2019 SDG Gender Index Report

In the 2019 Global Report “Harnessing the power of data for gender equality: Introducing the 2019 EM2030 SDG Gender Index”, we introduce the 2019 SDG Gender Index. The index is the most comprehensive tool available to explore the state of gender equality across 129 countries (covering 95% of the world’s girls and women), 14 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and 51 targets linked to issues inherent in the SDGs.

The 2019 SDG Gender Index finds that, with just 11 years to go until 2030, nearly 40% of the world’s girls and women – 1.4 billion – live in countries failing on gender equality.

Another 1.4 billion live in countries that “barely pass”. Even the highest-scoring countries have more to do, particularly on complex issues such as climate change, gender budgeting and public services, equal representation in powerful positions, gender pay gaps, and gender-based violence. No country in the world has reached the “last mile” on gender equality.

2019 Global Report overview

Section 1: A foreword from Equal Measures 2030’s partners: The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), The Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean for the Defense of Women’s Rights (CLADEM), Data2X, International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), KPMG, ONE Campaign, Plan International, Women Deliver.   

Section 2: Key findings from the 2019 SDG Gender Index.

Section 3: Introducing the 2019 SDG Gender Index, the approach, what makes this index unique and how the findings should be interpreted.

Section 4: Key global findings, patterns and comparisons of index scores between and within the different regions: Asia and the Pacific, Europe and North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa.

Section 5: Regional overviews of index scores and gender equality context, and thematic deep drives on 1) inequalities in girls’ education, 2) women in science and technology research positions, 3) girls’ and women’s physical safety, 4) legal barriers for women, 5) women in government.

Section 6: Leaving no one behind: multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination of girls and women.

Section 7: Recommendations for action. 

Annex: Annexes including the indicator framework, methodology and design of the index.