The World Bank Africa Development Indicators (ADI) is a compilation of data, assembled by the World Bank

World Bank

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

, representing over 1,400 indicators of development

Economic development

Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area...

 in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...

.

Methodolgy and scope

The data is updated annually from a variety of sources with datasets being available from 1960 onwards. Topics covered by the ADI are, for example, national accounts, balance of payments

Balance of payments

Balance of payments accounts are an accounting record of all monetary transactions between a country and the rest of the world.These transactions include payments for the country's exports and imports of goods, services, financial capital, and financial transfers...

, trade

Trade

Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...

, demography

Demography

Demography is the statistical study of human population. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic human population, that is, one that changes over time or space...

, health

Health

Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...

, education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

, transport

Transport

Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...

, energy and the environment and the Millennium Development Goals

Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015...

. The World Bank aims at giving a broad picture of development across Africa, including 53 countries in five different country-groups.

While most of the data is provided by the World Bank, a lot of it comes from different sources which is then put together under the ADI. With the contribution of organisation such as the International Monetary Fund

International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

 (IMF), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS, or UNAIDS, is the main advocate for accelerated, comprehensive and coordinated global action on the HIV epidemic....

 (UNAIDS), the International Road Federation

International Road Federation

The International Road Federation is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organization that promotes the development and maintenance of roads, with a focus on safety and sustainability. The organization has two key functions, providing expertise on road issues to governments and financial...

 (IRF) and the International Telecommunication Union

International Telecommunication Union

The International Telecommunication Union is the specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for information and communication technologies...

 (ITU), the World Resources Institute

World Resources Institute

The World Resources Institute is an environmental think tank founded in 1982 based in Washington, D.C. in the United States.WRI is an independent, non-partisan and nonprofit organization with a staff of more than 100 scientists, economists, policy experts, business analysts, statistical analysts,...

(WRI), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), etc. it is possible to provide information on this extremely high level of detail which is one of the key features of the ADI.

Accessing the data

The Economic and Social Data Service

Economic and Social Data Service

The Economic and Social Data Service is a national data archiving and dissemination service that was founded in January 2003. It is funded jointly by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Joint Information Systems Committee ....

(ESDS) International provides the macro-economic datasets free of charge for members of UK higher and further education institutions. In order to access the data, users have to be registered which can be done here. Alternatively, the data is available to download on the World Bank ADI website which requires a subscription.

External links

• World Bank, The Little Data Book on Africa, retrieved September 15, 2009
• World Bank, ADI 2008/2009 “Youth and Employment in Africa – The Potential, the Problem, the Promise", retrieved September 15, 2009