Resources for GEOG 3682: Geographies of International Development

Step 1: Learn About Your Country

Find your Country Page in the alphabetical drop-down box on the top of this page.

Basic Country Information

Information on Your Country (under Country Profiles)

• For overviews and historical profiles of the country, check out the resources from the CIA World Factbook.
• If looking for profiles in response to specific issues, you can look at profiles from international organizations. For a statistical overview of a country’s development, click on the Human Development Report link, which will direct you to the UNDP.
• Under Diplomatic Relations the U.S. Department of State connects to a page with links to its Background Notes and its reports on human rights, terrorism, human trafficking, narcotics, and religious freedom.
• Search the library catalog, Chinook, try these sample searches (the * replaces 5 characters):
• Cambodia and econom*
• Cambodia and histor*
• Cambodia and politic*
• Cambodia and EIU (these are reports, many electronic, from the Economist Intelligence Unit)

• Go to your Country Page: Under Diplomatic Relations on the country page, look for a link to the Human Development Report for that country from the UNDP. This is a statistical sheet with development indicators. From the statistics sheet you can connect to narrative development reports from the UNDP.
• Go to World Bank: Click on the tab for Projects & Operations. Click on the Geomap country data and information (on the right sidebar). Select the country from the pull-down list. Click on the Data tab and then select the Country data profile link for selected indicators over a three-year period. Or, select the Create your own report link. From here search the free World Development Indicators database. To search WDI, choose your country first, then topics, then years. Remember to click the Select button between the different options. (Want the complete data? Check out our subscription to the full database.)
• Search the Millennium Development Goals database.

• Go to your Country Page, diplomatic relations:
• look for the link to the World Bank page for country development information and projects. Click on the Country Overview, for links to information on development challenges (country brief) and strategies (country assistance strategy and poverty reduction). There is also a tab for Development Topics.
• look for a link to a regional development bank. There will be information on issues and projects at the country level.
• look for a link to the UNDP country pages. There will be links to UNDP programme areas in the country, to the Country Programme Action Plan and the country human development report. The MDG tab at the top of the country page will connect you to the MDG page for that country.
• Millennium Development Goals country reports: Country assessment and reports evaluating the country's progress in meeting the MDGs.
• International Monetary Fund country reports: Especially useful for debt analysis.

• The World Bank, regional development bank, UNDP and IMF country pages (see right above this in step 2) will all have links to current project and programme information. For the World Bank, use the Projects tab in Geomap. Generally, the country pages for these organizations will provide project and plan information. Look for links that say projects, operations, programmes, strategy.
• USAID Programmes: Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC) lets you search for information by topic and/or country. Focuses on US funding for projects and aid.
• Research Articles in Journals Use Find Articles and More to search under a particular topic (such as Political Science-Country Analysis), or try one of these databases:
• For political issues, try International Political Science Abstracts. One way to search this database is to put in your country name and development, or the development issue you are focusing on.
• For economics issues, try Business Source Complete. One way to search this is to type in the country name and Search. Click on the link for County Reports (right above the results).
• For articles emphasizing regional issues, check out the International Area Studies subject under Find Articles and More.
• Research & Subject Guides Database This is a collection of all the guides from the library on topics from development to geography to agriculture.

• RefWorks
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• Citing Sources
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