About Project-Level Aid
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Project-Level Aid (PLAID) is a groundbreaking interdisciplinary project whose objective is to create a web-accessible database on development finance. The final product will include information on every individual project committed by bilateral and multilateral aid donors since 1973. Among many other necessary steps toward a better understanding of the consequences of aid, the comprehensive data provided by this project can help improve aid coordination, assist in measuring the effectiveness of development finance, and, ultimately, provide information for better allocation decisions by donor governments.
Currently, limitations in the scope of and linkage among donor databases of development finance make it difficult to accurately describe the allocation of foreign aid or understand the conditions that make it effective. Consequently, rigorous empirical testing of hypotheses on development assistance has proved difficult because analysts lack systematic, reliable, and detailed data on the aggregate amount, sources, and destinations of aid. This severe lack of reliable data has enormous consequences for the actual practice of professionals working on development issues, whether in national governments, international organizations, private firms, or NGOs.
The PLAID project seeks to remedy many of these data problems and help researchers to fill gaps in the literature. With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF-grant #SES-0454384), PLAID researchers are compiling the most comprehensive and consistent collection of data on development finance that has ever been assembled. Currently, PLAID researchers have compiled project information from all major bilateral and multilateral donors for the years 1973-2001 and are now working to update the database through 2007.
In addition to the compilation of project information, researchers both at PLAID and partner universities have used the database to code for a variety of additonal factors. The PLAID database now has over 64 coded variables, which allows for more specific analysis and hypothesis testing. Current endeavors include environmental impact coding, health impact coding, and identifying water and sanitation projects, watershed projects, fisheries projects, disaster aid, and sub-sectors within environmental assistance.