February Resource of the Month: World Development Indicators

Our February “Resource of the month” is the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, a compilation of data from officially-recognised sources that presents researchers with up-to-date and accurate information on global health and development. Including statistics produced by more than 150 nations, the WDI has published new material every year since 1960. Much of this data comes from the official statistics of its member countries (1).

WDI statistics can be browsed by country, topic and indicator, and the information in the World Bank database comes accompanied by notes that help to contextualise the numbers in terms of development (2).

Access to the WDI is provided through the UK-based Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS), a national service that came into operation in 2003. Access to ESDS can be found in the library’s electronic resources section (data, statistics and bibliometrics).

• WDI (ESDS International) 
• WDI (World Bank website) 

For further information on WDI and ESDS, please visit:

• World Bank, Data Overview. 
• World Bank, World Development Indicators Data. 
• ESDS International, About ESDS. 

Resource of the month - Africa-Wide Information

What information does Africa-Wide Information contain?

Over 4 million items from 50 different data sources, the majority from 19th C to present.

Focus on information produced in Africa.

Updated every quarter

Includes information on the following topics from all 56 African countries:

• Politics & Economics
• Industry & Mining
• Agriculture
• Development
• Legal systems
• Religion
• History & Cultural history and heritage
• Health
• Natural resources & Biodiversity
• Current affairs
• Sport
• Literature, Art, Drama & Music

Includes records from African Journals Online, South African Journals Online, African Development Database, African Healthline

Africa-Wide Information does not contain full-text 

How do I get access to Africa-Wide Information?

Africa-Wide Information is supplied by EBSCO. It is available to all current LSHTM staff and students from any computer with an internet connection.

• Go to http://search.ebscohost.com/
• Click the Shibboleth Login link
• Choose “UK Higher Education” from the drop-down list
• Click on London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
• Enter your username and password (staff and London-based students enter your network username and password, Distance Learning students, enter your Portal username and password).
• Click “Africa-Wide Information” from the list of available databases