The authors of the AIMS-SEEP tools selected Epi Info, a public domain software, to do statistical analysis for their two quantitative tools. Team member, Brian Beard, has led numerous workshops in English and Spanish in Asia, Africa and Latin America on the use of Epi Info by microfinance institutions for their evaluations.

The Epi Info program was originally designed for public health usage by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). With Epi Info and a personal computer, one can rapidly develop a questionnaire or form, customize the data entry process to minimize data entry error, enter and analyze data, and produce statistics, graphs and tables. Epi Info 2002 is written in Visual Basic, Version 6, and uses the Microsoft Access file format as a gateway to industry database standards. Epi Info 2002 data is stored in Microsoft Access files for maximum compatibility with other systems, and many other file types can be analyzed, imported, or exported.

The software is available to download free-of-charge from www.cdc.gov/epiinfo. The latest version of Epi Info 2002 was released in November 2002.

For more information on how to adapt Epi Info for use in the microfinance field, contact Brian Beard at briangbeard@ideasnet.org.

AnSWR for qualitative analysis

Qualitative data analysis is a set of methods for organizing, displaying, processing, summarizing, and interpreting word and image-based information. At present, AnSWR only supports analysis of Word-based data.

In AnSWR, a Study encompasses all of the data collected as part of a coordinated research program. It may include data collected in a variety of forms, e.g., observational notes, interview transcriptions, historical documents, and standardized questionnaires. A Study includes tools for controlling who has access to the database and for assigning different levels of user rights to the research team.

AnSWR is a software system for coordinating and conducting large-scale, team-based analysis projects that integrate qualitative and quantitative techniques.

The software is available to download free-of-charge from www.cdc.gov/hiv/software/answr/ver3d.htm The latest version is 6.2x and was released in 2002.

If you encounter any problems with installing, uninstalling, or running AnSWR, please send an email describing the problem to answr@cdc.gov.