About

What is Budget4Change, why is it needed, and what can I get from this site?

What

Budget4Change maps, tracks and analyses donor government budgets against official development assistance (ODA) financing. It presents, by donor, a baseline understanding of where, within government departments and budgets, ODA comes from and applies this to budgetary announcements to consider the implications for ODA

Budget4Change:

• Maps the relationship between budgets and ODA levels in key donor countries, providing detail on budgetary procedure and departmental sources of development assistance;
• Monitors budgetary commitments and outturns, and assesses the implications for current and future ODA shortly after budget announcements are made;
• Mobilises analysis by presenting information in a simple and consistent format, available online and via downloadable data sheets and summary reports. It promotes access to and application of this data to enable increased accountability for meeting aid commitments, additional information for aid planners and analysts in developing countries and increased capacity to ensure that budget frameworks take proper account of aid obligations

Why

Monitoring development assistance is a key accountability exercise to ensure delivery of the many promises of increased aid made by G7 and EU members over recent years. The central source of country donor aid is found in budgetary allocations made to key department or agencies, which are typically presented by governments to the legislature on an annual basis.

Tracking current and future aid would be simple if all development assistance came from a single ministry, announced through a uniform budgetary process. The reality however is different as, for most donors, the financing that qualifies as official development assistance derives from numerous government departments and agencies. The challenge, therefore, is to trace ODA-qualifying expenditures across several budgets. The situation is further complicated by a lack of detail in many donors’ budgetary commitments and wide variations in the type of information provided by different donors.

Budget4Change aims to address these constraints by providing reliable, timely and publicly accessible information on the relationship between donor budgets and ODA. This enables national and international stakeholders to assess the likely impact of budgets on future aid levels and thus more effective promotion of accountability for aid promises.

Detailed country coverage is expanding, and Budget4Change is always seeking collaboration with domestic civil society organisations and others who have expertise and interest in this field. Please contact us here.

How to use this site

Access site features and recent news announcements through the Budget4Change homepage. View summary (nominal) ODA statistics by donor in graphical and tabular format. Filter results for either total ODA or select from bilateral assistance directed to a range of development sectors.

Click on a country (or select from the menu) to access individual donor pages. Explore departmental breakdowns of bilateral ODA over recent years – for total bilateral ODA or selected sectors. View and download summary ODA profiles. For selected key donors explore detailed budgetary profiles, including processes, timelines, the role of specific departments and external links to budget documentation. Summary reports for these donors are also available as pdf downloads, as are analyses of recent budget announcements.

Review the timing of upcoming and past budgetary announcements on the budget calendar and click through to associated news and analysis on the Budget4Change website.

Download any data set used by this website in a variety of formats.

Stay informed of budget analysis and subscribe to RSS feeds.