Contact: Dilly Severin | dseverin@data2x.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NO ECONOMIC RECOVERY OR CRISIS RESILIENCE WITHOUT GENDER DATA
WASHINGTON, DC—As world leaders prepare to gather for the G20 Summit from October 30-31, Data2X is releasing two new reports that can assist leaders in crafting gender-sensitive responses to stimulating economic recovery and building the resilient data systems they are founded on—especially in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.
Around the world, the effects of COVID-19 have disproportionately affected women, girls, and marginalized communities. For example, while women comprise 39 percent of global employment, they represent 54 percent of pandemic-related job losses. Similarly, women-owned businesses were 1.4 times more vulnerable to closure than men-owned businesses as a result of COVID-19. These stark realities make the need for gender-sensitive and gender-data-informed recovery responses critical at a time when national data collection is disrupted, and during which National Statistical Offices are reporting deep budget cuts as resources are channeled to other areas.
Fulfilling the Promise of Better Data on Gender and Work and Solutions for Building Resilient Gender Data Systems suggest that these challenges can be overcome through multi-stakeholder partnerships which prioritize the collection, analysis and application of new definitional standards and proven gender data interventions:
- Fulfilling the Promise of Better Data on Gender and Work, shows how new definitions of work which recognize all paid and unpaid forms of work as equal can make women’s contributions to the economy more visible and allow policymakers to target more effective and gender-sensitive responses to stimulate labor force participation. The report highlights practical examples and lessons learned from four countries—Rwanda, Cote d’Ivoire, Myanmar and Lao PDR—to offer insights relevant to all countries to map a way forward. In almost every country studied, women had fewer opportunities to engage in the formal labor market and faced barriers to their participation because of the burden of unpaid care and other activities. The report and case studies emphasize that if G20 countries are serious about increasing women’s participation in the labor force and narrowing gender pay gaps, they must use gender data consistently to address the imbalance in unpaid care work done by women and men.
- Solutions for Building Resilient Gender Data Systems addresses the challenges of collecting and analyzing the gender data needed to craft effective policy responses by offering practical examples of gender data solutions that can be employed in crises. These include emergency hotlines, verbal autopsies for recording crisis-related mortalities and rapid-gender assessments which provide insight into the socio-economic effects of crises on communities.
COVID-19 has deepened existing inequalities, weakened already fragile data systems, and threatens to roll back progress on gender equality and the Sustainable Development goals. G20 countries have an opportunity to build stronger, more resilient, and equitable nations and economies by centering the financing, collection and use of gender data to craft the effective and gender-sensitive policies needed to address the disproportionate impacts of crises on women and girls.
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About Data2X
Data2X is a global gender data alliance that builds the case and mobilizes action for gender data. Through our research, advocacy, and communications, we make gender data central to global efforts to achieve gender equality.