Development Resources

International development has truly expanded from a branch of economics into a multi-disciplinary field of its own, encompassing non-economic aspects such as sociology, anthropology and environmental studies. This has been recognised and embraced by researchers in development, and is reflected in the scope of coverage of sites devoted to international development studies.

• Eldis
  The Eldis gateway to development information is possibly the best site on the issue of development, with a huge searchable database of online resources and a very professional webfront. Includes country briefings and resources on current topics of interest.
• Economic Growth Resources
  Jonathan Temple is a growth economist at the University of Bristol. This is his website. It contains the best web resource on economic growth and development issues for researchers working with an academic view in mind. The site itself is well-designed and easily navigated. Another site with growth economics resources is provided by Chad Jones.
• Global System for Sustainable Development
  The GSSD is a knowledge base with a very large collection of online resources and a truly innovative search engine that employs a search mataphor that allows searches by ring, slice or cell, making browsing through the vast store of information possible.
• Global Development Gateway
  This has been set up by the World Bank and is an extremely comprehensive resource centre for development-related issues, especially in the context of global development. Includes working papers and shorter articles and commentaries, as well as links to other related sites. Another World Bank site on poverty is PovertyNet.
• Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development
  BREAD, currently based at Duke, is a network of primarily university-affiliated researchers working in the field of development. The site focuses on the bureau's primary activities: Conferences, a working paper series, and links to a trove of online development data sources. Other similar institutions (each with a slightly different bent) are Harvard's Center for International Development, MIT's Jameel Poverty Action Lab, and the think tank Center for Global Development.
• Global Economic Governance Programme
  Directed by Ngaire Woods, the Programme is based at University College, Oxford, and is a forum for understanding how global markets and institutions impact upon developing countries. Other than a description of current projects, the site also provides the full text of recent speeches and publications by Network members.
• To the World
  This is a very large, but unannotated, collection of links to Internet sites related to many aspects of international development, maintained by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Well organised, but certainly a lot to plough through.
• Virtual Library for Sustainable Development
  A comprehensive list of internet sites dealing with sustainable development, including organisations, projects and activities, electronic journals, libraries, references and documents, databases, directories or metadatabases.
• Worldwatch Institute
  A Internet source for cross-disciplinary information on the global environment (registration allows access to a database of online documents). The World Resources Institute is another site that serves a similar function. For a more radical viewpoint, see the site provided courtesy of Greenpeace.
• Trade & Development Centre
  This site relates social and economic development to international trade. Other than regional overviews, essays and case studies, the site also hosts trade and development discussion forums online. An initiative of the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation.
• Millennium Project
  The aim of this site is to provide an overview of the Millennium Development Goals, and to track the progress via actions plans to achieve them. Includes information on special projects (such as the Millennium Villages), as well as reports and other resources.
• International Food Policy Research Institute
  Although Malthus eventually got his predictions wrong, the threat of world population exceeding world food supply cannot be underestimated. The IFPRI provides research papers and publications, as well as food policy research information and a collection of African food security data sets.
• International AIDS Economics Network
  The IAEN is an economics-centred site that gathers data, tools and analysis concerning AIDS in the world today. The site has an archive of their excellent newsletter, links to other AIDS economics sites, as well as a collection of models used to study various aspects of the epidemic.
• Resources for International & Development Economists
  Maintained by Carlos Vegh of UCLA, it includes basic resources on international economics as well as a list of personal homepages of international and development economists.
• DevEx
  International development is increasingly becoming a career of choice for many aspiring graduates. Like all careers, of course, networking is a key element of securing a job. Jobs4Development, along with Jobs4Development, AidBoard, and DevNetJobs, are a few of the more prominent networking and job search sites. See also tips on such things by Chris Blattman.