What every brief is built on, and how.

The OECD's database of aid activities reported by its Development Assistance Committee members, multilateral organisations and some foundations. It is the standard reference for who gives aid to whom and for what, and most published aid statistics are built from it. Figures arrive about a year after the year ends.

The OECD's headline aid totals for each donor, the source of the yearly figures on aid as a share of national income. It shows a donor's overall trend, not where the money goes.

The US government's own record of its foreign assistance: every obligation and payment by country, sector, agency and implementing partner, published much sooner than the OECD's data. It shows the effect of the 2025 US cuts country by country; economic and military aid are kept apart.

The OECD's measure of private money brought in by public development finance, for example through guarantees or co-investment. It is the main reference for blended finance; amounts follow the OECD's attribution rules and are published here for groups of providers.

Foundations that report their grants to the OECD in the same format as government donors, among them the largest ones. Useful for comparing peer foundations; most smaller foundations do not report.

The International Aid Transparency Initiative: an open standard under which donors, UN agencies and NGOs publish their own activity data, often more up to date than the OECD's. Completeness and quality depend on each publisher.

The UN's tracking of humanitarian funding against appeals and response plans, from what donors and agencies report. It is the usual source for how well funded an appeal is; recent figures grow as reports come in.

Funds in individual crises, managed by OCHA, that pool donor money and allocate it to UN agencies and NGOs, including national and local organisations. They show who receives humanitarian money inside the country.

The UN's global emergency fund, which releases money quickly to UN agencies and IOM for sudden or underfunded crises. Its grants signal where the UN sees urgent or neglected needs.

Prices of staple foods that WFP and partners collect in local markets. Rising prices are an early warning of hunger and reduce what cash assistance buys.

The World Bank's main collection of development statistics on poverty, health, education and the economy, compiled from national and international sources. It is the common reference for country indicators; the latest years are often missing.

The World Bank's composite measures of governance, built from surveys and expert assessments. They are widely used to compare countries, but they measure perceptions and come with margins of error.

The IMF's twice-yearly economic figures and forecasts for its member countries, the standard reference for growth, inflation and public debt; revenue comes from its Fiscal Monitor. Forecasts are revised as conditions change.

An index from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and partners that rates how likely a humanitarian crisis or disaster is to overwhelm a country's capacity to cope. Humanitarian donors and agencies use it to compare countries; it measures structural risk, not current needs.

ACAPS's rating of how severe each ongoing humanitarian crisis is, based on its analysts' review of many sources. It is used to compare crises and to see whether one is getting worse.

'Who does What Where': OCHA's lists of the organisations that report activities in each area and sector. Useful for finding partners on the ground; it shows only what organisations report.

The yearly humanitarian needs overviews agreed by UN agencies and partners in each crisis, with the official number of people in need. They are the basis of humanitarian appeals.

The IPC, and the Cadre Harmonisé in West Africa and the Sahel, are the standard, consensus-based classifications of food insecurity used by governments, the UN and NGOs. Phase 3 means crisis; Phase 5 means catastrophe or famine.

ACAPS's rating of how hard it is for humanitarian organisations to reach people in a crisis, because of insecurity, bureaucratic restrictions or physical obstacles.

UNHCR's official statistics on refugees and other forcibly displaced people, compiled from governments and its own operations; the global reference for refugee numbers.

A UN and European Commission alert system that estimates within hours how serious an earthquake, cyclone, flood or drought may be for people. Alerts are model estimates to guide international response, not damage assessments.

A widely used dataset of reported political violence and protests, coded from news, local partners and other sources. Counts depend on reporting, so areas with little coverage may be under-recorded.

Satellite rainfall estimates combined with weather-station data, produced by the Climate Hazards Center at UC Santa Barbara and widely used in food-security early warning; WFP averages them by region.

Estimates of where a donor's core contributions to multilateral organisations end up, by country and sector, by ONE and the OECD. They are modelled from each organisation's spending, not reported project by project.

Joint IMF and World Bank assessments of whether low-income countries can carry their debt, rated from low risk to in debt distress. They influence how much of the World Bank's IDA support a country gets as grants rather than loans.

The World Bank's official statistics on low- and middle-income countries' external debt and debt payments, reported by the borrowing countries.

The OECD's dataset of development finance for climate adaptation and mitigation from bilateral and multilateral providers, the basis of many climate finance studies. Its counting rules make bilateral totals generous.

UNDP's Human Development Index combines health, education and income into one measure and is the best-known summary of human development; IOM's Displacement Tracking Matrix counts people displaced within their own country in crises.

UNESCO's statistics institute is the official keeper of the global education goal's figures: who is out of school, who finishes primary and lower secondary school, and how many children can read and do basic maths by the end of primary. The World Bank's education figures are copied from it, usually later.

The World Bank's own database of the projects it finances, with approved amounts, dates and status, including projects still in preparation.

Current news and reports found by AI web search. Shown separately as background and never cited as evidence.