Better Production and Use of Gender Statistics for Evidence-Based Localization of the SDGs (brief) is one of UN Women’s Flagship Programming Initiatives designed to ensure that UN Women can deliver on the SDGs. This Programme will support governments to improve the production of gender statistics to monitor SDGs, inform policy and ensure accountability.
Data and statistics are indispensable tools for devising evidence-based policies to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment, assessing their impact, and promoting accountability. At the international level there have been important advances related to gender statistics, including the adoption of the minimum set of gender indicators in 2013 by the UN Statistical Commission. Many of the selected indicators to monitor the gender-related SDGs build on these advances.
However, there remains important gaps in many areas of gender equality. Of the indicators to monitor SDG 5, only three have internationally accepted standards and data are regularly collected by countries. For the remaining 11 indicators, either standards exist but data collection is irregular, or in some cases standards are lacking altogether.
In the 2030 Agenda, localization and adequate monitoring of SDGs targets will be critical to ensure that policies are implemented. Targets that are not monitored due to lack of data are likely to receive less priority. Given these imperatives the need to produce relevant and quality gender-sensitive indicators to monitor the SDGs is now greater than ever. Without significant technical and financial investments to support National Statistical Systems (NSS) to tackle these challenges, there will be important gaps in our ability to adequately monitor the implementation of the SDGs.
To read more, please view the brief produced by UN Women on this Flagship Programme Initiative.
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