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DevInfo was a database system developed under the auspices of the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
and endorsed by the
United Nations Development Group The United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG), previously the United Nations Development Group (UNDG), is a group of 37 United Nations funds, programmes, specialized agencies, departments and offices that play a role in development. I ...
for monitoring human development with the specific purpose of monitoring the
Millennium Development Goals In the United Nations, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 created following the Millennium Summit, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. These w ...
(MDGs), which is a set of Human Development Indicators. DevInfo was a tool for organizing, storing and presenting data in a uniform way to facilitate data sharing at the country level across government departments, UN agencies and development partners. It was distributed royalty-free to all UN member states. It was a further development of the earlier
UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...
database system ChildInfo. The Global DevInfo Initiative, led by UNICEF on behalf of the UN system, is dedicated to furthering human development by offering
information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...
-based solutions aimed at addressing development-related challenges. This is achieved by integrating
management information systems A management information system (MIS) is an information system used for decision-making, and for the coordination, control, analysis, and visualization of information in an organization. The study of the management information systems involves peo ...
,
geographic information systems A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data. Much of this often happens within a spatial database; however, this is not ...
, software training, technical support services, data dissemination solutions and technical publications. The DevInfo Initiative takes a strategic approach towards strengthening the monitoring and evaluation capacity of governments and agencies by developing innovative technological solutions to better track human development progress.


Description and history

The DevInfo Initiative supported a vision of a day when national and local governments use internationally accepted common database standards for tracking human development indicators, containing high-quality data with adequate coverage and depth to sustain good governance around the agenda of achieving development goals. DevInfo strived to add value to national
statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...
systems by complementing existing databases and bridging data dissemination gaps, with the objective of more fully engaging both government and civil society in policy choices for human development that yield measurable results. DevInfo implementation is supported by trained experts at the country, regional, and global levels, and through support services provided by the DevInfo Support Group consisting of international staff located around the world. Since DevInfo was retired in 2015, th
home page
has a DevInfo Data Request Form for authorized national statistical agency administrators to request migration of active DevInfo sites.


Ownership

The UN System maintains proprietary ownership of the DevInfo software, which is managed in its behalf by UNICEF, with the support of the UNDG.


Application and use

The DevInfo software is
free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...
that can be downloaded from the DevInfo website. The software is easily customizable, allowing DevInfo to have been adapted to over 370 customized adaptations so far. By the end of October 2012, over 120 countries had developed national statistical data systems based on DevInfo. They include: *
Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...
(BenInfo, 2008) *Brazil (ODMInfo, 2010) *Cambodia (CamInfo, 2010) *
Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
(MCInfo, 2009) *
Pacific Islands The Pacific islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. They are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of several ...
(PacificInfo, 2010) By the end of October 2012, over 200 trainings had been conducted in the use of DevInfo. In addition to the adaptations made using the DevInfo platform are some customized data visualization applications developed by the DevInfo initiative such as: * CME Info which allows users to generate estimate graphs on
child mortality Child mortality is the death of children under the age of five. The child mortality rate (also under-five mortality rate) refers to the probability of dying between birth and exactly five years of age expressed per 1,000 live births. It encompa ...
indicators. * MICS Compiler provides easy access to viewing data on key indicators collected through UNICEF's
Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys The Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) are household statistical survey, surveys implemented by countries under the programme developed by the UNICEF, United Nations Children's Fund to provide internationally comparable, statistics, statistic ...
. * di Visualizer which allows users to view and present data in animated scatter plots, to explore trends over time. * CensusInfo - is an innovative and flexible database technology for the dissemination of population and housing census results. * EmergencyInfo is a powerful decision support system, based on DevInfo database technology that helps people to respond better in emergency situations. * Polio Communication Info{{cite web , url = http://www.devinfo.info/polioinfodashboard/ , title = Monitoring polio eradication in Northern India , access-date = 2011-04-18 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100822024022/http://www.devinfo.info/polioinfodashboard/ , archive-date = 2010-08-22 , url-status = dead is a DevInfo 6.0 adaptation launched jointly by the Government of India and UNICEF intended to monitor and track polio eradication programmes in Northern India.


Release history and future releases

(1995–2003) ChildInfo - UNICEF developed a database to monitor the World Summit for Children goals and offered the technology to the UN system to monitor human development. ChildInfo is a database management system launched in 1995 by UNICEF to monitor the worldwide situation of children and women. ChildInfo was the system which preceded DevInfo. It provides powerful features to organize data on social indicators and query data by indicator, time period and area. Correct interpretation of the data generated by ChildInfo helps governments protect the rights, improve health, and nurture development of children and women. (2004–2005) DevInfo 4.0 - ChildInfo was upgraded and launched as DevInfo 4.0 with UN Development Group endorsement in April 2004. The system provides access to indicators organized by sectors, goals, themes and other data management schemes. DevInfo 4.0 is a user-friendly software application for easy presentation of data in tables, graphs and maps, which can be included in MDG reports, presentations and advocacy materials. DevInfo 4.0 contributed to setting universal standards for data storage, access and dissemination of human development indicators, specifically the MDGs. (2006–2008) DevInfo 5.0 - This updated version featuring state-of-the-art database technology was launched in May 2006 with royalty-free distribution as a desktop application and on the web. DevInfo 5.0 offers an intuitive user interface providing easy navigations to search for data and produce customizable tables, graphs and maps. Compliant with emerging international standards for metadata ( SDMX), the system contains a powerful data exchange module enabling users to easily share data across a variety of formats. (2009) DevInfo 6.0 - A powerful new version of DevInfo database technology, DevInfo 6.0 delivers significant enhancements for easy access to information on human development. Building on the technology of DevInfo 5.0, DevInfo 6.0 contains significant advancements in usability with a reduced learning curve for first-time users. The database system boasts greatly improved performance for large data sets and includes new animated data presentation objects. Two toolbars contain buttons which help users easily navigate through the system to search for data, analyze the results, and create presentation objects. (2012) DevInfo 7.0 - The most advanced version of DevInfo yet, DevInfo 7.0 is web-based and introduces exciting new features such as the ability to upload one's own data to visualize it without creating a database. With My Data, copy and paste your data into DevInfo to generate a data visualization on the fly with automatic mapping of geographical areas. DevInfo 7.0 makes available twenty-two visualization tools and introduces the catalog, which provides a large amount of online national and subnational data from countries around the world. Search the catalog to find data across multiple databases, and contribute your own database to the DevInfo worldwide catalog. In addition to this, the new Quick Data Search feature allows users to find their data instantly. (2015) DevInfo is no longer supported after 2015 since it was designed to manage
Millennium Development Goals In the United Nations, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 created following the Millennium Summit, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. These w ...
, which were retired in 2015. The focus since 2015 is on
Sustainable Development Goals The ''2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development'', adopted by all United Nations (UN) members in 2015, created 17 world Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aim of these global goals is "peace and prosperity for people and the planet" – wh ...
, rather than Millennium Development Goals.


Social media

DevInfo uses
social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...
networking such as
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
and
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
to allow users to connect with each other and share experiences and difficulties in human development.


References


External links


ChildInfo: What is DevInfo

Nicolas Pron: Introduction to DevInfo

OECD: Data and Metadata Standards for Monitoring Human Development Indicators

UNDG
What is DevInfo
CME Info
Introductory video
FAQs
DevInfo FAQs Proprietary database management systems