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 Global Development Finance (GDF).

Visualise and download to visualise and download annual debt outstanding figures for all developing countries from 1980 to 2003.

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

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.

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 three World Bank databases hosted by ESDS International: the World Development Indicators, Global Development Finance and Africa Development Indicators.

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Select Global Development Finance and you will be taken to the Country/Group dimension view where you can select the geographical area of interest.

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 grey, 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 Global Development Finance 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 01 All Developing Countries, the following summary notes will be displayed:

Definition: Low and middle income group aggregate (all developing economies). Low- and middle-income economies are those in which 2007 GNI per capita was $11,455 or less.

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Scroll down and select 01 All Developing Countries from Country/Groups dimension.

Move onto next dimension 'Series' by using the Select Items to View icon then choosing Rows.

Note: You can also switch dimensions by clicking on the dimension name - both options are illustrated in the screen shot below.

Type 'debt' into the search input box and click Search. Beyond 20/20 will display all series which contain the text string 'debt' in the name.

Click on the small blue 'i' icon next to the series External debt stocks, long-term (DOD, US$) to view the following summary notes:

Definition: Long-term external debt outstanding and disbursed is the total outstanding long-term external debt at year end. Long-term external debt is defined as debt that has an original or extended maturity of more than one year and that is owed to nonresidents by residents of an economy and repayable in foreign currency, goods, or services. Long-term debt has three components: Public debt, which is an external obligation of a public debtor, including the national government, a political subdivision (or an agency of either), and autonomous public bodies; Publicly guaranteed debt, which is an external obligation of a private debtor that is guaranteed for repayment by a public entity; Private nonguaranteed external debt, which is an external obligation of a private debtor that is not guaranteed for repayment by a public entity. Public and publicly guaranteed long-term debt are aggregated.

Select External debt stocks, long-term (DOD, US$) using the tick box.

Select the dimension Year. Tick the Select Range tool at the top of the screen and tick 1980 then 2003. This will select all years between and including 1980 - 2003.

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.

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

Note: You can change the format of the table by dragging and dropping the dimension headings - for example you can drag the Year dimension over the top of the Series dimension and drop it there. This will produce a table with the Years shown as rows - as in the screen shot above.

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Use the Set Dimension Order icon or the drag and drop technique and then re-organise the dimensions using the arrows so that Year is listed under Columns and Country/Group and Series are listed under Rows.

View the report in chart format by using the 'Chart' tab at the top of the screen.

If your chart is displayed differently than the chart below, click the 'Table' tab and reformat the table so that the years are shown as columns, then click the 'Chart' tab again.

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

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

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.

Use the Download icon and select your desired download format.

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 GDF tutorial - now you are ready to do some serious work with your downloaded data!

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

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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