save your interests: Once logged in, you can save your interests (specific donors and/or any or all of agriculture, nutrition, global health, and global health research and development); when you return to the site these will be in ‘My Interests’.
• Save an item: In any section of a donor profile, you can click on ‘save this item’ to make it more readily available to you; when you return to the site, these will be in ‘My saved files’.
• Share an item: Click to share on facebook, twitter, or by a direct email.

The Donor Tracker is open access, and anyone can use it. But, signing up to the Donor Tracker will allow you to:

• Save your interests (specific donors, and/or any or all of global development, agriculture, nutrition, global health, global health research and development)
• Receive a Donor Tracker 'digest' tailored to these saved interests
• Receive alerts about updates to the site
• Receive alerts from the Policy and Events Monitor
• Use the Donor Track app

SEEK Development is a consulting group based in Berlin, Germany, dedicated to supporting and shaping human development globally. We provide specialized support to leading institutions in global development in the areas of strategy and policy, knowledge generation and advocacy, and organizational evaluation and development. Funding for the Donor Tracker is provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.