CARTABLANCA LABS ECONOMIC STUDIES DIVISION · STUDY 001 ·
A forensic data observatory

Flows

Where the money goes
$777B tracked 2011–2024 48 UN entities 222 donors 10 primary sources
Choose your way in
CORE FUNDING ≈ 8% — HISTORIC LOW 60× PER-CAPITA FUNDING GAP · NIGERIA ↔ LEBANON $290B UNCLASSIFIED EXPENDITURE · 44% OF SERIES 5 AGENCIES >50% DEPENDENT ON A SINGLE DONOR WFP −37% REVENUE IN A SINGLE YEAR 71× GAP BETWEEN BEST- AND LEAST-FUNDED SDGs GENEVA +94% · KABUL 0% POST ADJUSTMENT SPAN 222 DONORS · 48 ENTITIES · 14 YEARS · $777B

The data is the argument.

No inference of intent · No political position · No affiliation
About

Why we do this.

Large institutions generate large amounts of data. Most of it is published — by obligation, by statute, by the institutions themselves. Almost none of it is read, aggregated, or presented in a form that makes the patterns visible to anyone outside the institutions that generate it.

Cartablanca Labs exists to close that gap. We take public data — from international institutions, governments, and statistical bodies — and do the work of making it legible: cleaning, aggregating, cross-referencing, and visualising until the structural patterns become readable.

We do not have a policy position. We do not advocate. We do not infer intent. We publish what the data shows, cite every source, document every limitation, and leave the interpretation to those who read it.

The name: carta blanca — a blank page. What you write on it is what the evidence allows.

Principles
01Primary sources only. Every figure is traceable to an official statistical publication. No estimates, no imputations, no generated data.
02Report, don't interpret. We report what is published. We measure what is published against declared methodology. We flag what is mandated and missing. We do not infer intent.
03Document the limits. Every study includes a formal methodology note listing known gaps, limitations, and what the analysis cannot claim.
04Fully reproducible. Anyone with access to the cited primary sources can replicate every number in every study. That is the test.
05Respectful tone, always. The individuals who work within these systems are not the subject of analysis. The structures are.