Project methods

A brief description of the data in the Global Health Security (GHS) Tracking site and the methods used to identify and incorporate data follow. For additional information and details, please refer to the Technical appendix.

Sources

Data for projects and transactions are collected from sources ranging from media reports (often the first reports of funding) to data submitted regularly by governments to online registries. Since data may be contained or reported in multiple sources from which GHS Tracking captures data, data obtained from different sources are deconflicted to avoid duplication. For example, early media reports announcing the start of a project may later be superseded by more official or detailed data about that project available after completion or a funder may publish reports on their website and submit data to external repositories and just the most recent, complete, or detailed source is used to capture data in GHS Tracking.

Data structure: projects and transactions

In the GHS Tracking site, financial assistance data are represented as projects with one or more transactions. Projects reflect discrete efforts and initiatives and these often include a series of activities at the transaction level (e.g., different amounts of funding to one or more recipients). Projects have titles and descriptions that provide information about the effort’s goals, while transactions define the amount of funding, the year it was provided, the funders, and the recipients. Financial transactions have a value and are shown on the site as nominal United States dollars, i.e., not adjusted for inflation.

Stakeholders

Transactions occur between one or more funders and recipients, collectively called stakeholders. Stakeholders may be country governments (e.g., “United States”), specific government agencies (e.g., “United States Agency for International Development (USAID)”), or a range of non-governmental entities such as foundations, academic institutions, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Capacity-building and event response data

The two main categories of funding data provided in GHS Tracking are (1) capacity-building data and (2) event response data (these two categories are also used for in-kind support). Capacity-building funding may be tagged with JEE core capacities, or domains identified and described in the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR) as key components of building capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to public health events. Additionally, GHS Tracking contains data for funding provided in direct response to specific public health events, which currently includes data for those events declared Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEICs) by the WHO under the mechanisms of the IHR. Note that GHS Tracking does not include national-level funds invested through country budgets to build domestic capacity or support national emergency response.