2021 The power of data-driven feminist movements

1 min

The critical role that feminist and girls’ and women’s rights movements1 play in the promotion of gender equality is increasingly well documented. Moreover, there is increasing recognition that when advocates are equipped with data, and the skills to effectively use them, their efforts to influence decision makers are likely to be more credible and result in more evidence-based decision-making. However feminist organizations frequently face constraints in resourcing (funding and personnel) and capacity needed to undertake data-driven advocacy. In many places, there is also a growing pushback on a ‘gender agenda’ and a shrinking civil society space overall. This combined with underinvestment in collecting and sharing timely, quality gender data collectively limit opportunities for feminist movements to influence decision makers with data.

Equal Measures 2030 works to address a number of these issues both directly through its programming and indirectly through its partnerships, advocacy, and communications with donors, UN actors, governments, and others. This paper delves into the evidence behind this approach and, in doing so, seeks to establish a shared understanding and set of recommendations on this topic for the Equal Measures 2030 partnership.

2019 Open Government and Gender Equality

2 mins

Opportunities for engaging women’s rights organisations

Gender equality is an increasingly prominent thematic area of focus in the open government community. There are valid normative reasons behind this: women constitute half of the world’s citizens and including women—particularly diverse and intersectional voices—in all levels of governance is the right thing to do. There is—as the Feminist Open Government Initiative’s 2019 report lays out in detail—also a strong strategic case to be made about the value proposition of making OGP processes more inclusive.

The rationale for OGP member governments to more deliberately engage with women’s rights organisations and movements as part of open government processes includes:

  • Broadening the base of stakeholders with “ownership”: OGP can catalyse the inclusion of more voices around the open government table as a proposition to strengthen the movement, build consensus around OGP principles, and draw in other individual and organisational resources and influence.
  • Creating pathways to greater inclusion: Many WROs and movements already have strong intersectional partners (e.g., focus on advocacy for racial or ethnic minority, disability, elderly, or LGBT+ groups) and are plugged into national or regional networks. Co-creation with WROs could open pathways for member governments to better take into account a range of different population groups’ specific needs within open government commitments.
  • Connecting technical processes to lived realities: Meaningful engagement with grassroots organisations— particularly women’s rights organisations and movements—can help open government processes better reflect the needs and concerns of citizens. This is particularly relevant given the findings from OGP-supported research (including EM2030 focus groups) that open government is currently seen by many citizens across regions as a capital city-driven agenda led by technical experts.
  • Tapping into deep thematic knowledge: WROs are best positioned to input deep knowledge about the real challenges facing women and girls in their communities, including guidance on how women and girls engage differently with government services, or with broader transparency and accountability mechanisms. WROs bring substantial expertise and advocacy approaches for thematic issues areas (e.g., on gender-based violence or women’s political participation) that could inform stand-alone gender commitments.

2019 SDG Gender Index Report

2 mins

In the 2019 Global Report “Harnessing the power of data for gender equality: Introducing the 2019 EM2030 SDG Gender Index”, we introduce the 2019 SDG Gender Index. The index is the most comprehensive tool available to explore the state of gender equality across 129 countries (covering 95% of the world’s girls and women), 14 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and 51 targets linked to issues inherent in the SDGs.

The 2019 SDG Gender Index finds that, with just 11 years to go until 2030, nearly 40% of the world’s girls and women – 1.4 billion – live in countries failing on gender equality.

Another 1.4 billion live in countries that “barely pass”. Even the highest-scoring countries have more to do, particularly on complex issues such as climate change, gender budgeting and public services, equal representation in powerful positions, gender pay gaps, and gender-based violence. No country in the world has reached the “last mile” on gender equality.

2019 Global Report overview

Section 1: A foreword from Equal Measures 2030’s partners: The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), The Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean for the Defense of Women’s Rights (CLADEM), Data2X, International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), KPMG, ONE Campaign, Plan International, Women Deliver.   

Section 2: Key findings from the 2019 SDG Gender Index.

Section 3: Introducing the 2019 SDG Gender Index, the approach, what makes this index unique and how the findings should be interpreted.

Section 4: Key global findings, patterns and comparisons of index scores between and within the different regions: Asia and the Pacific, Europe and North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa.

Section 5: Regional overviews of index scores and gender equality context, and thematic deep drives on 1) inequalities in girls’ education, 2) women in science and technology research positions, 3) girls’ and women’s physical safety, 4) legal barriers for women, 5) women in government.

Section 6: Leaving no one behind: multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination of girls and women.

Section 7: Recommendations for action. 

Annex: Annexes including the indicator framework, methodology and design of the index.