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Software user guide:

Accessing World Bank Africa Development Indicators via Beyond 20/20 WDS

This guide is intended to introduce you to Beyond 20/20 Web Data Server by carrying out a simple and hopefully typical research task using the World Bank Africa Development Indicators (ADI).

Task Icon

Visualise and download fossil fuel energy consumption (% of total) figures in 1 year intervals from 1990 onwards for the following regions:

  • Morocco
  • Senegal
  • South Africa
  • Tunisia
  • Zimbabwe

It is divided into three stages:

  1. Finding and selecting the data
  2. Visualising the data
  3. Downloading the data

Approx. time to complete: 20 minutes.

Use the 'printer friendly page' option at the top right of this page if you wish to print out this task and if you require any help please contact the ESDS International team.

Stage i) Finding and selecting the data

Arrows icon Choose World Bank data from the 'Direct Links to data' drop down list on the ESDS International website, or via the following url - http://esds.mcc.ac.uk/wds_wb to access the World Bank data.

Direct links to data drop down list

Arrows icon Access to the data is free and available to all - no need to register.

On entering the Beyond 20/20 Web Data Server site for the World Bank data you should see a folder labeled World Bank. It contains the three World Bank databases hosted by ESDS International; the World Development Indicators, Global Development Finance and Africa Development Indicators.

World Bank database list

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Arrows icon Select Africa Development Indicators and you will be taken to the Country/Group dimension view where you can select the geographical area of interest.

Country dimension

On the left hand side of the screen you will see the available dimensions under Columns, Rows and Other headings. The current dimension is highlighted in darker green, for example in the screen shot above the Country/Group dimension is highlighted and a list of the countries and groups available for selection are shown on the right hand side of the page.

The dimensions in World Bank Africa Development Indicators table are as follows:

Columns: Year
Rows: Series
Others: Country/Group

A small blue 'i' icon indicates summary information about a table or dimension item is available. For example if you click on the icon next to 05 North Africa, the following regional notes will be displayed:

Definition: North Africa aggregate. There are no economies in North Africa classified as high income. The economies included are: Algeria. Egypt, Arab Rep. Libya. Morocco. Tunisia.

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Arrows icon Scroll down and select the following Country/Groups by ticking checkboxes:

  • Morocco
  • Senegal
  • South Africa
  • Tunisia
  • Zimbabwe

Arrows icon Move onto next dimension 'Series' by either using the 'Select Items to View' icon Select Items to View icon or by clicking the dimension name under the heading 'Rows'.

Changing dimensions

Arrows icon Type 'fossil fuel' into the search input box and click 'Search'. The 'fossil fuel energy consumption (% of total)' series will appear. Select it using the checkbox.

Searching for series

Arrows icon Select the dimension Year. Tick the 'Select Range' checkbox then scroll down the year items and tick 1990 and 2008. The whole range between these years will now be selected.

You have now completed the Finding and Selecting data stage and can move on to visualising your data.

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Stage ii) Visualising the data

There are two ways of visualising data in Beyond 20/20 WDS - in chart or table format.

Arrows icon View the report in table format by using the ‘Show Table' tool at the top of the screen.

Scroll countries

In the default view of the table which appears, only the data from one Country/Group is shown - you can use the arrows highlighted in the screen shot above to scroll through the selected regions.

Arrows icon Change the format of the table by dragging and dropping the 'Series' dimension heading onto the 'Country/Group' heading. Do not click on the dimension name hyperlink but instead hover next to it until the cursor turns into a four headed arrow. You will then be able to drag and drop the heading. You can also use the 'Set Dimension Order' tool to re-organise the dimensions.

Reorganise dimensions

The resulting table will appear as shown in the screen shot below:

Formatted table

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Arrows icon View the report in chart format by selecting the 'Chart' tab at the top of the screen.

Chart view

Arrows iconUse the 'Chart Types' icon to change chart type and the 'View printable version' icon View printable version icon to print the chart.

Arrows icon To save the chart image, use Alt + Print Screen and paste into a paint program as right clicking to 'Save picture as' only saves the chart itself and not the chart key or heading.

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Stage iii) Downloading the data

Arrows icon Return to the 'Table' tab to download the data to your pc. Manipulate the table into desired format using the dimension headers as the table layout and contents are downloaded exactly as they appear on screen.

Arrows icon Use the 'Download' icon Download icon and select your desired download format.

Download data

The rest of the process is the same as downloading any file from the web.

Once you have downloaded the data, you can see information on how to cite the data towards the top of the file.

Congratulations you have successfully completed the World Bank ADI tutorial - now you are ready to do some serious work with your downloaded data!

Please see the World Bank Africa Development Indicators dataset user guide for further information on the contents of the database.

If you would like to move to another database you can select the 'Quick links to macro data' drop down box at the top of the page then select the database you require.

Tested on Netscape 7 and Internet Explorer 7.

Note: All Beyond 20/20 images used on this page are Copyright © Beyond 20/20 Inc. All rights reserved.

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