publishwhatyoufund.org

What it is

Publish What You Fund (PWYF for short) is an independent international non-profit organization founded in 2008, headquartered in London, UK. It is a core driver of the global aid and development finance transparency movement, with the core mission of advancing the disclosure of information on aid and development funds, improving public accountability and the effectiveness of development projects.

Core Features & Pricing

PWYF's core products are two leading authoritative transparency indexes:

• The Aid Transparency Index assesses the scope and quality of information disclosure by major global bilateral and multilateral aid agencies, and it is the only independent third-party ranking in this field
• Launched in 2022, the Development Finance Institution (DFI) Transparency Index builds a customized assessment framework tailored to the operational characteristics of development financial institutions, filling gaps in existing standards.

Beyond that, PWYF also provides the open D-Portal data portal. Integrated with the IATI dataset, it lets users search for information on more than 800,000 aid projects worldwide. It also offers free training on using aid data, publishes industry research reports, and provides technical consulting for institutions looking to improve their transparency.

For pricing, all of PWYF's public research, index reports and data tools are completely free and open to the public. Starting in 2026, the Aid Transparency Index will launch a paid certification model: international organizations can pay to participate in the full assessment, training and certification services. Specific pricing has not been made public.

Pros, Cons & Who It's For

Pros

• PWYF maintains a high level of independence: its assessment results are cited by major outlets including the Financial Times and The Guardian, and adopted by international bodies such as the G20 and OECD, giving it extremely high authority in the industry
• Its index framework is continuously updated, having expanded beyond traditional aid to cover new areas including climate finance and private capital mobilization, keeping pace with industry development
• All of its outputs are open and accessible, lowering the barrier for researchers to access information

Cons

• The entire website only supports English, with no Chinese localization, creating a high barrier for users based in China. It also does not store raw data itself, relying on third-party open data infrastructure.

This site is ideal for development researchers, international policy analysts, civil society organizations, and financial journalists. Researchers in China focused on international development finance and the transparency of foreign aid can access and use it directly.

Accessibility from China

The website is currently directly accessible via the public internet, no VPN or proxy is required.