What this covers: estimating a donor's contribution to a sector through its core contributions to multilateral organisations.

Why imputations exist

Core contributions carry no sector, because the multilateral pools them and decides how to spend them. Bilateral sector data therefore understates the engagement of a donor that works through multilaterals, such as a donor that funds malaria mainly through the Global Fund.

The idea

An imputation spreads a donor's core contribution to a multilateral using that multilateral's own spending mix, then sums across multilaterals. ONE's imputed multilateral sectors dataset takes each multilateral's shares from its CRS spending pooled over the estimate year and the two years before it, in gross disbursements, with ODA and OOF pooled in the shares.

The results are modelled estimates. They assume the donor's money is spent in the same proportions as the multilateral's whole portfolio, and the donor did not direct the allocation.

Combining with bilateral data

A donor's full sector figure is its bilateral sector ODA from the CRS, excluding the records of core contributions to multilaterals, plus its imputed multilateral sector ODA. Both sides need the same price basis.

Bi-multi flows are already part of bilateral ODA, with their own sectors, and are not imputed.

A recipient-side or sector-wide total that already counts multilateral outflows, such as a CRS total across providers, already carries the core money, so it excludes imputed figures.

A result is verifiable when it labels which figures are imputed estimates and states that the bilateral side excludes core-contribution records and keeps bi-multi with its reported sectors.

Further detail

The oda-imputed-multilateral-sectors skill covers the method, how contributions with borrowed or no shares are allocated, and the dataset's particularities.