About AidData's Archive of USAID's Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC)
AidData’s archive of program evaluations from USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC) provides public access to a curated collection of evaluation reports funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). These documents capture decades of evidence on what has worked, what has not, and why—offering a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers around the world. They include performance evaluations that measure the extent to which USAID programs generated their expected outputs, as well as impact evaluations that provide evidence of the net, attributable impacts of USAID programs.
Originally compiled in 2023 by Ketevan Gallagher as part of a student research project, the archive focuses on English-language program evaluations from 2000–2023, including impact evaluations. Gallagher’s work explored how the tone and content of USAID evaluations changed over time and whether machine learning techniques could distinguish between different types of evaluations. What began as a technical experiment in natural language processing has since evolved into a broader effort to preserve access to development knowledge.
In 2025, following the sudden shutdown of USAID’s official DEC website, access to many publicly funded evaluation records was disrupted. These materials—produced at significant cost and intended to support transparency and accountability—were at risk of being lost. In response, researchers and institutions mobilized to preserve what they could. At the request of academic partners, AidData at William & Mary began hosting and expanding this archive to ensure continued public access.
Purpose and Background
The DEC Archive exists to safeguard and share the accumulated knowledge of USAID’s development work. By keeping these records accessible, the archive helps ensure that future programs can build on past lessons rather than repeat earlier mistakes.
More broadly, the archive reflects a commitment to transparency, accountability, and evidence-based decision-making. Development evaluations are not just historical records—they are tools for learning, adaptation, and better policy.
What This Archive Includes
This archive contains approximately 4,500 documents, primarily consisting of program evaluations from 2000 to 2023. It is not a comprehensive replica of the original DEC, which contained far larger collections.
Instead, this archive represents a curated subset aligned with the original research focus. Documents were identified based on how they were labeled and categorized within the DEC at the time of collection. As a result, the corpus may not include every evaluation from this period, and it may include a small number of documents that are not evaluations due to inconsistencies in original metadata and classification.
Despite these limitations, the collection offers a substantial and systematically assembled body of evaluation evidence spanning more than two decades. Below is the original query that extracted the data from the DEC in 2023.
Documents.Date_of_Publication_Freeforrm:(20*) AND
Documents.Language_of_Text:("English") AND
Documents.Bibtype_Name:(("Special Evaluation") OR
("Final Evaluation Report")) AND
Documents.Restricted_to_USAID_Only=FalseHow to Contribute
This archive is a partial but meaningful reconstruction of USAID’s evaluation record, and its value can grow over time with input from the broader research community.
If you are aware of USAID evaluation reports that are not currently included—especially reports that are difficult to access or no longer publicly available including those created before or after the time period of this dataset—we welcome contributions. Please contact info@aiddata.org. Sharing these materials helps strengthen the archive and ensures that important evidence remains available for future learning.