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Where to find the data online
The OECD makes its data available in a number of ways: it can be slightly confusing to know where to go to get exactly what you’re looking for, so here is a quick guide to the various sites and sources.
Query Wizard for International Development Statistics
Where: http://stats.oecd.org/qwids/
What: A way of getting data by CSV, filtered by options that you can select on the initial screen. It provides 6 different options: by Donor, Recipient, Flow(s) (eg. type of financial flow, ODA, or OOF) Flow type (see glossary above), Sector and Time Period. It allows you to export what you get back in CSV, or send a ‘bookmarked link’ to others.
Strengths:
- No understanding of the structure of the DAC data is required to use this.
- Includes a page of Popular Queries — ie. other ways that people have used the site, and allows you to do the same thing.
- 6 “dimensions” are included here, so lots of options to get exactly the data you want.
Weaknesses:
- If we’re being picky, technically not all data within DAC is accessible via QWIDS- it’s actually only about 95% of the total.
- Again, picky, but it doesn’t look very appealing:
Who is it useful for?
People investigating a specific section within the world of aid — for example, if you wanted to see how much money is going from donor X to recipient Y, over a certain time period, and get the data in CSV.
Further guidance:
A demo screencast by the makers of the site (caution: it starts automatically)
OECD.Stat
Where: http://stats.oecd.org/
What: The main repository for all DAC data. Start by selecting a dataset in the left hand menu (‘Data by theme’), then click on Customise → Selection to change what data is displayed, and reorganise its layout via Customise → Layout. using the option at the top of the table. You can download the data via Export → Excel or Export → CSV.
There are a lot of in-browser display options given; realistically though, very few people who actually want to work with the data are going to use the browser to manipulate it the data nor to create any visualisations from it, as it’s much easier to download the raw data and then work with it in another tool (Excel or Google Spreadsheets, for example.)
Strengths:
- It contains, apparently, everything available in the DAC database, so, not just official development assistance flows, but data on a huge range of topics, from agriculture, to education, health, cities and transport.
Weaknesses:
- In terms of Official Development Assistance, it doesn’t appear to be possible to filter the data by ‘recipient country’, just by donor, or sector; clearly (and naturally, given it is from the OECD) the data is structured with the donor country in mind.
- No option to send a link to a specific dataset (ie. the URL doesn’t change)
- Some options include very specific options labelled with acronyms, with no explanation of what they stand for (eg. data from the African Economic Outlook is classed by various indicators – PRB, PRMB, PRMS – the user has to look this up on a separate site to understand what these are)
Further Guidance
OECD.stat Web Browser User Guide
OECD iLibrary Statistics
Where: http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/statistics
What: Offers access to OECD core data – rather than simply split across indicator datasets (eg. Agriculture, Education), here it is also arranged according to projects or reports that the OECD releases. For example, the data used for the OECD Economic Outlook report can be found here.
Once you’ve selected the dataset, it appears through the OECD.stat interface (as above), and can be downloaded, as above.
Strengths:
- It’s good to have a single place to go to to get aggregated datasets – especially if they have been used to draw out potentially important conclusions, such as those from the OECD Economic Outlook report.
- Includes a ‘search’ function, too.
Weaknesses:
- As above, the data appears through the OECD.stat interface — while this might be good in some ways, it means that exporting the raw data directly requires another step.
OECD Aid Statistics
Where: http://www.oecd.org/dac/stats/data.htm
What: All OECD projects, sites and data that data that focuses on aid.
Strengths:
- Includes links to specific datasets that might be useful to inspire further thought or exploration, via the International Development Statistics page though it is a little confusing to understand the difference between these datasets and the ones presented above.
- Good to have one page with all data organised thematically
Weaknesses:
- Slightly difficult to find, and to understand the differences between the various options offered
- The data visualisations presented could do with a little work…