Of the 193 countries who committed to Agenda 2030, no one country has all the data available on gender-specific SDG indicators. If it continues like this, it will take 22 years for countries to make all SDG gender data available.
When crises hit, not everyone is affected quite the same way. Crises intersect with and exacerbate existing inequalities. Challenges of climate change and its disproportionate impacts on women have been compounded by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine, and cost-of-living crisis. All of these have had a crippling effect on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), especially on SDG 5 on gender equality.
To understand the extent of these impacts and to put in place relevant crises responses and sustain policy action on the SDGs, it’s critical we have a clear picture through gendered statistics.
As of June 2022, we have 42 per cent of the gender data we need to monitor the gender-specific dimensions of the SDGs—up from 26 per cent in 2016, an annual increase of 3 percentage points. Even though we have a long way to go, this progress should still be celebrated, considering how data collection has been severely affected globally during the pandemic. In May 2020, 90 per cent of National Statistical Offices in low- and lower middle-income countries were struggling to meet international reporting requirements.
Partnerships drive success in gender data production
Since 2016, UN Women’s global gender data programme, Women Count, has been supporting efforts to improve the regular production of gender statistics, including providing financial and technical support to improve data collection so that we can better monitor the SDGs. Of the 10 Women Count countries, nine have at least half of the SDG gender data available.
A long way to go on data availability
Of the 193 countries who committed to Agenda 2030, no one country has all the data available on gender-specific SDG indicators. If we continue at the historical average annual rate of increase of 3 percentage points, it will take 22 years for countries to make all SDG gender data available, more than a decade past the 2030 deadline for the SDGs.
Mexico, Armenia, Belarus, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica, Albania, Panama and Zimbabwe currently have the most SDG gender data available. Applying country-specific rates of progress between 2019 and 2022, these countries would be able to make available all SDG gender data before 2030, except for Costa Rica. Even this is not good enough. To take programmatic and policy actions towards achieving our 2030 targets, we need gender data now.
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Source: UNWomen