Gender Data Solutions
Gender Data Solutions by Sector
This solutions inventory, produced in partnership with Open Data Watch records 142 gender data solutions across seven areas of development: economic opportunities, education, environment, health, human security, public participation, and cross-domain solutions which span across the previous categories. Below, we feature a few solutions in each thematic area. These solutions were selected based on their area of focus, scalability for cross-country use and examples of impacts (if available). Each section summarizes the steps needed to scale up the solutions and their likely impact.
See our methodology for this inventory here and download the full report below.
Thematic Solutions
Transforming the Data Landscape: Solutions to Close Gender Data Gaps
This joint report from Data2X and Open Data Watch shifts the conversation from identifying gender data gaps to finding practical solutions to close them. The report and the accompanying Gender Data Solutions Inventory feature innovative solutions that have emerged in the last five years.
Creating an Enabling Environment for Gender Data
Improved production does not guarantee continued demand and use of data. To move up the data value chain, producers of official statistics and stakeholders like CSOs, the private sector, and academia must come together to create a culture of data use in decision-making and evidence-based policy formulation. Successful implementation of gender data solutions requires an enabling environment: policies and technical capacity for data governance; sustainable financing; and political support. Learn more about creating an enabling environment for gender data.
What Does It Really Take to Scale Gender Data Solutions?
The commentaries below provide additional insight into the requirements, lessons learned, and pitfalls related to implementing and scaling key gender data solutions featured in our inventory.
Following the Money: Using Data to Improve Aid Transparency On Gender Equality Programs
Stakeholders continue to dedicate financial resources to achieve gender equality, but financing alone is not enough.
To improve the efficacy of development aid, financing must be paired with comprehensive technical data on where resources are going, their use, beneficiaries, and impact. Without this information, understanding the impact of gender equality programs is difficult. To address this problem, Publish What You Fund launched the Gender Financing Project.
Enhancing Journalists’ Ability to Communicate on Gender Issues
As storytellers who engage the wider public, journalists can help improve demand for gender data, but they are often forgotten by gender data stakeholders.
Supporting journalists on smart gender data reporting requires providing them with specialized technical skills and creating a learning community on gender data issues. To help address this problem, Equal Measures 2030 and Tableau Foundation launched the Fellowship for Data Journalists at the Reykjavik Global Forum for Women Leaders in 2020.
Using Social Media Data to Protect Women’s Political Participation in Zimbabwe
In Zimbabwe, deep-seated gender inequities and violence against women has led to fewer women running for office than men.
To make a policy case for action against online violence, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) knew this problem needed to be accurately measured. They created the Violence Against Women in Elections (VAWE) Online Social Media Analysis Tool to count instances of hate speech against women. Their research directly impacted how Zimbabwe protects women’s political participation today.
