Development Initiatives Poverty Research

DI is working to help build a world without poverty that invests in human security and where everyone shares the benefits of opportunity and growth. \n\nWe cover development and humanitarian financing, domestic resources, poverty measurement, inclusive data and capacity building on data use. Through our work we support better decisions, influence policy outcomes, increase accountability and strengthen the use of data to eradicate poverty and build resilience.

We divide our work into six key strands that collectively deliver our mission:\n\nMeasuring progress of the poorest people\nWe work to help create the environment and inspire the political will that is needed to achieve better commitments, policies and funding to ensure the poorest people are making progress. This includes deep-dives into nutrition, education and health to provide evidence on what is needed to strengthen human capital and build resilient communities to sustainably end poverty.\n\nCounting people and inclusive data\nOur work strengthens national data ecosystems across government, civil society and the private sector, focusing on administrative systems, data disaggregation and open data. These efforts are crucial for identifying data gaps and equipping actors to improve decision-making to help ensure no one is left behind.\n\nHumanitarian assistance and crisis finance\nOur unique analysis informs decisions and supports accountability efforts to increase the effectiveness and targeting of humanitarian assistance and crisis financing. We bring greater transparency and provide essential information on what funding is available, how it is allocated, who it benefits and what works best to build greater resilience.\n\nDevelopment finance\nWe bring unique insights and greater transparency to international financial flows to support better decisions about the mobilisation and allocation of resources to end poverty.\n\nDomestic resources\nWe work directly with government actors to improve this information and support better targeting of resources to meet the needs of the poorest people. Our research also supports efforts to improve domestic revenue mobilisation.\n\nSupporting partners to use data for impact\nWe support access and use of data that can facilitate efforts to promote development, end poverty and improve lives. We provide training workshops, free online tools and a data support service that helps people to access, make sense of, and use data.

We are proud to be independent and politically neutral. We are consistently objective in our approach to data and analysis –we never fit facts to suit an agenda. We directly engage with policy actors and decision-makers, whilst also supporting the efforts of civil society and others who are seeking to drive change. We make a trusted partner to those we work with. \n\nOur expertise comprise data analysis, data science, policy research and analysis, data communications, engagement and partnerships, and project management\n\nWe specialise in:\n\nDevelopment finance\nWe can bring critical insights and greater transparency to a range of international financial flows – public and private. We support those who contribute funding, and those seeking to influence funding decisions, about how these resources can be best mobilised and allocated to end poverty.\n\nHumanitarian assistance and crisis finance\nOur unique analysis supports efforts to increase the effectiveness and targeting of humanitarian assistance and crisis financing. We work with key information on the different types of funding available, how it is allocated, who benefits and where greater efforts are needed. We are also experts on transparency with a track record in how to improve data in crisis contexts.\n\nDomestic resources\nWe provide extensive experience of working directly with national and local government actors on resource allocation decisions and open data. This means we can support those working to achieve better transparency and targeting of domestic resources to meet the needs of the poorest people. We can also assist those working on domestic resource mobilisation – helping them understand the impact of current efforts in this area, what is working, and where greater attention is needed.\n\nUsing data for impact\nWe are passionate about sharing our knowledge and skills about how to access and use data to promote development, end poverty and improve lives. We provide training workshops and a range of support to help harness data and use this to achieve required goals.\n\nMeasuring progress of the poorest people\nWe produce rigorous analysis on people in poverty, looking at a range of poverty indicators such as access to education or nutritional status and disaggregating by key demographic factors such as age and gender. Our expertise in this area can facilitate efforts to bring about better commitments, policies and funding that ensure the poorest people are making progress.\n\nCounting people and inclusive data\nWe support efforts to strengthen national data ecosystems across government, civil society and the private sector. We specialise in administrative systems, data disaggregation and open data. Our expertise helps identify data gaps that need to be addressed and improves information that is vital for accountability and effective decision-making on poverty reduction and sustainable development.

Development Initiatives (DI) was established in 1993 and has developed a strong reputation in the field of international development finance, data and poverty research. We work at global, regional, national and subnational levels. In the last five years, our work has covered 78 countries across the world. We have a particular regional focus on Africa, where our work has covered 39 countries to date. DI has produced transparent and high-quality data through various long-term projects such as the Global Humanitarian Assistance report which has been published consistently by DI since 2000. This report is the key international publication for understanding the global financing response to humanitarian crisis. \n\nDI was instrumental in the development of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) which was established in 2008 along with 13 country governments and development agencies. DI remains the technical host for IATI today as part of consortium led by UNDP. In 2011 DI opened its Africa Hub office in Kenya and began working with local partners in Uganda and Nepal with the aim of having greater impact on country level initiatives and policies effecting the poorest people and using data to catalyse this change. \n\nDI’s flagship project, Investments to End Poverty (ITEP), was established in 2013 and assesses the impact of all resources on poverty reduction to inform the work of donor governments, multi-lateral institutions, domestic governments and other key stakeholders. Comprehensive reports were published in 2013, 2015 and 2018. In 2016, DI was invited to join the Leave No One Behind partnership with CIVICUS, funded by DFID. In 2018, DI was selected to host the Global Nutrition Report, the world’s leading report on the state of global nutrition. \n\nIn 2020, DI is closing out its current strategy and will be moving into a strategy development phase for 2021-2025. This is an exciting time for the organisation as we map out the next 5 years towards achieving our mission: to provide rigorous information to support better decisions, influence policy outcomes, increase accountability and strengthen the use of data to eradicate poverty.