Web Links

These are links of general interest to folks involved in the development “arts.” Over time, with your contributions, we would like to grow this resource. If you have links you would like to submit, please send them to office@usaidalumni.org Attn: Dev Issues.

US Agency for International Development (USAID)

  • USAID’s Development Experience Clearinghouse(DEC) — The Development Experience Clearinghouse is USAID’s online repository for materials documenting its nearly half century of international development assistance and humanitarian aid.
  • USAID Impact Newsletter: The latest edition covers a variety of topics.
  • USAID Map – Find a country and click on its USAID stories and results.
  • International Data & Economic Analysis(IDEA) – the new USAID website is the Agency’s comprehensive source of economic and social data and analysis.
  • Telling USAID’s Story – This is a new web page put together by LPA, the Agency’s public affairs office.
  • Current USAID Mission DirectorsThis is a list maintained by the Agency.
  • USAID 101 – USAID has put together an on-line “course” that will explain what the Agency does and how and why it does it. This course is principally directed at university students. New material will be added each month.
  • Handbook 3  – Feeling nostalgic for the for the good old days when program designs (more or less) marched to the same drum? It was all laid out so clearly in Handbook 3. The cost of a trip down memory lane? One simple click on the link.

US Government

  • gov(USG) – ForeignAssistance.gov provides a view of U.S. Government foreign assistance funds across agencies and enables users to explore, analyze, and review aid.
  • Infographic on Attacks on AID Workers(Dept. of State) – Maps, tables and graphs clearly demonstrate elevated risk levels.
  • National Priorities Database The National Priorities Project makes the complex U.S. federal budget transparent and accessible so people can exercise their right and responsibility to oversee and influence how their tax dollars are spent. Pay particular attention to the charts at the top of the page.
  • The Foreign Assistance Dashboard– The goal of the Dashboard is to enable a wide variety of stakeholders to examine, research, and track U.S. Government foreign assistance investments in an accessible and easy-to-understand format. As it evolves, the Dashboard will incorporate budget, financial, program, and performance data from all U.S. Government agencies implementing foreign assistance, humanitarian, and development funds.
  • The CIA World Factbook– This is a good first place to go for basic information on any country in the world.

Private Organizations

  • ADST(The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training) is dedicated to capturing, preserving, and sharing the experiences of America’s diplomats to enrich the professional knowledge of practitioners and strengthen public appreciation of diplomacy’s contribution to America’s national interests. This link will take you the website’s oral history page, which contains an increasingly large number of histories from USAID officers.
  • NGO Aid MapThis an InterAction initiative that provides detailed information on members’ work around the world through a web-based mapping platform.
  • Foreign Service Oral Histories(Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training) – Included are more than 1900 searchable oral histories completed over the past thirty years by individuals from USAID, State, USDA and Labor.
  • The Center for Global Development(CGD) works to reduce global poverty and inequality through rigorous research and active engagement with the policy community to make the world a more prosperous, just, and safe place.  CGD combines world-class research with policy analysis and innovative communications to turn ideas into action.
  • MFAN, the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, advocates for more effective and accountable U.S. foreign assistance that will deliver greater results for people in need and U.S. taxpayers.
  • IHC Global is a non-profit organization working to promote equitable urban development worldwide, and change cities for good.  (Weekly urban news update available under Resources/Newsletters.)

International Organizations 

  • Development Talk – A World Bank Blog– Interesting reading hosted by the Bank’s Chief Economist.
  • Multilateral Development Banks:  Overview and Issues for Congress— A Congressional Research Service report
  • IFC Doing Business Table.  Economies are ranked by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation on their ease of doing business. A high ranking on the ease of doing business index means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm, a vital factor in economic growth and development.
  • IMF eLibrary– Fund publications provide assessments on the future prospects for the global economy. The World Economic Outlook reviews global activity, which has weakened and become more uneven. The Global Financial Stability Report outlines how the risks to stability have increased substantially in recent months. The Fiscal Monitor explores the challenges that persist in many advanced, emerging-market, and low-income countries.
  • World Bank Development Indicators– Browse the extensive list of featured indicators and more from the World Bank’s most popular dataset, World Development Indicators
  • Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) The overarching objective of the DAC is to promote development co-operation and other relevant policies so as to contribute to implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, poverty eradication, improvement of living standards in developing countries, and to a future in which no country will depend on aid.

Sector Indices

  • The Global Health Security Index(org) –The GHS Index is the first comprehensive assessment of global health security capabilities in 195 countries.
  • Democracy Index(Economist Intelligence Unit) – Around the world, democratic governance appears to be on the decline.
  • CGD Commitment to Development Index(CGD) – This very interesting database ranks 27 of the world’s richest countries in how well their policies help to spread global prosperity to the developing world.
  • Rule of Law Index(World Justice Institute) – The Index’s scores are built from the assessments of local residents and legal experts, reflecting the conditions experienced by the population, including marginalized sectors of society.
  • The World Poverty Clock– The World Poverty Clock provides real-time poverty estimates until 2030 for almost every country in the world. It monitors progress toward eliminating Extreme Poverty, the first of the UNs Sustainable Development Goals.
  • The Good Country Index– This is an index that measures what each country contributes to the common good of humanity and to the planet.
  • Interactive Map of Global Remittances– International migrants sent $529 billion in remittances back to their home countries in 2012.  Such funds are fundamental to development in many countries.  This map shows where the money cam from and went to.
  • World Competitiveness Scorecard– Developed by the International Institute for Management Development, the World Competitiveness Scorecard compiles and analyzes data on 58 industrialized and emerging economies in order to rank their competitiveness. Countries compete by providing an environment with the most efficient structure, institutions and policies in which enterprises can compete successfully.
  • Our World in Data — Latest publications of data on global issues such as reducing fertilizer without sacrificing food production, environmental damage by over applying fertilizers, protection of the world wildlife by improving crops yields, the evolution of depression, child mortality, smoking as a global problem, three billion people cannot afford a health diet, and more.

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