By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, AUG 21, 2017: INDIA is a signatory to the “Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” resolution (2030 Agenda) adopted by the United Nations in 2015. This 2030 Agenda consists of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 Targets. While Goal 5 is a standalone goal to “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, gender is mainstreamed throughout the agenda. A set of 232 Unique Indicators has been globally agreed to, in consultation with the statistical offices and nodal agencies of the UN Member States, and the Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs), set up by the UN Statistical Commission.

To facilitate the implementation of the global indicator framework, all Indicators are classified by the IAEG-SDGs into three tiers on the basis of their level of methodological development, and the regular production of the data. Data is regularly produced by at least the half the countries for Tier 1 indicators; Tier 2 have an established methodology but data is not regularly produced; and Tier 3 are those indicators where established methodology and standards are not yet available.

For SDG5, the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) has been identified as the nodal ministry. Various other ministries, such as Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD, Department of Land Resources), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoUD), Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MHUPA), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MSJE), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), among others have also been identified as playing important roles in achieving gender-related Targets.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has been contextualizing the global indicator framework for India. The Ministry placed a Draft National Indicator Framework for SDGs in the public domain for wider consultation, which is expected to be finalised shortly.

The MoSPI and MWCD organized a National Workshop on Data Gaps in Gender Statistics, with support from UN Women and UNFPA, in 2015. Identifying the gaps in gender data through this workshop, it was recommended that - a gender analysis of existing Management Information Systems (MIS) of line Ministries needed to be undertaken in order to strengthen them for gender-responsive data. It was also recommended to undertake few new surveys on the themes, on which there continues to be a dearth of data, like, Asset Ownership and Control, Time Use Surveys, Violence Prevalence, etc.  Based on the recommendations of the National Workshop on Data Gaps in Gender Statistics, 2015, UN Women and UNFPA had developed a Framework and Roadmap for Collecting Statistics on the Status of Women in India.

The formulation of a roadmap for data generation and data utilization of gender indicators especially for SDGs requires close collaboration between ministries of national and state governments, their statistical counterparts, as well as a wide range of partners. To explore actionable steps in this direction, MoSPI is organizing a two-day National Consultation on Data Generation for Gender Indicators of Sustainable Development Goals in collaboration with UN Women on 21-22 August, 2017 in New Delhi. The consultation will enhance ownership of data generation and data utilization, by providing a platform for the stakeholders to discuss the way forward on how to address the gaps in gender indicators for SDGs. Simultaneously, the multi-stakeholder consultation will promote a common understanding and harmonized approach to enhancing collaboration on gender statistics.

While the National Consultation is being led by MoSPI, it is involving Central Ministries, officers from the State/UT Governments, namely from the Directorate of Economics & Statistics and Department concerned with women's issues. Other relevant partners will also be brought into this consultation including representatives of the UN in India, research organizations and civil society.

(See 2017-TIOL-1599-HC-ALL-CX)