Gender Data: Sources, gaps, and measurement opportunities

Data2X
March 2017

Executive Summary
This module for the Data4SDGs provides guidance to countries on gender data collection for national data
action plans. Consistent, internationally comparable statistics on women’s and girls’ outcomes remain
scarce in key areas, hampering policies to narrow gender inequalities as well as monitor several gender-
related targets under the SDGs. This module discusses the importance of individual, sex-disaggregated
data for policy design and monitoring different SDG indicators related to gender, and how surveys can be
augmented to address many important gender data gaps in the near term. New approaches to survey
data collection and analysis are also discussed, along with increased availability of complementary data
sources from mobile phone and global positioning system (GPS) data, which can help in identifying more
vulnerable groups and communities. Existing household survey data — as well as community and country
administrative data — should also be analyzed in greater detail (and, where feasible, analyzed together)
to understand different socioeconomic and institutional factors affecting outcomes for men and women.
This module also provides links to important resources by different agencies on collecting and analyzing
sex-disaggregated data.

The following topics are covered in the module:

1. Introduction: Underscores the policy consequences of missing or incomplete data on women’s and
girls’ outcomes and discusses efforts among international agencies and countries to help improve the
collection and quality of gender statistics.

2. Gender data that informs policy: Highlights the need for representative data collected at the individual
level to effectively guide gender-relevant policies targeted towards women and girls, as well as the role
of institutional and big data sources in complementing traditional surveys.

3. Priority gender data gaps: Based on a Data2X mapping report of gender data gaps, discusses important
policy-relevant gaps in gender data, along with the SDG targets that can be addressed in the nearer term
— across health, education, economic opportunities, political participation, and human security.

4. Near-term indicators for monitoring gender targets in the SDGs: A recent report by Open Data Watch
and Data2X identified a set of 20 “Ready to Measure” (R2M) indicators across eight SDG targets that can
be measured from individual survey data and collected across countries now. In the Annex, we include
additional examples of gender-sensitive indicators that can be measured in the near term through
nationally representative surveys — which along with the R2M indicators span 14 out of the 17 SDGs.

5. Conclusions: Discusses the need for sharing methods and data. Ongoing communication and
collaboration is needed between member states, National Statistical Offices (NSOs), and other
stakeholders on producing sex-disaggregated statistics and using them to inform policy.
1. Introduction: The need for improved gender statistics, and gender
mainstreaming
“Gender data” (or gender statistics) is data disaggregated by sex as well as data that affects women and
girls exclusively or primarily. Gender data provides meaningful insight into differences in wellbeing across
women and men, and girls and boys, as well as actionable information for policy to address disparities.
Gender statistics cut across economic, health, political, and social dimensions, and statistics in one area
can inform other areas as well. Gender statistics elicit not only outcomes, but also the needs and
capabilities of women across important policy areas (for example, access to output and labor markets,
education, and facilities). There has been heightened emphasis on framing survey questions appropriately
as policymakers work towards narrowing gender gaps in areas such as education, work, and health. There
is also increased understanding of how these outcomes are interrelated.

The Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in September 2015 and slated to be in place through 2030,
include a broad set of gender-related targets — including valuing unpaid work, eliminating child/forced
marriage and violence against girls and women, greater participation by women in public life and
institutions, equal rights to economic resources and assets, and using information and communications
technology to help empower women.1 For each of the SDG targets, the UN Inter-Agency and Expert Group
on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) proposed indicators that were approved by the UN Statistical Commission
at its forty-seventh session in March 2016; monitoring efforts have since ensued.2

However, many outcomes underlying these targets are still not regularly measured by countries.
According to a global survey of 126 countries conducted by the UN Statistics Division (UNSD) in 2011, only
30-40 percent regularly produce sex-disaggregated statistics on topics such as informal employment,
unpaid work, entrepreneurship, agriculture, child marriage, violence against women, and access to clean
water and/or sanitation, as well as technology. Further, among this group of less-covered topics, most of
the remaining 60-70 percent of countries tend not to collect data at all or only infrequently.

Box 1. Objectives in gender data collection across domains

Key objectives when designing gender-targeted survey questions, and collecting gender data, should include:

1. Quantifying and explaining women’s and girls’ participation in society and their contributions to
development.

2. Quantifying and measuring changes in women’s and girls’ outcomes in absolute terms (changes in
levels) and in comparison, with men and boys, by tracking trends over time.

3. Documenting how women’s and girls’ outcomes vary across the distribution of other variables
(some examples include age, years of schooling, ethnicity, income, as well as the
ownership/control of property).

4. Collecting individual-level data within the household to understand how intra-household dynamics
affect women’s and girls’ outcomes.

1 The Open Working Group’s proposal is available at

[Link]
2 See [Link]

[Link]
 5. Producing data that assesses development interventions’ impact on women’s and girls’ outcomes
(wellbeing and participation in society).

The policy implications of poor quality or incomplete data on women’s outcomes are significant. Women,
for example, are heavily involved in subsistence and casual occupations in developing-country contexts.
Data on these forms of work are not well covered by surveys, and consistent guidelines on sex-
disaggregated data collection for these topics are also not available. Women’s productive work and
employment3 are therefore often underreported by official statistics across countries. Another example
comes from data on access to resources and technology, including credit, extension services, ICTs, and
mobile phones, which surveys typically ask only at the household level — clouding researchers’ and
policymakers’ understanding of gender differences in access, and women’s relative economic and social
status and mobility.

Finally, even when data are collected, quality issues arise in the absence of consistent standards for data
collection. Quality is also a concern for commonly used survey methods using proxy respondents to report
on other household members’ outcomes. Data on time use and earnings within households are often
fraught with measurement error, for example, particularly for women since their work is often seasonal,
combined with other unpaid tasks, or simply unreported by the proxy respondent. The way surveys are
administered, including how questions are worded/framed, who else is present, and the choice of
interviewer, also need to be considered carefully for more sensitive questions to ensure accurate
responses — including data on women’s aspirations and agency, as well as violence against women.

International momentum to highlight and address gender data gaps

To improve an understanding of gender inequalities and develop policies for women, several institutions
have recently launched large-scale, cross-country initiatives geared at better gender data collection and
analysis across domains. These include highlighting areas where gender data is scarce (with an emphasis
on nationally representative surveys), developing measures to close these gaps, and identifying core
gender indicators that national statistical agencies should focus on. Examples of recent initiatives, along
with resources that catalog and analyze gender statistics across official and other household surveys
worldwide, are highlighted in Table A1 in the Annex.

Country NSOs and international agencies are increasingly focused on measuring women’s productive work
across paid and unpaid activities. In 2013, the 19th International Conference of Labor Statisticians (ICLS)4,
for the first time, recognized all productive activities, paid and unpaid, as work, but the definition of
employment narrowed to work performed for pay or profit. A key consequence is that unpaid activities are
no longer considered employment, and are instead to be surveyed in a separate module which countries
have the option, but are not required, to implement.5 The new ICLS standards therefore have significant
bearing on women in low-income contexts, who are heavily involved in unpaid but economically productive
activities such as subsistence agriculture and contributing family work. Understanding women’s experience

3 According to the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians definition, ‘employment’ is any activity performed for
pay or for profit, while work covers unpaid and volunteer activities.
4 The ICLS governs the Labour Force Surveys conducted by the International Labour Organization (ILO), and also inform other

cross-country surveys with detailed modules on employment.

5 See [Link]

statisticians/19/lang--en/[Link]
in these areas requires that detailed data are available on their unpaid work, by type and extent of
informal employment, including entrepreneurial activities.6

Integrating gender statistics into national statistics systems

National Statistics Offices (NSOs) play a crucial role in the collection, production, and dissemination of
gender statistics within a country. To ensure that they are frequently and consistently produced and
monitored, gender statistics should be integrated within national statistical systems (NSS), taking on a
policy-oriented approach which goes beyond only providing sex-disaggregated data. Because the
production of official gender statistics does not exist in isolation, it should be continuously integrated into
the official statistical system, producing gender statistics based on problems and themes identified in
national development policies and plans. This process of integrating a gender perspective into the overall
system is referred to as mainstreaming.

As the gatekeepers of official statistics, the NSO within the NSS is strategically positioned to mainstream
a gender perspective to ensure the production of unbiased data to inform decision- making, policy
formulation, and monitoring. Ideally, a country will establish gender statistics as a priority under the
responsibilities of the NSO. While no country system is the same and the mainstreaming will differ
depending on the degree of centrality among the statistical system, there are a few components critical
to the success of mainstreaming a gender perspective in national statistics. As described in Developing
Gender Statistics: A Practical Tool,7 a collaboration between the UN and the World Bank Institute, these
include partnerships and alliances inside and outside of the NSS; commitment and support from top-level
management; sustainable funding streams; an incorporation into legal frameworks or legislation; and a
definition and organization of a gender statistics program.

While gender statistics should be a priority within countries, national, regional and international statistical
systems should not be overlooked. Cooperation among all these levels should be encouraged to promote
compatible definitions, measurements, and methods of collection.

2. Gender data that informs policy: The importance of collecting individual-level

data
Often, due to resource and time constraints, statistics on men and women are collected only at aggregate
levels (e.g., average wage rates for men and women in the community). However, these aggregated
statistics often provide a biased view of individuals' behavior. For example, in rural communities,
enumerators typically ask a leader or a group of prominent members of the community about the
outcomes of men and women who live there. This is an acceptable practice if community data is used to
complement individual data, but if not, it provides biased information on individuals’ outcomes. Similarly,
asking one household member about outcomes for other household members, particularly on sensitive
issues related to health, financial decision-making, and exposure to risk or violence, will not accurately
capture constraints and opportunities within the household. Doing so will result in proxy respondent bias
which has significant implications for women whose contributions are more likely to be underreported.

6 An additional difficulty with this topic is cross-country comparability. An internationally agreed definition of informal
employment and employment in informal enterprises has been adopted by the ILO, but measures of informal employment
across countries are still difficult to compare in practice.
7 Available at [Link]
Individual-level data can also be summarized at the community or regional level to provide more precise
estimates of education, employment, health and other outcomes by important characteristics, such as
income, age, and marital status.

As a result, data that is disaggregated not only by sex, but by age, income, education, residence, and other
socioeconomic and demographic characteristics is extremely important for well-targeted policy design.
Data that is representative of the population is also important, particularly to understand outcomes of
often-marginalized (and thus under-surveyed) groups such as women. Individual-level data also allows for
better comparability of statistics across different types of surveys that are conducted across countries.
Additional resources on the collection and use of sex-disaggregated data are available in Table A2 of the
Annex. As discussed in the Introduction, relevant topics and guidelines can vary substantially by country,
and the extent to which gender statistics across domains (employment, education, health and so on) are
produced regularly. In addition to the SDG indicators on gender, we discuss priority data gaps in the
following discussion that can help guide countries on areas of focus in the near term.

Broadly, national sources of gender data fall into three main categories, which we discuss in more detail
below:

1. Nationally representative censuses and household/microeconomic surveys that provide

information on individuals, households and enterprises, much of which is made publicly
available (Box 2 provides a list of representative surveys conducted regularly across countries);
2. Country institutional data, including facility-generated service and administrative records
(through hospitals, schools, civil registries, tax authorities
etc.) as well as policies, laws, and regulations that are
developed through the political process (often not
publicly available);
3. “Big data,” or digital data, which can cover a wide range
of sources including transactional and crowdsourced
data from mobile phones and the internet, online search
and social network feeds, as well as global remote
sensing data from satellites.

1. Nationally-representative censuses and micro-level surveys

Existing international databases often have data that could be disaggregated by sex and analyzed to
address gender data gaps. These data sources should be mined before initiating new data collection
efforts. Many of these surveys also have panel data across countries, which can allow a closer examination
of changes over time.

Box 2. Some examples of representative, individual-level surveys across countries

Economic opportunities and time use:

• World Bank Living Standards and Measurement Study (LSMS) , and the newer LSMS-Integrated
Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA): LSMS covers 41 countries, and the LSMS-ISA covers eight
countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. These nationally-representative surveys cover demographics and
economic participation of individual household members, as well as other modules on
consumption, vulnerability to shocks and access to credit. The LSMS-ISA also has detailed
 agricultural modules on men’s and women’s plot ownership, management, input use, production,
and other farm-related activities. Both surveys also have separate household and community
questionnaires, and recent LSMS surveys have also been including community-level GPS data (and,
in the case of LSMS-ISA surveys, plot-level GPS data). Many LSMS and LSMS-ISA surveys are panel
surveys.

• ILO’s Labour Force Surveys (LFS): The LFS are nationally representative surveys covering individual
men and women’s paid and unpaid work, in addition to demographic characteristics. Topics on
employment include: individual occupation, hours of work, industry, absence from work,
unemployment and underemployment, job permanency, full time/part time status, characteristics
of the last job, search for another job, reasons and methods for seeking another job, and
unemployment benefits. Newer country LFS surveys will also be following the revised definitions
of work and employment put forth by the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians.
Between 2000-2010, 160 countries conducted at least one LFS or household survey to produce
official labor force statistics. While links to individual country LFS are not available, country-level
summary statistics from the LFS are available through the Key Indicators of the Labour Market
(KILM) database.

• World Bank Enterprise Surveys: The Enterprise Surveys survey 125,000 male and female-owned
firms across 139 countries, and each survey provides a representative sample of an economy's
private sector. On gender, the surveys aim to provide detailed statistics on women's
entrepreneurship (including ownership and management roles) as well as employment.

• Global Financial Inclusion Surveys (Findex): The Findex, which has been conducted in 2011 and
2014 and is a joint initiative by the World Bank and Gallup, is a nationally representative survey
covering men and women’s financial access and decisions across 148 countries. In addition to
questions on accounts with financial institutions (including commercial banks, microfinance, and
post office accounts), the survey asks about sources and purpose of borrowing, reasons for not
having an account, and mobile banking activity.

• Country household welfare surveys: Countries also conduct their own household surveys,
sometimes in partnership with agencies like the World Bank (for instance, the Core Welfare
Indicators Questionnaire (CWIQ) and Welfare Monitoring Survey), and IFPRI (Women’s
Empowerment in Agriculture Index). These country-specific surveys follow a similar structure to
the LSMS, spanning multiple modules across household members’ demographics, employment,
education, and consumption.

• Country censuses: Typically conducted every 5-10 years, censuses broadly fall into population and
agricultural censuses. Population censuses conducted by NSOs are another source of nationally-
representative information for basic household indicators on demographics, education,
employment, and consumption. Agricultural censuses are focused on structural characteristics of
household agricultural operations. Censuses, however, are typically limited in more specialized
questions on the topics above, as well as other gender-sensitive topics like individual
asset/property ownership, and other characteristics of intra-household allocation.

• Country-specific time use surveys: Many country time use surveys are managed by the United
Nations Statistics Division, and are typically set up as a time diary of paid and unpaid activities that
individuals in the household spend their time on during a specific period – for example, over 24
hours of the day or 7 days of a week. These surveys are typically conducted independently of one
another so there is no standardized questionnaire, although the UN’s International Classification
of Activities for Time-Use Statistics (ICATUS) helps harmonize definitions across countries. A
common problem with time use surveys is that they are very resource-intensive, and a single
snapshot may not provide an accurate picture of time use throughout the year. The recent ICLS
changes to the definition of employment are also generating greater interest among countries and
international agencies, including the ILO, on how questions on time use can be adapted for
eliciting productive, but unpaid work.

Health and other aspects of women and children’s welfare (marriage, violence, birth registration):
 • Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS): The DHS are nationally representative, currently covering
92 countries. The surveys cover a wide range of health outcomes for women aged 15-49. For
example, their birth histories, as well as birth registration and health outcomes of their children.
Surveys also ask women and their spouses about outcomes related to marriage, education,
employment, decision-making, and domestic violence. Data on household access to water and
sources of energy, as well as who is responsible for water collection, are also included. Recent
waves of the DHS also have GPS data for sampled reporting areas.

• Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS): The MICS are nationally representative surveys
conducted by UNICEF and are intended to address some gaps in data on women and children on
areas of health, education, child protection and HIV/AIDS. MICS also covers information on
children’s birth registration. The MICS have been conducted in 149 countries so far, and closely
follow the DHS format; in recent rounds for some countries, households can also be linked across
the MICS and DHS so that a wider range of indicators are available.

Even within nationally representative, individual-level surveys, however, questions specifically regarding
household decision-making, use of technology and financial services, asset ownership, and coping
strategies for community and household shocks are often asked only of one household member (often
the household head). As a result, analyses of gender differences for these outcomes are typically made
across male and female heads of household instead of at the individual level, masking within-household
gender inequalities. Box 3 below presents an example from Nepal on how land rights policy can be shaped
using sex-disaggregated data on landownership. Comparisons by sex of the household head also tend to
be biased, since the definition of headship can be interpreted very differently across contexts —
particularly where joint family systems are common — making cross-country comparisons difficult.
Furthermore, even within a certain context the concept of headship may not be constant (for example
when spouses migrate for work).8 Surveys often also leave the designation of “household head” to
members of the household who may use different criteria to make this assignment, making comparisons
within countries difficult as well.

Further work is needed even within individual-level surveys to disaggregate questions by sex. Decision-
making over economic, education, health, and other outcomes is often a complex process across different
household members, so when questions are asked only at the household level they will likely mask
outcomes for all men and women of interest in the sample.

Box 3. Country case study: expanding women’s land ownership in Nepal

Individual-level data on landownership can motivate reforms and help track policy impact. In the case of Nepal,
addressing gaps in asset ownership gender data helped improved policy, and as a result, women’s access to land. In
2001, Nepal added questions on property, land and livestock under female ownership to the census.(2) And in 2002
and 2007 two constitutional amendments were passed that significantly improved land ownership rights of Nepali
women, stating that sons and daughters had equal rights to inheritance regardless of their age and marital status;
prior to this, inheritance was largely patrilineal and women gained access to land or property through kinship or
marriage.(3) Furthermore, in 2008, Nepal introduced a 10 percent tax exemption for land registered in a woman’s name
to drive implementation of laws on property and inheritance. The exemption, aimed at incentivizing families to share
their property with their daughters, sisters and wives was subsequently increased to 25 percent in cities and 30 percent
in rural areas. As a result, between 2001 and 2009, women’s land ownership increased threefold.

8See, for example, Buvinic, M., & Gupta, G. R. 1997. “Female-headed households and female- maintained families: are they
worth targeting to reduce poverty in developing countries?” Economic Development and Cultural Change 45(2): 259-280.
 Source:
(1) [Link]
(2) “Population results in Gender Perspective.” Central Bureau of Statistics, Nepal, 2002; “Assessing Female Ownership
of Fixed Assets in Nepal: A New Feature of the Population Census 2001.”. Central Bureau of Statistics, Nepal, presented
at the Global Forum on Gender Statistics, 26-28 January 2009.
(3) Mishra, Khushbu, and Abdoul G. Sam. 2016. “Does Women’s Land Ownership Promote Their Empowerment?
Empirical Evidence from Nepal.” World Development 78: 360–371.

2. Institutional data

Institutional or administrative data is typically topic specific (relating to employment, education, or health,
for example) and spans sources generated by different agencies or institutions within a country. These
include facility-generated service and administrative records (through hospitals, schools, civil registries,
tax authorities etc.) as well as policies, laws, and regulations that are developed through the political
process.

Administrative data can be matched or triangulated with survey data when they cover the same
geographic context and time period, although this depends on the quality and disaggregation of the
administrative data. Similar to survey data, administrative data is most useful (and more easily linked with
other data sources) when it represents individual-level outcomes. Since the quality and detail of
administrative data also depends on institutional development, administrative data has thus far tended
to be used much more frequently in high-income countries. There are recent exceptions in lower-income
contexts, however, particularly using program-level data. Some examples of administrative data that can
be used for better understanding gender inequalities in developing countries are discussed in Box 4 below.

Box 4. How institutional data can be used to understand outcomes for women and girls

• Women’s political participation: To measure women’s participation in national decision-making,

the global Inter-Parliamentary Union Women in National Parliaments database draws on individual
country records to present the number and percentage of women in lower or single houses of
parliament. Where applicable, data on upper house or Senate seats are also available.
Parliamentary data, provided by national parliaments, is available for 190 countries.

• Land registration: Public registries that provide transparent, comprehensive records of property
ownership help support property rights for individuals, including women who are often in a more
vulnerable position within traditional land tenure systems. In 2012-13, a national land tenure
regularization program was implemented in Rwanda, the first of its kind in Africa, which allows the
use of administrative data to be combined with data on household surveys to quantify the extent
of informal land transfers. The administrative data, which includes gender of the landowner, and
can be linked with survey data, can be used to help understand socioeconomic determinants of
land transfers and acquisitions, and how this varies across men and women (Ali et al, 2016).9

• Education and school achievement: Administrative records on girls’ and boys’ test scores can shed
light on measures of school achievement. Angrist, Bettinger and Kremer (2006) 10, for example,
linked administrative records from Colombia’s PACES program, which provided over 125,000 poor
children with vouchers that subsidized half the cost of private secondary school, with

9 Ali, Daniel Ayalew, Klaus Deininger, and Marguerite Duponchel. 2016. “Using Administrative Data to Assess the Impact and
Sustainability of Rwanda’s Land Tenure Regularization.” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 7705.
10 Angrist, J., Bettinger, E., and M. Kremer. 2006. “Long-term Educational Consequences of Secondary School Vouchers:

Evidence from Administrative Records in Colombia,” American Economic Review, 96(3): 847-62.
 administrative records on college entrance exams to understand the effect of the program on girls’
and boys’ graduation rates and achievement. And in a study from Mexico, Avitabile and de Hoyos
Navarro (2015)11 use administrative data on students’ 9th grade standardized test scores to
measure their ability before entering high school. As part of this study they tested whether
providing 10th grade students with information about the returns to upper secondary and tertiary
education and a source of financial aid for tertiary education can contribute to improve student
performance. Their study finds a positive effect on students’ learning outcomes, with larger effects
for girls.

• Adult identity documentation: In most low-income countries, complete Civil Registration and Vital
Statistics (CRVS) systems are lacking and adults cannot obtain identity documentation (ID). This lack
of access has significant gender implications — not only because of the demographic data CRVS
systems provide, but also because these systems serve as the gateway for exercising individual
rights and protections. Institutional data on registration and constraints to registration can shed
light on areas and groups that need better access. This information can also be helpful in
establishing causal linkages between registration and longer-term outcomes (e.g., health,
education, marriage, and employment). For example, a study from Pakistan found that 73 percent
of women were accompanied when traveling to obtain an ID card compared to 31 percent of men.
This showed that women’s limited mobility led to their under-registration for ID cards. Special
measures were adopted to make registration more accessible for women in the region, including
mobile registration services staffed exclusively by women.12

3. Big data sources

In recent years, international organizations and countries (national statistical offices, line ministries, and
civil society organizations) have begun exploring the use of “big data,” or digital data, for policymaking.
Although not having a clearly agreed-upon definition, “big data" includes internet traffic, data from online
social networking websites, remote sensing data, and data from mobile phone operators – all of which
can provide real-time and abundant information on individuals’ perceptions, behavior, and constraints,
and be used to inform public policy.
Big datasets can help provide insight on mechanisms underlying policy trends – subjective issues that
official data often does not include – like traditional qualitative data, but in real time. Big data can also
contribute to development by providing interim evidence on different indicators between rounds of other
official surveys. For example, data from social media can complement more standard program evaluation
data by highlighting the perceptions and opinions of women clients and beneficiaries. Remote sensing
data and mobile phone-based reporting can also help capture information that is difficult to elicit through
regular surveys due to respondent error, proxy respondent bias, or difficulties in meeting respondents. 


There are three major categories of big data in the developing world: transactional, crowdsourcing, and
remote sensing. The key difference between these sources has to do with whether fine-grained
information or big-picture patterns are desired. This data can provide interim evidence on different
indicators between rounds of official surveys like census data. Further, digital data sources require ‘ground
truthing’ through surveys or other data sources, and therefore should be considered as a complement to,
rather than a replacement for, official statistics.

11 Avitabile, Ciro, and Rafael E. De Hoyos Navarro. 2015. “The Heterogeneous effect of information on student performance:
evidence from a randomized control trial in Mexico.” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 7422.
12 International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). 2013. “Survey Assessing Barriers to Women Obtaining Computerized

National Identity Cards (CNICs).” Washington, DC (February). Also see Knowles, James, and Gayatri Koolwal. 2016. “Gender
Issues in CRVS and Access to Adult Identity Documentation.” Data2X.
The primary sources of transactional data are mobile phones and internet activity, which can provide
information on both individual and group behavior. Data can be captured directly from the user through
search engines, usage patterns, and social media, or through automated means, such as records of
financial flows or consumer purchases. Transactional data yields disaggregated information on individual
and group behaviors and can be useful in understanding disparities in access to services by key
demographics.13 Box 5 below, for example, discusses how mobile phone data is being used to inform
health outcomes in Ghana. Transactional data can shed light on individuals’ perceptions, as well as
narratives underlying health, political, and economic trends; these are subjective issues that official
surveys typically collect through qualitative or expectations data, but which big data can provide in real
time.

Remote sensing data is generally captured by automated devices such as satellites, temperature and
rainfall gauges, and cameras, and provides information on population- and ecosystem-level patterns. This
data can be used to identify spatial and temporal barriers to health clinics, schools, and markets, and is
already being used extensively in research. The Data2X research agenda with academic partners sheds
light on what big data sources can tell us about the lives of women and girls, through a report released in
March 2017, Big Data and the Well-Being of Women and Girls.

Box 5. Country case study: Mobile health services in Ghana

Mobile phones are currently used for a wide range of public health services across Africa; mobile health service
programs have the capacity to service vulnerable and harder-to-reach communities and collect information on their
health-seeking behavior. In Ghana, for example, mobile phone technology is available even in remote communities,
and has proven to be a valuable tool to help bridge the gap between access to health information and service
provision. The Mobile Technology for Community Health (MOTECH) initiative focused on improving maternal and
child health by facilitating communication between health providers and patients outside of traditional doctor
offices as well as improving data collection, compilation, and analysis.

The initiative uses mobile phones to increase access to and demand for health information and services among rural
women. Services include mobile alerts and antenatal care reminders. Nurses working in rural health facilities are also
able to record and track the care provided to women and newborns in their area. Rural health facilities are equipped
with low-end mobile phones running the MOTECH software and data on health service delivery and outcomes are
submitted to the Ghana Health Service, an autonomous public service agency under the control of the Ministry of
Health. As of March 2013, 11,843 clients were served and 34 rural health care facilities were active.

3. Addressing global gender data gaps in the near term: Sources of data and
priority areas
As discussed above, despite the importance of gender statistics, data on girls and women’s is still lacking
across domains and countries. Based on need (severity and disparities in outcomes affecting women),
country coverage, and policy relevance, studies by Data2X14 and the World Bank/International Household

13 Note here that “transactional activity” refers not only to consumer behavior, but also to unpaid goods- and services-related
interactions, for example community health worker activity.
14 Data2X: Mayra Buvinic, Rebecca Furst-Nichols and Gayatri Koolwal. 2014. Mapping Gender Data Gaps. Available at

[Link]
 Survey Network (IHSN)15 have highlighted a number of priority areas that countries could address in the
nearer term. In particular, Box 6 lists 28 gender data gaps mapped in Data2X’s Mapping Gender Data Gaps
report across five domains of women’s empowerment: (1) health, (2) education, (3) economic
opportunities, (4) political participation, and (5) human security. For more information please refer to the
full report which provides more detail on the gender data gaps and sources of data.

Box 6. Priority gender data gaps: Data2X Mapping Gender Data Gaps Report

Type of gap (for developing countries)

Lacking granularity
(sizeable and detailed
Lacking coverage across datasets allowing for
countries and/or Lacking international Lacking complexity disaggregation by
regular country standards to allow (information across demographic and other
production for comparability domains) characteristics)
Health
• Better vital registration data is needed on maternal deaths, including causes of death by age, in high mortality low-income countries, but
very large samples are needed to collect valid data on maternal mortality.
• Although the DHS surveys are increasingly collecting this information, only a small fraction of health surveys have modules to address
indicators on physical or sexual violence due to the sensitivity and complexity of administering such questions. The UN recently published
guidelines for collecting data on violence against women that emphasizes the need for specialized surveys in this area.16
• Data on children/adolescents aged 10-14 years are scarce because this age falls outside the reference group of standard modules and surveys
on health seeking behaviors, including the Demographic and Health Surveys.17
• The determinants of healthy adolescent behaviors are particularly important since actions at this age chart the path for the rest of women’s
lives.
• Few surveys examine reasons for not seeking health care, which is important for policymakers given the extent of women’s and girls’
underutilization of health services in developing countries.

Lacking international
Lacking coverage Lacking complexity Lacking granularity
standards

Maternal morbidity/mortality X X
Women’s excess disease burdens X
Violence against women X X
Mental health X X X
Adolescent health X X X
Utilization of health services by women X X

15 World Bank/IHSN: Masako Hiraga, Gayatri Koolwal, and Akiko Sagesaka. 2015. “How well are gender issues covered in
household surveys and censuses? An analysis using the IHSN-World Bank Gender Data Navigator.” Available at
[Link]
16 UN Department of Economic & Social Affairs (2014). “Guidelines for Producing Statistics on Violence Against Women.”

Available at [Link]
17 UNICEF defines adolescents as aged 10-19; this group is often broken up into early (10–13 years), middle (14–16 years) and

late (17–19 years) adolescents.

Education
• Internationally comparable measures on learning outcomes disaggregated by sex are needed.
• Education quality measures across countries are largely based on inputs or use different exams to assess learning and are not sufficient to
assess outcomes in a standardized way.
• Including reasons for not attending school in surveys would help in understanding reasons for exclusion in the near term.
• Household survey questions could be added to understand what factors constrain girls and boys from attending school: transportation or
access issues, financial constraints including whether the child is engaged in work, lack of toilets and other sanitation facilities at school, and
culture or beliefs.

Lacking international
Lacking coverage Lacking complexity Lacking granularity
standards
Learning outcomes X X
Excluded girls X X
Transition rates X
Economic Opportunities
• Quality sex-disaggregated data on all forms of employment (including informal and/or self-employed employment) is needed.
• Women across developing countries are overrepresented in unpaid but productive activities that are not accurately or officially counted
(i.e. subsistence agriculture, informal sector work, and enterprises).
• Measuring women’s agricultural productivity and the factors determining this productivity is essential for the design of gender-sensitive
agricultural policies.
• Better measurement of women’s assets and financial constraints, as well as access and use of technology, is needed to understand their
economic empowerment — but most national surveys currently record this information at the household as opposed to individual level.
• Asset ownership, including landownings, is more complicated to address at the individual level owing to different joint ownership and
management arrangements across countries.

Lacking coverage Lacking international Lacking complexity Lacking granularity

standards
• work
Unpaid X
Informal employment X
Earnings and opportunity cost of paid work X X
Conditions of migrant workers X X
Employment mobility X X X X
Entrepreneurship X X X
Asset ownership X X X
Productivity in agriculture X X X X
• Women
Access across
to financial developing countries are overrepresented
services X in unpaid but productive activities that are not accurately or officially counted
Access(i.e. subsistence
to child care agriculture, informal sector work, and X enterprises). X X X
• Measuring women’s agricultural
Access to ICT (mobile phones & internet) productivity and the
X factors determining this
X productivity is essential
X X
Political Participation
• Sex-disaggregated birth registration data at the national level and, concomitantly, providing national identity documentation could be used
to track voter registration (and turnout) data disaggregated by sex.
• Closing these gaps would affect socially excluded groups in particular, who are often not counted and therefore unable to claim rights.
• Tracking women’s political representation at sub-national levels and their leadership roles in grassroots organizations/key professions can be
paired with other data to study the dynamics and outcomes of women’s leadership.

Lacking international
Lacking coverage Lacking complexity Lacking granularity
standards
Representation in local governance, political X X
organizations & the professions
National identity documentation X X
Voter registration and turnout X X
Human Security
• The collection of individual-level data in this domain is extremely challenging, and the use of technology such as GPS tracking can help in
complementing traditional surveys.
• The UNHCR database18 intends to provide age and sex breakdowns of “persons of concern” (including refugees, asylum seekers, internally
displaced, and stateless persons), but many of the demographic variables are missing.

Lacking international
Lacking coverage standards Lacking complexity Lacking granularity

Conflict-related mortality and morbidity X X

Forcibly displaced and migrant profiles X X

Impact of conflict on gender variables; X X X

women’s adaptive responses to conflict
Conflict-related sexual and gender-based X X X
violence
Women’s participation in peace and security X X X X
processes
Source: Mayra Buvinic, Rebecca Furst-Nichols and Gayatri Koolwal. 2014. Mapping Gender Data Gaps. Available at [Link]
content/uploads/2014/11/Data2X_MappingGenderDataGaps_FullReport.pdf

4. Constructing near-term indicators for monitoring gender targets in the SDGs

Gender inequalities are a central theme in many of the SDG targets. Indicators serve as an important
diagnostic tool for policy and program design, and are useful for holding institutions accountable for
achieving gender-related targets. As discussed above, however, a lack of complete data hampers efforts
to reach policy targets that reduce gender inequalities and to measure related outcomes.

Given the ambitious scope of the SDG targets, it is important in the near term to focus on indicators that
can, for the most part, be measured from individual survey data, are currently available, and collected
across countries. Understanding available trends in certain domains can also in turn inform data collection
for areas where persistent gaps exist. For example, available data to construct indicators on the share of
men and women who are own-account workers, by income quintile and sector of work, can shed light on
which socioeconomic groups and sectors may be more relevant (and hence how survey questions should
be designed) for constructing indicators on informal employment across men and women. In July 2016,
the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) proposed a Global Indicator Framework
spanning over 200 indicators across 169 targets covering the 17 SDGs. 19However, most of the IAEG-SDG
indicators also require collection of new survey data that is comparable across countries, which could
likely take years — moving well beyond the expected time for monitoring targets.

On the other hand, several of the gender-related SDG indicators can be measured in the near term
through existing cross-country datasets, as discussed above. A joint paper by Open Data Watch and

18Available at [Link] .
19Report of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators, July 2016. Available at
[Link]
Data2X identified 20 “Ready to Measure” (R2M) indicators.20 The indicators were selected using a list from
UN Women, developed in support of the SDG agenda, of 47 indicators to monitor gender equality and
women’s empowerment in the SDG framework, and a master list of 52 indicators identified by the IAEG-
GS as being critical for monitoring progress on gender equality. Many of these indicators also appear on
the list compiled by the Bureau of the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC). The R2M indicators track
progress towards eight SDGs, including the one specifically on gender equality and women and girls,
underscoring the cross-cutting nature of the gender equality and women’s empowerment objective. The
remaining seven are, in brief: end poverty, end hunger, ensure health, ensure education, promote
economic growth, reduce inequality, and promote peace and inclusion.

This R2M indicator list was purposely narrowed to a manageable number of universally applicable
indicators following the criteria discussed in Box 7 below. In the development of gender-sensitive
indicators, concepts and definitions should be adapted to different country/local contexts, and indicators
should be disaggregated by sex, age, and, where possible, education level, wealth quintile, ethnicity, and
geographic location (urban/rural).

Box 7. Ready to Measure (R2M) framework for selecting gender indicators

Key objectives in gender data collection should include:

1. Indicators focus on women and girls, measuring progress in their situation over time or in
comparison with the situation of men and boys. Indicators that track changes in populations or
children as a group, without disaggregating by sex, were excluded from this list.

2. Measure outcomes rather than processes or mechanisms. Outcomes are preferred, because
processes and mechanisms are often specific to particular world regions and do not tell us the
actual progress in women and girls’ lives. Laws, policies, and other public policy tools, although
of great importance, were thus excluded.

3. Measure individual events, conveying unambiguously the particular circumstance of women

and girls. Indicators that measure the characteristics or behaviors of households and cannot be
empirically disaggregated by sex at the household or individual level were excluded, even
when what they measure mostly reflects the situation of women and girls (as is the case with
measures of indoor household pollution).

4. Give priority to tracking progress in expanding women’s choices and reducing gender gaps in
access to modern services and resources (rather than to those documenting women’s
unquestioned traditional household roles).

5. Are ‘Ready to Measure,’ that is, indicators that have internationally agreed definitions; are
produced through available data collection instruments; already have wide coverage; and do
not have built-in gender biases and, therefore, do not distort, visibly underrepresent or
undercount the situation of women and girls, so SDG baseline data collection can start
immediately in a majority of countries.

20Data2X and Open Data Watch (2015). “Ready to Measure: Twenty Indicators for Monitoring SDG Gender Targets.” Available
at [Link]
Box 8 below presents the list of R2M indicators. All but two of these indicators can be constructed from
population censuses and household surveys regularly administered in many countries.21 The principal
survey sources in low- and lower-middle income countries with individual-level data (see Box 2 as well)
are the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), supported by USAID; the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey
(MICS), supported by UNICEF; Living Standards and Measurement Study (LSMS), supported by the World
Bank; and country Labour Force Surveys (LFS), supported by the International Labor Organization (ILO).
The Global Financial Inclusion Database (Findex), which is housed at the World Bank and was conducted
as part of the Gallup World Poll in 2011 and 2014, covers individual financial outcomes across low-,
middle-, and high-income countries. Finally, country-specific household welfare surveys, household
budget and consumption surveys, as well as population and agricultural censuses are also an important
resource, albeit not necessarily comparable across countries.

Table A3 in the Annex presents additional gender-sensitive indicators (beyond R2M) that can be measured
with existing survey data. These indicators have been proposed by the IAEG-SDGs and Data2X (as part of
a consultation with UN Women), across 13 of the 17 SDGs.22 The R2M indicators are referenced in the A3
Annex table as well, along with relevant data sources.

Box 8. Ready to Measure (R2M) indicators, by SDG Goals

(main data sources for each indicator available in Table A3 in Annex)

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

1. Ratio of women to men (aged 15 and above) in households living under the international or
national poverty line (not suitable for making cross-country comparisons and should be used
only to monitor national targets)

Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.

2. Prevalence of stunting (low height-for-age) in female children under 5 years of age, and ratio
of female to male under-five stunting. 

3. Prevalence of anemia in women of reproductive age (15 to 49), pregnant and non-pregnant.

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

4. Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. 


5. Female under-five mortality rate and ratio of female to male under-five mortality (when
comparing female to male ratios, expected biological sex differences in mortality at birth
should be considered)
6. Number of female new HIV infections per 1,000 susceptible population (by age and key
populations), and ratio of female to male new HIV infections.
7. Adolescent birth rate per 1,000 women in that age group, by age of the mother (15-19).
8. Percentage of reproductive age women (15-49) using modern contraception. 


21 The exceptions are the proportion of women holding seats in national parliaments, which is produced by the International
Parliamentary Union, and the incidence of HIV/AIDS, which depends upon specialized surveys and reports from sentinel sites
that are used to estimate prevalence of the epidemic using models developed by UNAIDS.
22 Goals 11, 13, 14, and 15 are not included in Table A3; the gender-relevant target under Goal 11 discusses women’s safety in

public, which is not well covered by cross-country, nationally-representative datasets. Goal 13 involves action to combat
climate change, including bolstering resilience and adaptive capacity to cope with climate-related hazards; survey modules on
shocks, however, tend to be asked at the household level. Goals 14 and 15 cover more macro-level targets on oceans and
sustainable ecosystems, respectively.
 Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, and promote lifelong learning opportunities for
all.
9. Percentage of girls/young women aged 3-5 years above official age for last grade of each
level of education (primary, lower secondary, upper secondary, and tertiary) who have
completed the level, and female to male ratio. 

10. Share of women aged 15-49 who use the computer and/or internet at least once a week, and
every day 


Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

11. Percentage of women aged 20-24 who were married or in a union before age 18 (child
marriage).
12. Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament.

13. Share of women among mobile telephone owners.

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment
and decent work for all.

14. Proportion of young women who are idle (women 15-24 who are not employed and not in
school and not looking for work). 

15. Females employed as a ratio of the working-age female population (15 to 59), and female to
male ratio. 

16. Proportion of employed who are own-account (self-employed) workers by sex of worker. 

17. Women’s share of non-agricultural wage employment. 

18. Percentage of adult women with a formal financial account or personally using a mobile
money service in the past 12 months, and female to male ratio. 


Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries.


19. Growth rate in adult women’s share of household earned income among the bottom 40
percent of the population, relative to that for all adult women.

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice
for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

20. Proportion of female children under 5 whose births have been registered with a civil
authority, and female to male ratio.

Source: Data2X and Open Data Watch (2015). “Ready to Measure: Twenty Indicators for Monitoring SDG
Gender Targets.” Available at [Link]
Measure_September-2015_WEB_1.pdf

5. Conclusions: The need for sharing methods and data

Across developing countries, women often have lower levels of education and skills development relative
to men, as well as insecure land rights and limited access to inputs, information, markets and credit — all
of which can hamper their mobility, raise their vulnerability to external shocks, and depress their (as well
as their children’s) welfare. However, these channels are by no means consistent across countries (or
areas within countries). The constraints women and girls face vary substantially across contexts, and
hence so do the policy instruments required to address these constraints. For informed, gender-
responsive policy design, regularly collecting and analyzing representative, individual-level data across
domains such as economic opportunities, health, education, decision-making and human security should
be a priority.

Countries’ commitments to gender equality across areas are underscored by the wide range of gender-
relevant targets in the SDGs. However, countries have limited means to verify progress when underlying
household surveys are lacking in relevant data and capacity. Ongoing communication is needed between
member states, NSOs, and other stakeholders on producing sex-disaggregated statistics, developing
related indicators to monitor men’s and women’s outcomes across areas, and fostering ongoing
partnerships to integrate local priorities and assist with regular data collection across countries. Recent
improvements in household survey data, for example, have been based on several partnerships between
international agencies — to share knowledge and pinpoint data gaps, conduct pilot surveys to test new
survey questions that address these gaps, and form recommendations on how surveys should be
designed.23 Coordination between countries and different international agencies on guidelines for data
collection is a big step towards this objective.

The effectiveness of data also depends on how gender statistics are monitored and used. Given that
gender statistics are an important instrument for policy change, ensuring collaboration between data
producers (NSOs) and data users (including national policy-makers, analysts, researchers and other key
stakeholders) is indispensable. Continuing research is needed to deepen country dialogue and highlight
the value of collecting better sex-disaggregated data, and monitoring related indicators, including those
related to the SDGs. Much remains to be understood on what policies are most effective in narrowing
gender inequalities in access to inputs and resources, educational and employment outcomes, time use,
health, vulnerability, and resilience.

23Data2X’s Women’s Work and Employment Partnership (WW+E) with the World Bank, ILO, and Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) is one example; partners are working together to improve measures on paid and unpaid activities in
subsistence agriculture through the testing of new survey questionnaires. Partnerships such as WW+E can help work towards
standardization of survey modules to allow better comparability of statistics across country surveys.
 Annex
Table A1. Recent cross-country initiatives to set standards for data collection, and improve the quality
and availability of gender data across domains

Identifying and addressing gender data gaps

UN Inter-Agency and In 2012, the IAEG-GS published a minimum set of 52 gender indicators, based on
Expert Group on Gender whether they addressed key policy concerns as identified in the Beijing Platform for
Statistics (IAEG-GS) Action and other more recent international commitments. The UN Statistical
Commission approved the IAEG-GS minimum set in 2013. Indicators cover economic
opportunities, education, health, public life and decision-making, as well as human
rights (including violence against women), and are ranked into three tiers by their
availability and agreed-upon standards across countries. The IAEG-GS is continuing to
develop and propose modifications of these indicators as well as their classification.

Initiative on Evidence on EDGE, a joint initiative by UNSD and UN Women, is working on methodological
Data and Gender Equality guidelines for measuring sex-disaggregated data on asset ownership that will be
(EDGE) presented to the UN Statistical Commission in 2017. Pilots are also being conducted
in eight countries (Georgia, Mexico, Maldives, Mongolia, Philippines, South Africa,
and Uganda). EDGE plans to do the same for entrepreneurship, and will provide
technical support to countries to implement these methodological guidelines.

UN Women In 2013, UN Women proposed a set of gender indicators — some of which overlap
with the IAEG-GS minimum set — as part of a specific commitment to achieving
gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment in the post-2015
development framework.

UN Women is also working on a flagship, biennial Global Monitoring Report on Gender

Equality that will examine progress, gaps and key challenges in the implementation of
the SDGs from a gender perspective. The report for 2017/2018, Gender Equality in the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, will include analysis of available data across
countries, as well as policies aiming to achieve gender-related targets.

In 2016, UN Women launched its flagship gender data initiative, “Making Every
Woman and Girl Count,” during the 71st UN General Assembly. This five-year public-
private initiative will support countries to improve the production, accessibility and
use of gender statistics. The initiative will build a supportive policy and institutional
environment to prioritize gender data and effective monitoring of the SDGs, increase
data production and improve access to data to inform policy and advocacy.

UN Gender Statistics The UN Gender Statistics Manual, published in 2013, provides an important synthesis
Manual of how sex-disaggregated data as well as important topics on gender should be
collected across the different policy areas discussed above, as well as such topics as
poverty, environment, food security, power and decision-making, and
migration/displacement.

Data2X In 2014, Data2X developed a comprehensive mapping report of global gender data
gaps across health, economic opportunities, education, political participation and
human rights/security, based on recommendations of these institutions, as well as a
review of academic research in these areas. The report also provided a synthesis of
international institutions’ efforts on constructing gender indicators.

Data2X has also formed partnerships with UN agencies, governments, civil society,
academics, and the private sector to close gender data gaps across different areas –
big data and gender, civil registration and vital statistics, displaced populations,
women’s work and employment, women’s financial inclusion, and improving the
availability and use of gender data in the US.

Databases and data portals

World Bank Gender Data The World Bank Gender Data Portal compiles data and background resources on a
Portal (GenderStats) range of important gender topics, drawing on surveys from the World Development
Indicators, national statistical agencies, UN databases, and surveys conducted or
funded by the World Bank. Data at the country level are organized under thematic
areas following those identified by the IAEG-GS, discussed above.

OECD Gender Data The OECD Gender Data portal that provides internationally comparable indicators on
Initiative gender in the areas of education, employment, and entrepreneurship, for OECD
countries as well as Russia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, and South Africa.

Gender Data Navigator Joint partnership by the World Bank and the International Household Survey Network
(GDN) (IHSN) recently led to the construction of the Gender Data Navigator (GDN), a
searchable database of national survey and census questionnaires from 144 low- and
middle-income countries between 2000-2012, covering 1,485 surveys — spanning
topics across demographics, economic activity, education, health, and violence against
women as well as the IAEG-GS minimum set gender indicators
 Table A2. Additional links to training modules, toolkits, and other resources to support national
statistical systems and other agencies in the production and use of gender statistics

Technical guidelines and manuals for countries:

• Manual on methodologies and analytical information necessary to improving the availability, quality and use of gender statistics:
Gender Statistics Manual: Integrating a gender perspective into statistics (2016). A product of the United Nations Statistical Division
(UNSD), this manual is intended for statisticians working in less developed national statistical systems and can be used as resource
material for training in gender statistics.
• A consolidated reference on how to produce high quality gender statistics as well as advancing progress towards gender equality:
Developing Gender Statistics: A Practical Tool (2010). Prepared by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Task Force
on Gender Statistics Training for Statisticians and the World Bank Institute, this manual aims to guide statistical organizations in the
production and use of gender statistics.
• A resource manual for NSOs: Engendering Statistics: A Tool for Change. This manual can also be used by users who wish to
understand the problems involved in the production of gender statistics to be better able to use statistics correctly. The training
material is produced by Statistics Sweden and The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).
• Collecting data on violence against women: Guidelines for Producing Statistics on Violence against Women. This manual, produced
by UNSD, provides methodological advice regarding selection of topics, sources of data, relevant statistical classifications, outputs,
wording of questions and all other issues relevant for national statistical offices to conduct statistical surveys on violence against
women.

Data and statistics:

• To access the latest sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics: Gender Data Portal. Users can access time series gender data by
searching for indicators, get tools data visualization and analysis, explore country and topic dashboards, browse household surveys
and censuses, explore guidelines, manuals and training materials, among others. The database is updated four times a year (April,
July, September, and December).
• A reference for sex-disaggregated data on education, health, access to economic opportunities, and public life and decision-
making: The Little Data Book on Gender (2016). This handbook by World Bank presents sex-disaggregated data for more than 200
economies in an easy country-by-country reference. Regional profiles and income group aggregates are also available.
• Cross-country assessment of a large set of available gender data from international and national statistical agencies: The World's
Women 2015: Trends and Statistics. Provides an assessment of gaps in gender statistics, highlighting progress in the availability of
statistics, new and emerging methodological developments, and areas demanding further attention from the international
community. A statistical annex also provides a selection of statistics and indicators at the global, regional and country levels.

Regional resources:

• A toolkit for countries in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia: Using Gender Statistics: A toolkit for training data users.
Prepared by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, this toolkit aims to support statistical systems in their
understanding and use of gender statistics and is intended to guide training sessions to increase statistical literacy. Each module
includes descriptions of key concepts and indicators, practical examples, and hands-on exercises. The toolkit also contains five
PowerPoint presentations that illustrate country examples.
• A gender statistics knowledge product for African countries: Africa Glossary of Gender Statistics. This Glossary has been prepared
by the African Centre for Statistics (ACS) of ECA in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) with the main
objective of providing African countries with adequate knowledge and understanding on various terminologies and definitions used
to develop and implement gender statistics program in the region.
• An online course for data practitioners: United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Gender Statistics Toolkit. The four-module
course is intended to share best practices in planning, collecting, and disseminating unbiased gender statistics so they can be used
for informed decision-making, policy formulating, and monitoring at the country level. It has been designed by UNSSC in partnership
with the African Centre for Statistics of ECA.
 Table A3. Additional examples of indicators for measuring SDG gender targets that are available with
existing micro-level surveys

Target Recommended Indicators Data Source(s) (across

individual-level, nationally
representative surveys)

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

1.1 By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all R2M: Ratio of women to men (aged 15 and World Bank LSMS, and other
people everywhere, currently measured as people above) in households living under the country-specific household
living on less than $1.25 a day international or national poverty welfare surveys
line (not suitable for making cross-country
comparisons and should be used only to monitor
1.2 By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of national targets)
men, women and children of all ages living in
poverty in all its dimensions according to national
definitions

1.4 By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in Share of men and women who have a financial Global Findex
particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal account with a formal institution, and with a
rights to economic resources, as well as access to microfinance institution (also see under Goal 8)
basic services, ownership and control over land and
other forms of property, inheritance, natural Share of women among mobile telephone owners DHS
resources, appropriate new technology and financial (also see under Goal 5)
services, including microfinance
Share of men and women who own their dwelling DHS

Share of men and women farmers who have

tenure rights to agricultural land World Bank LSMS-ISA

Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
2.1 By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all For Targets 2.1 and 2.2:
people, in particular the poor and people in
vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, R2M: Prevalence of anemia in women of DHS
nutritious and sufficient food all year round reproductive age (15 to 49), pregnant and non-
pregnant.
2.2 By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including
achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed Share of women aged 15-49, and 15-24, whose
targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 BMI is less than 18.5 (underweight)
years of age, and address the nutritional needs of
adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and R2M: Prevalence of stunting (low height-for-age)
older persons. in female children under 5 years of age, and ratio
of female to male under-five stunting.

2.3 By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and Average share of annual household income World Bank LSMS-ISA
incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular earned by women plot owners/livestock owners
women, indigenous peoples, family farmers,
pastoralists and fishers, including through secure Share of men and women farmers using improved World Bank LSMS-ISA
and equal access to land, other productive resources technologies and infrastructure (ranging from
and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets irrigation, seeds or other inputs) in the last year
and opportunities for value addition and non-farm
employment Share of men and women farmers using World Bank LSMS-ISA
agricultural extension services in the last year

Share of men and women farmers with a financial Global Findex

account

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
3.1 By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality R2M: Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births DHS
ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births
Target Recommended Indicators Data Source(s) (across
individual-level, nationally
representative surveys)
3.2 By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns R2M: Female under-five mortality rate and ratio DHS
and children under 5 years of age, with all countries of female to male under-five mortality.
aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as
low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under-5 mortality
to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births

3.3 By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, R2M: Number of female new HIV infections per DHS
malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat 1,000 susceptible population (by age and key
hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other populations), and ratio of female to male new HIV
communicable diseases infections

3.7 By 2030, ensure universal access to sexual and R2M: Adolescent birth rate per 1,000 women in DHS
reproductive health-care services, including for that age group, by age of the mother (15-19).
family planning, information and education, and the
integration of reproductive health into national R2M: Percentage of reproductive age women (15-
strategies and programmes 49) using modern contraception.

Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
4.2 By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have R2M: Percentage of girls/young women aged 3-5 LSMS
access to quality early childhood development, care years above official age for last grade of each
and pre-primary education so that they are ready for level of education (primary, lower secondary,
primary education upper secondary, and tertiary) who have
completed the level, and female to male ratio

4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of R2M: Share of women aged 15-49 who use the DHS, MICS
youth and adults who have relevant skills, including computer and/or internet at least once a week,
technical and vocational skills, for employment, and every day (also see Goals 9, 17 below)
decent jobs and entrepreneurship

Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
5.3 Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, R2M: Percentage of women aged 20-24 who were DHS, MICS
early and forced marriage and female genital married or in a union before age 18 (child
mutilation marriage)

5.5 Ensure women’s full and effective participation R2M: Proportion of seats held by women in Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU)
and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of national parliament and International IDEA
decision-making in political, economic and public life

5.b Enhance the use of enabling technology, in R2M: Share of women among mobile telephone DHS
particular information and communications owners
technology, to promote the empowerment of
women

Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
6.1 By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access Average weekly time spent by women and girls in MICS
to safe and affordable drinking water. water collection

Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
7.1 By 2030, ensure universal access to affordable, Share of women who spend time collecting Some LSMS surveys have time
reliable and modern energy services. firewood for household use spent on firewood collection for
household members; a new
forestry survey module is also
being developed by FAO to be
used in LSMS

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Target Recommended Indicators Data Source(s) (across
individual-level, nationally
representative surveys)
8.3 Promote development-oriented policies that For Targets 8.3 and 8.5:
support productive activities, decent job creation,
entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and R2M: Females employed as a ratio of the LSMS, LFS
encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, working-age female population (15 to 59), and
small- and medium-sized enterprises, including female to male ratio
through access to financial services
R2M: Proportion of employed who are own- LSMS, LFS
account (self-employed) workers by sex of worker
8.5 By 2030, achieve full and productive employment
and decent work for all women and men, including R2M: Women’s share of non-agricultural wage LSMS, LFS
for young people and persons with disabilities, and employment
equal pay for work of equal value
R2M: Percentage of adult women with a formal Global Findex
financial account or personally using a mobile
money service in the past 12 months, and female
to male ratio
8.6 By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of R2M: Proportion of young women who are idle LSMS, LFS
youth not in employment, education or training (women 15-24 who are not employed and not in
school and not looking for work)

Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
9.3 Increase the access of small-scale industrial and Share of men and women who, in the last 12 Global Findex 2014; World Bank
other enterprises, in particular in developing months, have set aside money to start, operate, Enterprise Surveys
countries, to financial services, including affordable or grow a business or farm (Global Findex 2014)
credit, and their integration into value chains and
markets Share of men and women who, in the last 12
months, have borrowed money to start, operate,
or grow a business or farm (Global Findex 2014)

Share of private firms with a financial account,

across firms owned/not owned by women (World
Bank Enterprise Surveys)

Share of private firms with a bank loan/line of

credit, across firms owned/not owned by women
(World Bank Enterprise Surveys)

Share of private firms whose recent loan

application was rejected, across firms owned/not
owned by women (World Bank Enterprise
Surveys)

9.c Significantly increase access to information and Share of women aged 15-49 who use the DHS, MICS, World Bank LSMS
communications technology and strive to provide computer and/or internet at least once a week,
universal and affordable access to the Internet in and every day (also see Goal 4, Goal 17)
least developed countries by 2020

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

10.1 By 2030, progressively achieve and sustain R2M: Growth rate in adult women’s share of World Bank LSMS
income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the household earned income among the bottom 40
population at a rate higher than the national average percent of the population, relative to that for all
adult women.

10.2 By 2030, empower and promote the social, Share of women who would like to work for an World Bank LSMS and other
economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of income but are not allowed to (household or household welfare surveys
age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or community constraints)
economic or
other status. Share of women who face constraints on their DHS
mobility outside the household
Target Recommended Indicators Data Source(s) (across
individual-level, nationally
representative surveys)

10.4 Adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social Share of men and women in informal/casual Labour Force Surveys (LFS),
protection policies, and progressively achieve employment (LFS) World Bank LSMS Surveys
greater equality.

10.7 Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible Labor force participation rates of adult migrants ILO Labour Force Surveys
migration and mobility of people, including through and non-migrants, by sex
the implementation of planned and well-managed
migration policies Number of refugees (adults and children, by sex) UNHCR database

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

12.2 By 2030, achieve the sustainable management
and efficient use of natural resources Share of men and women who earn income from LSMS, LFS
agroforestry and/or other natural resource-based
activities

Within agriculture:

Main source of water, separately for household LSMS-ISA surveys

and agricultural use, by sex of plot owner/farmer

Share of farmers who use water conservation

methods, separately for traditional and improved
methods, by sex

Among women who collect forestry products:

walking time to the nearest forestry source
(minutes, one way)

Share of adult men and women who are members

of, and participate actively in, local institutions
and community associations on the management
of water and forestry resources

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective,
accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
16.9 By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including R2M: Proportion of female children under 5 DHS, MICS
birth registration whose births have been registered with a civil
authority, and female to male ratio.

Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development
17.8 Fully operationalize the technology bank and Share of women aged 15-49 who use the DHS, MICS
science, technology and innovation capacity-building computer and/or internet at least once a week,
mechanism for least developed countries by 2017 and every day (also see Goal 4, Goal 9)
and enhance the use of enabling technology, in
particular information and communications
technology.