Wikigender, the UN Foundation, Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC), the EU-LAC Foundation, European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), ECLAC and PARIS21 would like to hear your views on where are the data gaps and engage in a discussion on pioneering initiatives that generate new data and new methodological approaches to address complex areas (e.g. unpaid care, time use, social norms).

The outcomes of the discussion and main findings will be synthesised in a final report and presented/distributed at a side event organised by the OECD Development Centre, Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) in March 2014, during the 58th session on UN the Commission on the Status of Women in New York.

The objective of this online discussion is to focus on data gaps on gender equality, which can contribute to the 58th Commission for the Status of Women’s (CSW) review of the MDGs. Given the growing advocacy momentum for a stand-alone gender equality goal and targets in the post-2015 agenda, it is important to stocktake progress made since 2000 on improving the quality, coverage and approaches to data, which can assist in the elaboration of priorities for the statistical infrastructure for gender equality moving forward. Initiatives spearheaded at the international level (e.g. the UN Women/UNSD 52 minimum set of indicators, EDGE initiative, Data 2X), regional organisations (e.g. ECLAC, EU-LAC, EIGE), and national statistical offices point to the importance of coordinated action and knowledge-sharing for advancing the gender agenda at all levels: sub-national, national and international.

The Wikigender online discussion will look at where are the data gaps, map pioneering initiatives that generate new data (including use of big data), share knowledge on new methodological approaches to address complex areas (e.g. unpaid care, time use, social norms), progress on gender statistics since 2000, as well as national capacities to collect data. It aims to bring together leading institutes working on gender statistics to share and discuss their initiatives, results and proposals for improving gender statistics amongst a technical community of practice.

Over three weeks (27 Jan – 14 Feb), the discussion will be organised around three themes, with 1 theme per week. See the questions asked here:

• English
• Spanish
• French

Cross-cutting themes during the online discussion will include: new areas of research (e.g. social norms, time use, unpaid care), the “data revolution” and gender statistics; lessons learnt since 2000; and proposals for targets for the post-2015 development agenda.
The online discussion will be in English, Spanish and French (the outcome document will be produced in English only)

• To improve data collection, UN agrees on ground-breaking gender indicators (UN Women, June 2013)
• Partnering to Close Data and Evidence Gaps for Women (UN women, March 2012)
• Gender statistics, Report of the Secretary-General (UN ECOSOC E/CN.3/2013/10)
• EIGE’s Gender Equality Index
• Social determinants of health and well-being among young people (Key findings from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC): International Report 2009/2010)

• United Nations Foundation; see also: Data 2X: Mapping Gender Data Gaps
• Health_Behaviour_in_School-Aged_Children (HBSC)
• The EU-LAC Foundation
• European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE); see also: Gender Equality Index
• ECLAC
• PARIS21
• Social Institutions and Gender Index 2012
• Gender Inequality Index
• Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index
• African Gender Development Index
• The Women’s Economic Opportunity Index
• Gender Equity Index
• The Gender Index – Gender Inequality in Israel
• Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base 2012
• Gender and Education Data Visualization
• Global Gender Gap

We look forward to your participation! We strongly encourage you to disseminate news about the online discussion via your networks and on Twitter using #gender and #datagaps and the following link to this page: http://bit.ly/1dnPEkI

• To participate, simply type your comment below or register directly via Disqus, Twitter or Facebook before typing your comment. Open for comments from 9am (GMT+1) on 27/01 until 5pm on 14/02.
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Anyone with an Internet connection is invited to participate in the discussion and we encourage you to express your views on this pressing issue.
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