The Covid‑19 pandemic has triggered unprecedented pledges of international assistance, reshaping the global aid landscape. This factsheet from Development Initiatives tracks how donor commitments have shifted in the first months of 2020, revealing sharp declines in bilateral aid alongside major increases from multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the Global Fund.
It explores sectoral trends in health and water and sanitation, examines donor‑specific responses, and highlights the challenges of tracking Covid‑related aid in real time. The analysis underscores both the urgency of immediate humanitarian support and the longer‑term need for resources to address economic recovery and poverty reduction.
This document provides policymakers, practitioners, and researchers with timely insights into how aid flows are adapting to the crisis—and what this means for future development priorities.
Resource collections
- ALNAP focus topics
- COVID-19 Response Collection
- Development Initiatives archival collection
- Ebola
- Evaluating humanitarian action
- Learning from crises (Natural hazards)
- Locally led humanitarian action
- Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)
- Monitoring of humanitarian action
- Prioritisation
- Use of evaluation evidence