Regional report on the review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action...
Chapter IV
CHAPTER IV Data and statistics The Beijing Platform for Action is clear about the need for States to prepare and disseminate gender-sensitive data and statistics to inform the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of public policies aimed at improving the lives of women. In the 25 years since its adoption, the international community has made progress in understanding that for the successful implementation of relevant and effective policies and interventions, it is increasingly important to have timely data on gender inequalities and the situation of women in all their diversity. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals have heightened global awareness of the need for statistical information to monitor progress towards the Goals and for disaggregated data to ensure that no one is left behind. This undoubtedly provides an opportunity to strengthen statistical systems and to mainstream gender into official statistics. At the regional level, information is of the utmost importance in order to follow up on the commitments set forth in the Regional Gender Agenda. In 2016, States enshrined the need for information systems in the Montevideo Strategy for Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda within the Sustainable Development Framework by 2030, considering them a fundamental axis for the implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda. The governments of the region have thus reiterated their commitment to producing information in order to shed the light on gender inequalities. Furthermore, the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean has become the foremost sphere for cooperation, coordination and harmonization of work in the field of official statistics, and its Working Group on Gender Statistics has played a key role in the methodological discussion of indicators that shed light on issues affecting women’s autonomy. The Statistical Coordination Group for the 2030 Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean acts as a hub for the region’s major statistical actors with a view to accelerating the statistical production needed to follow up the Sustainable Development Goals. The countries of the region have made significant strides in monitoring progress made on the SDGs with a gender perspective. In Colombia, of the 167 indicators that were defined at the national level to follow up and monitor the Goals, 31 are gender-sensitive. In Mexico, 169 indicators are to be monitored, with 43 of them having a specific gender equality perspective. Chile has worked actively to calculate all of the indicators in SDG 5 and, in turn, has mainstreamed gender in the generation of information on all other Goals. The country has indicators for all targets under SDG 5 as well as 10 complementary indicators. In Paraguay, 77 indicators have been developed to monitor the SDGs, including global, alternative and complementary indicators which partially address 12 Goals and 38 targets. Of those 77 indicators, 6 refer specifically to SDG 5 on gender equality. The Bahamas reports that it has included indicators for monitoring SDG 5 in its National Gender Equality Policy, while Grenada adopted the set of 33 gender-specific indicators agreed upon by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) for monitoring progress on the SDGs. One regional characteristic that has facilitated the production of statistics with a gender perspective has been the partnership between machineries for the advancement of women, as the main users of information, and national statistical offices, as the governing bodies of national statistical systems. Also noteworthy in the last five years has been the establishment of inter-agency coordination mechanisms designed to create or strengthen gender-sensitive national information systems for the follow-up of equality plans and policies as well as systems on gender-based violence against women.
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