Research Guides: International Government Sources: IGOs

Starting Points

IGOs, or Intergovernmental Organizations, are organizations comprised of sovereign states (called member states) or of other organizations formed through formal treaties. They are established by treaty, which becomes the organizing charter of that group.

CIA World Factbook
More of an international information starting point, the World Factbook provides wide ranging data on 267 entities.
IGO/NGO Search
A project from the international Documents taskforce of the Government Documents Roundtable to facilitate searching for Inter-Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations.
LLRX: International Legal Research
University of Richmond Constitute Project
Previously "Constitution Finder," this tool allows you to quickly find relevant passages, read constitutions independently or side-by-side, and save documents in part or in whole for further analysis.

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Includes a private log in featurewhich allows some additional functionality but which is not required.

Global IGOs

Try these starting points for global intergovernmental organizations:

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

IMF: World Economic Outlook Databases
The WEO database is published in April and September/October of each year. Also check out the World Economic Outlook Reports.
IMF eLibrary
Provides direct access to the IMF’s periodicals, books, working papers and studies, and data and statistical tools.
IMF Fact Sheets
Plain-English explanations of the work of the International Monetary Fund.
IMF International Financial Statistics
The principal statistical dataset for the IMF containing country data for IMF member countries and a handful of inter-governmental and other territorial entities.

United Nations

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
FAO is the specialized agency of the UN leading international efforts to defeat hunger. See their Themes and Topics for more detailed information on their programs.
International Court of Justice
The official portal of the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.
UN i-Library
A comprehensive search tool for United Nations digital content. Level of access varies by document.
United Nations Research Guides
An overview of selected UN resources from the Dag Hammarskjöld Library of the United Nations.
United Nations Statistics Division
Compiles and disseminates global statistical information. In particular, check out their archive of UN Statistical Yearbooks.
United Nations Treaty Collection

World Trade Organization (WTO)

World Trade Organization
See in particular their Trade Policy Reviews.

World Bank

World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
The official access point for World Bank research and information.

Regional IGOs

European Union

Try these starting points for the European Union:

EU Open Data Portal
The official portal for European data funded by the EU.
EU Publications
EUR-Lex
The official access point for the laws of the European Union.
Europa: The Official Website of the European Union
EuroStat
Created by the European Commission, Eurostat is a gateway to numerous data sets and indicators on European countries.

Miscellaneous IGO Resources

Try these starting points for various intergovernmental organizations:

Inter-Parliamentary Union
The global organization of national parliaments.
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
International IDEA has created a number of databases providing data on topics such as voter turnout, electoral system design, gender quotas, direct democracy and more.
OECD: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
Comprised of 33 member nations committed to a "stronger, cleaner, fairer world economy." See in particular the tabs for data and publications.

Kraemer Family Library

International Government Sources