Organisations and institutions to be aware of

G7 (previously, the G8): The Group of Eight is a forum of eight countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom and United States). Together, these eight countries represent about 14% of the world’s population, but about 60% of the world’s wealth. In March 2014, Russia was suspended from the group, in response to the country’s annexation of Crimea, leaving them as the G7. The group meet several times a year to discuss economic issues.

Data relevance: in 2013 the G8 released their ‘Open Data Charter’, pledging to ‘open’ more government data, and including the principle ‘Open Data by default’. If these pledges are implemented, there should be more data about these governments and their activities coming soon(ish.) Their actions against this charte**r will presumably be assessed at future G8 summits. The Open Data Charter is online to read here.

G20: The Group of Twenty (G20) is essentially a wider evolution of the G8, aiming to bring other nations into the economic discussions. It is relatively new, and held its first meeting in 2008. As with the G8, other non-member nations also attend meetings and summits, and some international institutions (eg. the UN, the African Union) also send delegations to attend the summits.

Data relevance: in 2009, the G20 launched their ‘Data Gaps’ initiative, which is a set of 20 recommendations on the enhancement of economics and financial statistics. One of the main outcomes is this “Principal Global Indicators” site, which brings together data for the G20 economies.

IATI – the International Aid Transparency Initiative – the largest global transparency initiative working on improving transparency of aid and development resources. It involves donors, recipient countries and civil society organisations, and they have developed a standard for publishing data – the IATI standard.

Data relevance: this is another major source of data about aid, though it’s difficult to know what has already been covered in OECD-DAC data (see above). Additionally, lots of major donors have committed to publishing their data to IATI – ie. via this standard – so the data in here will only improve. For more information, see module [A Guide to IATI data].

OECD – the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, is an international economic organisation of 34 countries, founded in 1961. Most of these 34 countries are high-income countries. They work essentially through peer pressure, which occasionally leads to binding treaties between countries. Each year, they produce a number of publications, books and policy papers.

Data relevance: they are one of the biggest producers (and collectors) of data about the economic status of countries around the world. For more information on where to access this data, see module “A Guide to OECD data”.

OECD-DAC: A sub-committee of the OECD, as described above – the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) is made up of different countries which provide bilateral aid. Countries within the OECD can be ‘members’, and countries outside the OECD can apply to be ‘associates’.

Data relevance: they produce the most trusted and comprehensive sources of data on resource flows to developing countries – for more information on where to access this data, see module “A Guide to OECD data”.