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GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT
Data Tools for Global Development
Good decisions in global development start with good data, and the right tool makes data easier to collect, understand and share. This page is a curated guide to free and open data tools for students, researchers, journalists, activists and development professionals. Most tools here are free to use, and many were built by humanitarians, universities and international organisations. It is part of our Data on Global Development section.
What are data tools?
What are data tools?
A data tool is any software or online service that helps you work with data. Some tools help you collect information, for example through a survey on a phone. Some help you find existing data, clean it up, count it or draw a chart or a map. Others help you keep information safe. You do not need to be a programmer. Many tools on this page work in a web browser and have guides for beginners.
Data tools matter for global development because the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) depend on measurement. If you cannot count something, it is hard to improve it. Tools make this work faster, cheaper and open to more people, from a small charity to a national statistics office. For the bigger picture, read about Data and the Data Revolution.
Learn the basics
DataBasic
A set of easy web tools for beginners that introduce the main ideas of working with data, such as counting words, comparing texts and connecting information. A good first stop for students and teachers. databasic.io
Our World in Data
Free charts and research on global issues such as poverty, health, education and climate. You can explore, download and embed the data. ourworldindata.org
Data
Collect data
KoBoToolbox
A free and open source platform to collect data, developed by field researchers, evaluators and humanitarians, with the support of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, UNOCHA, the MacArthur Foundation and other donors. It works offline, which is important in places with weak internet. kobotoolbox.org
Open Data Kit (ODK)
Open source tools to build forms, collect data on mobile devices and manage it, widely used in health and community research. getodk.org
Find development data
- World Bank Open Data: free access to indicators for most countries, from income to education and gender.
- UN Data: statistics from across the United Nations system in one search.
- UN SDG Global Database: official data on the SDG indicators for 193 countries.
- Sustainable Development Report dashboards: country scores and rankings on the SDGs.
- UNDP Human Development Data Center: the Human Development Index and related measures.
- Humanitarian Data Exchange: open data for crises and humanitarian response, run by UN OCHA.
- Google Dataset Search: a search engine for datasets published around the web.
For gender data see our page on Gender Data, and for the institutions behind these datasets see Data Organizations.
Clean and analyse data
- OpenRefine: a free tool for cleaning messy data and fixing errors in large tables.
- LibreOffice Calc: a free spreadsheet program for sorting, counting and calculating.
Map data
- QGIS: free and open source software for making maps and analysing places.
- OpenStreetMap: a free map of the world built by volunteers.
- Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team: volunteers who map places at risk, so aid can reach people faster.
- Global Forest Watch: near real-time data on forests and land use.
Visualise and share data
- Datawrapper: simple charts, maps and tables that you can embed on a website.
- Flourish: animated charts and stories from your data.
- Tableau Public: free interactive dashboards, shared publicly.
Support for humanitarian and digital work
The Toolbox
Humanitarian Toolbox (HTBox) is a charity supporting disaster relief organisations with open source software and services. htbox.org
Security in-a-Box
Created by the Tactical Technology Collective and Front Line Defenders. A guide to digital security for activists and human rights defenders throughout the world. securityinabox.org/en
Use data tools safely and responsibly
Many of the data we collect is about people, and some of those people are in danger or in a weak position. Before you collect or share data, ask yourself whether you really need it, who could be harmed if it leaks, and whether people agreed to its use. Use strong passwords, encryption and secure storage, and delete data you no longer need. AI tools add new risks, because anything you paste into a chatbot may be stored. Read our page on Personal Data to see what the law says in Europe and around the world, and our page on artificial intelligence and a culture of peace. You can also learn from the International Data Responsibility Group and MyData.
Learn more and meet the data community
Tools work best when you learn together. Check our list of Data Events for conferences, open data days and statistical forums. Our Data Organizations pages introduce groups such as Data2X, Data4SDGs, WorldPop and the Peace Informatics Lab. To see data at work, explore the 193 country pages.
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