To better understand the quality of the data available to measure gender equality, health equity and violence, the Commission undertook an in-depth investigation of 37 gender, health and violence indicators used to measure progress on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3, 5 and 16.
The Commission assessed each indicator against a common template to analyse the following:
How the indicator is calculated;
Sources for the indicator;
Its utility, in other words what the indicator measures, what it does not measure;
The availability of the indicator across time and geographic areas;
The granularity of the indicator, in other words, if and how it is disaggregated by sex, age, identity group, citizenship etc.;
Sources of bias, including if clear standards exist for the indicator and if its reliability is widely accepted; and,
The degree to which the indicator is an actual value or an imputed/modelled value.
Through this process, the Commission documented key data shortfalls, including the lack of disaggregation at the subnational level, by sex and gender, by income and other forms of identity. The templates also document potential sources of bias. The Commission’s analysis also showed a clear lack of transparency on the methods for estimating data, including the failure to include uncertainty bounds. The indicator analysis highlighted both the reliance on estimation or modelling of data, as well as the failure to accurately report confidence intervals for modelled values.
To increase the quality of data interpretation in research and policy, the Commission has developed the following 37 indicator templates that outline the strengths and limitations of relevant health and gender indicators.
Please access the documents using links below which open in a new window: