DevInfo database
To achieve the Millennium Development Goals, countries need reliable and well-maintained data. DevInfo is a database technology platform that UNICEF specifically designed to help governments monitor their progress – or lack of it – towards the MDGs. It also works as a common database, which complements existing national databases, and serves as a key advocacy tool for UN agencies. DevInfo is constantly updating and creating innovative ways of monitoring development issues:
- DevInfo 5.0, is now available on CD-ROM and online, making it more easily available to government and NGO staff who need crucial data for monitoring purposes. The version also offers geographic buffering, which allows a village-level focus, and layered maps, which show schools, hospitals and other public institutions – the locations of which are crucial for the response to both local development and in the case of emergencies. DevInfo 6.0, a new version, will be launched in early 2009. It will have significant advancements in usability with a reduced learning curve for first-time users. DevInfo 6.0 will include powerful new data presentation methods, enhanced web collaboration and extended mapping features.
- Emergency module for monitoring of disasters. The DevInfo 5.0 web version comes with a new system for use in emergencies that contains a rapid assessment tool, based on the hand-held portable mini computer (PDA), which can be carried into the field for data collection in the wake of natural disasters and other emergencies. This data can then be fed into the DevInfo country database for immediate use for situation reports and by high-level government decision makers. In the future the Emergency Module will also be equipped to address emergency preparedness.
The module focuses on education, health, nutrition, HIV and AIDS, protection, water/sanitation and cross-cutting issues (such as gender) with questions for data collection within those areas.
Both DevInfo and the Emergency Module provide an output of tables, graphs and maps to illustrate how the data obtained compares with the goals set out or, in the case of an emergency, the baseline data.
Read here for more information on DevInfo implementation in East Asia and the Pacific.
- Example of what to find on DevInfo:
If searching one of the eight Millennium Development Goals, such as Reduce Child Mortality, three indicators are shown: infant mortality rate, proportion of 1-year-old children immunized against measles and under-5 mortality rates. For example, to request data on 1-year old children immunized against measles in Indonesia, DevInfo provides the following table:
Proportion of 1-year-old Indonesian children immunized against measles
- Example of what to find on the Emergency Module:
Rapid assessment and situation reports based on input from field surveys using PDAs within any of the data-collection areas as well as general emergency information.
