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Funding for gender data decreased by 55% in 2020 — nearly three times the drop in funding to data and statistics overall. But a four-part strategy to support data for SDG 5 could reverse this trend.

The world is behind in collecting and producing the data needed to measure gender equality, slowing progress towards achieving this critical human rights and development goal. Will UNGA act to chart a new course?

Investing in data ecosystems that include gender is vital to responding to pandemics, climate change, and global conflicts. But closing the gender data financing gap needs a strategy to make funding to go further in a time of scarcity.

How can countries, development actors and other partners accelerate the pace to finance gender data? Research suggests three ways.

As shown by the Gender Data Network in Africa, knowledge exchange between countries is key to addressing capacity, funding, and other challenges to have data needed to reach SDGs.

A review of 20 indexes covering women’s empowerment and gender equality brings a call for new good practice standards, including transparency guidelines that spell out the assumptions or judgements behind the data and rankings.

Accessible and timely sex-disaggregated data are critical in helping policymakers understand and address the unique challenges that women and girls face. But do investments in gender statistics match their importance?

Foreign Policy’s recent “Her Power Summit” reminded us that, while mastering the complexities of gender data is crucial, it is equally important to recognize the leaders charting the course to a more data-equitable world, and the barriers they often face.

The Generation Equality Forum defined bold commitments to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment across the globe, launching a global 5-year action plan backed by $40-billion in new funding.

International Women’s Day is a day to note the contributions of women to the economy, society, and their families. In 2021, we call on governments, civil society, and the private sector to fill gaps in our knowledge by building statistical systems that leave no woman or girl behind.

As the world waits for the distribution of a vaccine and treatment options, there is a tool in our arsenal to strengthen our COVID-19 response: open data.

Investing in better data on women’s realities is a smart investment to enable effective decision-making — both for immediate pandemic response and for longer-term Sustainable Development Goals.

This fourth blog of the series examines what emerging measures of the direct impact of the pandemic on healthcare workers can tell us about the frontline capacity of countries and how it differs for men and women.

This third blog of the series summarizes existing data on sex-disaggregated COVID-19 cases and deaths from Global Health 50/50, compares this to overall cases and deaths, and examines the shares that are sex-disaggregated by income and region.

This second blog in the series summarizes the existing data on sex-disaggregated COVID-19 cases and deaths from Global Health 50/50 and asks how complete our picture is when compared to all reported cases and deaths.

We know that the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting men and women differently and that gender roles shape pandemic responses. Now, thanks volunteer efforts via Global Health 50/50, new data are revealing the true impact of COVID-19 on men and women around the world.

A review of international databases finds that the coronavirus pandemic is affecting men and women very differently and may exacerbate gender inequalities without a concerted effort to fill crucial gender data gaps.

In support of good practices to strengthen civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS), the authors of a paper in the latest Knowledge Brief have created a reference guide identifying key gender barriers to registration of birth and deaths, and mapping supply-side issues to needed demand-side research.

More than 8,000 participants gathered in Vancouver, Canada for the world’s largest conference on gender equality and the health, rights, and wellbeing of girls – Women Deliver. IDRC, Data2X and ODW brought civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) into the discussions.

As a side-event during this year’s UN Statistical Commission, Data2X, and Open Data Watch will launch a new technical report , Bridging the Gap: Mapping Gender Data Availability in Africa. In advance,the two teams sat down with GPSDD to discuss the motivation behind the project.

When vital life events – such as births, deaths, marriages, and divorces – are systemabtically recorded in CRVS systems, they provide proof of identity and legal status that are particularly beneficial to women and girls. They also provide sex-disaggregated demographic data for better policies and planning.

Many people take their birth certificate for granted. But in the developing world, birth registration is one of the most important events in childen’s lives.

The Gender Data Impact Project is gathering stories about the lives of girls and women that demonstrate a strong link between data and outcome, about the pioneers who began the conversation on the importance of unbiased gender data and about the brave champions who continue the work today.

“The greatest value of a picture is when it forces us to notice what we never expected to see.” Data visualizations can help us discover innovative solutions, support new initiatives, and raise awareness of data gaps that impact women and girls around the world.

Realizing the ambitious promises made by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals – including Goal 5 on gender equality – will require a serious commitment to the collection and use of more and better gender data. Through the new “Ready to Measure: Phase II” report and gender data query tool, we aim to contribute to this.

Accurate and open data are a catalyst for action. Data gaps limit the ability to harness such impact. Many have their origin in civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems that fail to record births, deaths, marriages, and divorces.

The Clinton Foundation and the Gates Foundation are joining forces to gather data on and analyze the gains made for women and girls in the two decades since the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. The initial report – the “No Ceilings Full Participation Report” – comes out today at a major event in New York City.

Millions of people in Africa are denied basic services because of deficient CRVS and national identification systems. Lacking records of their birth and civil status, they are excluded from health coverage, schooling, social protection programs, and humanitarian response in emergencies and conflicts. This can change.