19 March 2019: The Chair of the 63rd session of the UN Commission of the Status of Women (CSW 63) has issued a summary of an interactive expert panel on data challenges and opportunities. The panel convened during CSW 63 to discuss priorities for closing data gaps, and examined good practices and lessons learned for monitoring the SDGS for women and girls and to leave no one behind.

The panel summary titled, ‘The data challenge—and opportunity: good practices,’ explains that participants assessed progress and challenges in collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating gender statistics in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Beijing Platform for Action. Panelists: emphasized the importance of investing in national statistical capacity to monitor gender equality and empowerment of women and girls in achieving the SDGs; called for financial and technical support to increase the frequency, coverage and quality of data collection; affirmed that disaggregating data by multiple dimensions is critical to measure progress on leaving no one behind; and expressed concern about lack of data on the situation of persons with disabilities, particularly for women and girls with disabilities. They also expressed concern about the limited evidence and data on violence against women and girls.

The panel conveyed support for a rights-based approach to support SDG monitoring and achievement. Participants suggested establishing gender statistics units within national statistical offices (NSOs) to promote coordination of the production, analysis and use of gender statistics in national statistical systems. Speakers also highlighted the potential of gender statistics units to work with line ministries to develop tools to help record the experiences of women and girls and the role of civil society groups and other stakeholders in supporting data collection efforts.

To promote gender-responsive policymaking, panelists supported integrating official data with existing data from other sources. Speakers said a comprehensive civil registration system could support the generation of gender statistics and called for initiatives to complement the collection of administrative data with other data sources. Participants also supported increased efforts to improve statistical literacy and understanding of data collection processes, including through facilitating the participation of women in the production of statistics, as data producers, data users and data advocates. The panel further recommended strengthening partnerships between data producers and data users.

CSW 63 took place in New York, US, from 11-22 March 2019. [Publication: E/CN.6/2019/18] [UN Meeting Coverage of Panel] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on CSW 63 Opening] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on CSW 63 Conclusion]