DevInfo

What is DevInfo

DevInfo is a powerful database software for monitoring a wide range of human development indicators. The aim of the software is to enhance access to and use of data towards better planning, evidence-based decision making and policy advocacy. Endorsed by the United Nations Development Group in 2004 to assist countries in monitoring achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), DevInfo helps organize, store and present data in a uniform way, to facilitate data sharing across government departments, development partners and research institutions.

An integrated desktop and web-enabled application, DevInfo can be easily customized to move beyond the original application of MDG monitoring, to include indicators from any sector, such as health, education, economy and environment. DevInfo contains free tools to produce tables, graphs and maps, for inclusion in reports, presentations and advocacy materials.

DevInfo supports both globally-recognized indicators as well as user-defined indicators. The software also allows users to enter and display data disaggregated by an unlimited number of geographic sub-levels (global, regional, national and sub-national), as well as by sex, location, age and other user-defined socio-economic dimensions. The standard set of indicators (the 48 MDG indicators) is at the core of the package. However, at the regional, national and sub-national levels, database administrators still have the option to add their own sets of local indicators to their databases to reflect localized development priorities.

DevInfo has a data exchange module allowing database administrators to import data from spreadsheets in a standardized format as well as from industry-standard statistics software packages such as SPSS, SAS, STATA, and CSPro. Data from DevInfo can also be easily exported to various file formats, such as XLS, HTML, PDF, CSV and XML.

Is it open?

DevInfo software is distributed royalty-free to all Member States, UN agencies and the general public for deployment on both desktops and the web. The UN also supports a training programme around the DevInfo initiative, aimed at national governments that promote the use of data for evidence-based decision making. In addition, the UN places no restrictions on the software or its use. Presently more than 375 customized adaptations of DevInfo have been created in over 130 countries, in use by national and local governments, global development agencies, universities and media personnel.

Accessing the data in DevInfo

The [DevInfo website] (http://www.devinfo.org) hosts a variety of resources to support users. These include links to online global, regional and country databases; software downloads; documentation; free e-learning courses; country profiles; contacts for additional technical support; and examples of best practices at the country level. The [global DevInfo Online site] (http://www.devinfo.info) hosted at provides direct access to numerous global, regional and country databases.

The raw data is available in the download of the executable program in the Info/Data folder in a number of access databases.

You can use the cross-platform mdb-sqlite tool to convert the data into an sqlite database for use if you do not have access available.