Gender and the Sustainable Development goals

Work session on Gender Statistics

Vilnius, 1-3 June 2016

Discussant: Helen Cahill, Central Statistics Office, Ireland

What are the Sustainable Development Goals?

17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which were adopted in 2000

MDGs were 8 anti-poverty targets that the world committed to achieving by 2015

SDGs from a gender perspective – data availability and data gaps : UNSD 12 out of 17 SDG’s have gender dimension:

SDG indicators where sex disaggregation included in indicator text (48)

Indicator relevant for gender analysis (25)

Total of 73 SDG indicators relevant for gender analysis

Excellent data availability for some indicators (e.g., unemployment, seats in parliament)

Poor data availability for other indicators (e.g., hourly earnings, informal employment)

Data availability unknown for 25 of these 73 indicators

Gender and the Sustainable Development Goals - Moldova

Overview of Gender Statistics in Moldova

68.5% of UNECE gender inequality indicators available

Production of gender statistics in Moldova involves the entire national statistical system

SDG committee recently established by Government under leadership of State Chancellery

Raised important point - It is vital that Statistical community involved from the beginning on SDGs (data/monitoring included in goal 17)

SDG 5 – Gender Equality: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Why is Gender Equality important for Sustainable Development?

Empowering women and promoting gender equality is crucial to accelerating sustainable development

Ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls has a multiplier effect across all other development areas

SDG 5 – Gender Equality Targets

5.1 End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere

5.2 Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation

5.3 Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation

5.4 Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of share responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate

SDG 5 – Gender Equality Targets (continued 1)

5.5 Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decisionmaking in political, economic and public life

5.6 Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences

SDG 5 Gender Equality targets (continued 2)

5.7 Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws

5.8 Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, top promote the empowerment of women

5.9 Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels

2 indicators proposed to monitor SDG target 5.2 (eliminate violence)

5.2 (a) Proportion of ever-partnered women and girls aged 15 years and older subjected to physical, sexual and psychological violence by a current or former intimate partner, in the previous 12 months, by form of violence and by age

5.2 (b) Proportion of women and girls aged 15 years and older subjected to sexual violence by persons other than an intimate partner in the previous 12 months, by age and place of occurrence

New indicators expand scope of earlier indicators

These new indicators expands scope of earlier indicator 48 from minimum set of gender indicators:

…by including psychological violence

…and extending age range from 15-49 to 15+ for 5.2(a)

…Focus on experiences in the past 12 months instead of experiences since age 15

…and extending age range from 15-49 to 15+ for 5.2(b)

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) survey on violence against women

First EU wide survey on violence against women

Surveyed 42,000 women aged 18-74 in 2012

Collected data on the prevalence of physical and sexual violence, sexual harassment, stalking and violence in childhood.

Psychological violence excluded as was asked for current and/or former partnership as a whole (rather than last 12 months)

Interviewed women aged 18-74 but asked about experiences since age 15

FRA survey on violence against women Noted there are problems with minimum age, parental

consent

Indicator 5.2(a) has age of 15+

FRA questioned women 18-74 (re experiences since age 15)

Most surveys have lower age limit of 18 (but are exceptions)

Parental consent issues - difficult to interview persons under 18

Informed consent at variance with WHO highlighting importance of NOT disclosing content (to ensure confidentiality and also safety of respondent)

Table 1: Women who have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by current or previous partner, since age 15, in 12 months before interview (%)

Table 3: Women who experienced discrimination at work because of sex (%)

Table 4: Prevalence of sexual harassment since the age of 15 (%)

Questions for presenters/delegates FRA survey:

Sexual harassment disproportionately affects younger women, more commonly perceived and experienced by women with a university degree, women in the highest occupational groups.

Any ideas on why this might be?

High scores for France, Denmark, Sweden on physical/sexual violence by partner; on discrimination at work; and sexual harassment.

Why are these countries scoring highly?

Are there issues around awareness of discrimination, harassment?

SDG Challenges - UNSD

Measurability of some targets

Availability of data

Lack of statistical definitions, concepts, standards for new areas of concern

Potential for discrepancies between global versus national monitoring

Need for detailed disaggregation of data (“no one left behind”)

SDG challenges - Moldova Experience with data disaggregated by sex:

No clear definitions, lack of metadata, lack of understanding on “deepness” of disaggregation level, lack of co-ordination between users and producers, no leadership

Questions for delegates:

Are there other challenges for the SDG’s?

Any comments on the challenges identifed by UNSD, Moldova?