sustainableworld.com
Data Sources
This site has been developed to help government officials, students, researchers and others interested in development issues to find free (or at least reasonably affordable) sources of national economic and social data online.  The site will also examine some of the issues which complicate the work of anyone wanting to use this data.

This site concentrates on identifying online sources of multi-sectoral and sectoral data at the national level. The emphasis is on free or inexpensive data, but for completeness some of the more expensive sites have been listed as well. The online sites identified will normally be hosted by  international organizations, governments or NGOs.  Each source will be discussed briefly and in some cases samples of possible uses of the data will be provided. 

The upper level of the menu to the left consists exclusively of data sites, while the lower portion provides a number of other useful links including:
  • Links to a limited number of sites which provide free software or other tools for understanding and analysing data.
  • Links to sites which provide online training material.
  • A section on data issues which examines problems of linking data from the various sites as well as highlighting problems associated with the downloading or other use of the data
  • A section of links to other useful sites.
  • A section of links to maps related to the data identified above.

This site has been designed with a minimum of graphics to make it as accessible as possible to areas with low bandwidth. 

The site was put up on 15 November 2003 and is still very much a work in progress. We will continue to add new material on a regular basis. Comments and suggestions would be appreciated (see Contact Us ).

To users who have found this site searching for The Sustainable Development Link -- we apologize, but the site had become out of date and the task of maintaining it had become too time-consuming. We hope that you will find this more focussed site useful.

Copyright ©2004 GRI Updated 17 September 2004