Gender Tools for Understanding the Nexus of Climate Change and Gender

Cross-posted from EMERGE at UC San Diego. The climate crisis is not gender neutral. The impact of climate change amplifies gender inequalities and continues to pose a disproportionate risk to women and girls, their health, wellbeing, and safety. This year, the theme of the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) event centered on achieving gender equality in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies, and programs. Despite increasing evidence that women and girls disproportionately suffer from climate change and environmental disasters, persistent gender data gaps hinder our understanding of how climate change escalates social, political, and economic tensions through a gender lens. On March 22nd, the EMERGE project at the Center on Gender Equity and Health (GEH) at UC San Diego joined Data2X and the World Bank at CSW to discuss the challenges of understanding the nexus of gender and the environment and possible tools that individuals can use to close these knowledge gaps. Below,…

Transforming the Data Landscape: Solutions to Close Gender Data Gaps

Despite decades of investment in promoting gender equality, gender data gaps continue to impede understanding of the lived experiences of women and girls. A lack ofsex-disaggregated data encumbers efforts to craft and monitor the effectiveness ofevidence-based policies that address gender inequalities. Moreover, even where thesedata are available, they are often underutilized. Transforming the Data Landscape: Solutions to Close Gender Data Gaps shifts the conversation from identifying gender data problems to finding practical solutions to gender data gaps. This report and the accompanying Gender Data Solutions Inventory document innovative solutions that have emerged in the last five years. The inventory catalogs 142 solutions that are practical and, in many instances, scalable across six development sectors(economic opportunity, education, environment, health, human security and public participation). It also includescross-domain solutions focused on improving the governance of statistical systems andencouraging the use of data and statistics by policymakers and the public. Read the report.

Persistent Gaps in Gender Data Will Challenge Movement from Zero Draft Rhetoric to Action

This year, the 66th Commission on the Status of Women will review climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programs. Indeed, climate and environmental crises exacerbate gender inequality and pose some of the greatest threats to sustainable development of our time. As the world shifts from recognition to policy implementation, the time to act in service of gender-environment data is now. The 66th Commission on the Status of Women: An Opportunity for Action The annual Secretary General’s report on the priority theme reveals the wide-ranging gendered impacts of climate change, disasters and recent environmental trends. Addressing any of the challenges noted by the Secretary General—and successfully implementing any of the draft agreed conclusions—will require dedicated focus and investment in gender data, both to develop a baseline and deliver progress. This is especially true of the gender-environment nexus, where challenges in generating robust data  have led to persistent gaps…

Gender Data to Achieve U.S. Policy Objectives: Evaluating the United States’ National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality

A HISTORIC LEADERSHIP MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES ON GENDER AND MEASUREMENT  On October 22, the Biden-Harris Administration released the first-ever National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality. Both the Strategy and the Gender Policy Council, which is responsible for guiding its development and now implementation, were mandated by Executive Order. The FY2022 President’s Budget Request, which seeks to advance equity across government, further signals the administration’s priorities, including a 45% international affairs funding increase for gender-related programs focused on addressing gender-based violence, advancing women’s political leadership and participation, and promoting women’s economic empowerment. However, the National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality is perhaps the Biden-Harris Administration’s strongest statement yet—not only of a new era of United States leadership on issues of gender, but also of a return to domestic and foreign policymaking grounded in data and evidence.  Read the full analysis.

Solutions for Building Resilient Gender Data Systems

The COVID-19 pandemic has stagnated—and in some areas reversed—hard-won progress on gender equality. Nearly two years after the virus first emerged, we still struggle to answer basic questions about the status and welfare of women and girls. This crisis has spotlighted what the global community has long known: there continue to be major gaps in gender data and shortfalls in the financing needed to enable countries to fill those gaps. These gaps have enormous implications for our capacity to support women and girls, creating a pertinent case for addressing shortfalls at the local, national, and global levels. Overcoming disparities and improving women’s health, economic opportunities, and human capital are particularly important for charting a path out of the current crisis. As the international community continues to assess, address, and attempt to recover from the pandemic, we cannot neglect the unique needs of women and girls. Nor can we allow these…

Invest in Gender Data for COVID-19 Recovery and SDG Progress

The collection and use of quality gender data must be a priority for governments’ COVID-19 policy response and recovery efforts. We lack the comparable data we need to track the long-term impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on women and girls over time, even though we know that data is a powerful tool to fight the pandemic and to inform daily decisions about health, social, and economic policy. Gender data is the bedrock of evidence-based decision making and without it, policymakers, donors, and governments will be unable to create informed policies to respond and recover from the coronavirus pandemic and to make progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. This brief illustrates the broad picture of current gender data needs as it relates to COVID-19 response and SDG progress, and recommends actions governments can take to fill these gaps and build a more equitable future. Read the knowledge brief. Read our blog…

2019 Annual Trends and Outlook Report: Gender Equality in Rural Africa: From Commitments to Outcomes

This report explores gender equality in rural Africa within the context of the African agricultural sector.

Improving gender data is essential for progress on equity and development

Understanding and measuring women’s empowerment — and acting on that information — is a necessity for global development and human rights. This journal article is part of a special issue of Social Science and Medicine—Population Health which features journal articles that use gender data to consider the ways in which women’s empowerment mediates both gender equality and health. Read the article here.

Woman Stats Project

This database houses the largest compilation of data and statistics on women.

5 Ways Gender Data Can Strengthen Voluntary National Reviews

This knowledge brief explains how countries can use gender data to inform VNRs.