IATI data used to analyse 10 million global aid transactions

A new academic study Who Connects Global Aid? The Hidden Geometry of 10 Million Transactions has used IATI data to map the global aid system at an unprecedented scale. The new research reveals how more than 10 million aid transactions connect 2,456 organisations across 230 countries and territories. Drawing on data reported to IATI between 1967 and 2025, the analysis maps relationships between funders, intermediaries, implementers, and recipients. The authors explore how aid is delivered in practice, and why fragmentation and coordination challenges persist despite long-standing reform efforts.

The study delivers a range of insights, including:

• The global aid system is highly complex and fragmented. The authors observe that while aid activity is widespread across the world, it clusters into loosely connected “islands” rather than forming a single, integrated system.
• A structural divide separates humanitarian and development actors. The analysis shows a persistent separation between organisations focused on short-term humanitarian response and those working on long-term development and resilience. While this specialisation supports efficiency within clusters, the study notes that it can create systemic risk at the macro level, leaving the wider system weakly connected.
• Funders and implementers occupy different parts of the network. The analysis highlights that relatively few actors bridge the gap between those who supply resources and those who deliver programmes on the ground.
• Spending volume does not reflect network connectedness. The study finds that organisations managing large financial volumes are not always the most centrally connected within the aid network.
• A small, highly connected core helps hold the network together. The study identifies a “solar system” structure, with around 25 organisations at the centre whose network positions link otherwise disconnected parts of the aid system. Universities, research organisations, and foundations feature prominently within this core, acting as brokers between funders, implementers, and knowledge producers.
• Weak connections limit coordination and learning. The analysis links gaps between humanitarian and development actors, and between funders and implementers, to slower coordination and reduced opportunities for evidence and learning to spread across the system.

The use of IATI data in the study illustrates how open, standardised, and comparable aid information can be reused to support large-scale analysis of development and humanitarian cooperation. By making transaction-level data publicly accessible, IATI enables researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to examine how aid systems function in practice and where coordination challenges may arise.

🔗 Access the academic study: Who Connects Global Aid? The Hidden Geometry of 10 Million Transactions