The coronavirus pandemic is shining a light on something we’ve known for a long time: we need comprehensive gender data to inform better public policy, improve lives, and make progress on the Sustainable Development Goals; however, much of this data is either missing, incomplete, or biased.
We now know that the coronavirus pandemic, much like other pandemics before it, discriminates — and it’s women and girls who bear the brunt of this impact. Through our COVID-19-related work, we are highlighting the gendered impacts of the pandemic and the gender data needed to inform successful response and recovery efforts in the short- and long-term.
Data2X’s COVID-19 Work
Tracking COVID-19 Gender Data, Gender, and Data Resources
In March 2020, in response to the growing severity of the coronavirus pandemic, we started a webpage to aggregate gender data, gender, and data resources and calls-to-action related to COVID-19. This resource compilation page seeks to inform policymakers, governments, decision-makers, and researchers who want to understand and respond thoughtfully to the gendered impacts of the pandemic. Visit COVID-19 Resources: Gender Data, Gender, and Data.
Researching the Gender Impact of COVID-19 Using Gender Data
As more research about the coronavirus pandemic emerged — revealing that the pandemic was not gender-blind — we sought to understand how well we could track the gender impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. With our partner Open Data Watch, we launched a joint, ongoing review of principal international databases to evaluate if we have the data required to design effective, gender-informed mitigation and recovery policies. View Tracking the Gender Impact of COVID-19: An Indicator Framework and read our blog announcing this work: Tracking the Gender Impact of COVID-19.
We have also launched a blog series in partnership with Open Data Watch, building on our indicator framework, to track the availability of sex-disaggregated case and death data at the country-level. Each blog references updated data as it becomes available.
Tracking Gender Data on COVID-19 – Part 1 (June 9)
Tracking Gender Data on COVID-19 – Part 2 (June 12)
Tracking Gender Data on COVID-19 – Part 3 (July 21)
Tracking Gender Data on COVID-19 – Part 4 (August 27)
Advocating for Actions Governments Can Take in COVID-19 Response and Recovery Efforts
As governments around the world respond to the coronavirus pandemic, it is clear that gender data can be used as a powerful tool to inform daily decisions about health, social, and economic policy in COVID-19 response and recovery efforts. But major data gaps still exist. We produced a brief illustrating 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 Invest in Gender Data for COVID-19 Recovery and SDG Progress, and our blog, which dives into more detail about the specific actions governments can take: We Must Prioritize Investment in Gender Data for COVID-19 Recovery and SDG Progress.
Assessing Where Women and Girls are Most Vulnerable to the Pandemic’s Effects
In partnership with Open Data Watch, we released a new report in November 2020 that identifies countries where women and girls are most vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic and evaluates how well these countries are able to respond, based on a gender vulnerability data dashboard for 75 low-income countries (LICs) and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). Read Understanding Women’s and Girls’ Vulnerabilities to the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Gender Analysis and Data Dashboard of Low- and Lower-Middle-Income Countries, and our accompanying blog, Where are women and girls especially vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Next Steps for Data2X’s COVID-19 Work
Data2X is monitoring the gender data, gender, and data implications of the coronavirus pandemic closely, and we will continue to advocate for the collection and use of quality gender data to inform COVID-19 response and recovery efforts.
Finally, in addition to our own work, we’re pleased to be a member of the Gender and COVID-19 Working Group— working with others to share and advance expertise on the gender considerations of the coronavirus pandemic.