About the Index

What is unique about the EM2030 SDG Gender Index? 

The EM2030 SDG Gender Index represents the most comprehensive global tool to measure overall progress towards gender equality that is aligned to the SDGs. The Index uses indicators to track 56 key gender issues – providing the ‘big picture’ across and within 14 of the 17 SDGs. It is unique in the breadth of its approach and conceptual framework, and in its development by a partnership that spans civil society, the development and private sectors. The Index is aligned to the structure of the SDGs and is the only tool that adds a gender lens across each of the Goals, including those in the official framework that overlook gender, or those where insufficient data is being reported to assess progress. The Index makes it possible to track progress across the SDGs, going beyond SDG 5 on gender equality. The Index draws on available gender-related SDG indicators, but given the considerable gaps in official SDG monitoring, the Index complements them with a wide range of data sources to provide a timelier and more comprehensive picture of progress. This includes tracking of legal frameworks that address gender equality (e.g., laws related to parental equality in the workplace, reproductive rights, sexual orientation, etc.), global survey data that capture women’s views on different aspects of their lives and societies, and regular global data collections that are led by a range of organizations, including the World Bank, civil society organizations and think tanks. The 2024 SDG Gender Index tracks progress from 2015, the year when the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals were adopted, to 2019 just before the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and to 2022, the most recent data available for most indicators. The index also provides scenarios for progress by 2030, the deadline for the SDG targets. The Index is defined and driven by the needs assessments and consultations conducted with gender advocates, policymakers and stakeholders across different sectors at the community, national, regional, and global levels.

What’s new in the 2024 Index?

The underlying methodology for the 2024 Index has been improved compared to the 2022 edition of the Index, mainly through the introduction of imputation techniques to address issues related to missing data (as recommended by the independent audit of the 2022 Index).

The number of indicators (56) in the Index and their distribution by Goal has remained the same compared to the 2022 Index. However, the content of the goals has changed, but to a lesser extent than in the transition from the 2019 to 2022 editions of the Index. As at that time, the issue is largely due to data gaps, exacerbated by the requirement for three data points from 2015 to present. In some cases, data custodians, e.g., the World Health Organization (WHO) had not updated indicators in time for inclusion in the 2024 Index, or because data custodians or research initiatives were no longer collecting the data. Indicators that we were not able to carry forward into the 2024 Index include those in critical areas such as women in science and technology research positions and gender- and intersectional-

sensitive budgeting.

Two indicators, despite the lack of updated data, were retained in the index due to their importance in reflecting key issues in the context of gender equality. One is the maternal mortality rate (Ind. 3.1) – for which the 2022 value is not expected until mid-2025 according to WHO. Another indicator is the prevalence of anemia (Ind. 2.3), for the calculation of the Index, the latest available values were used.

How do gaps in gender data affect the quality of the Index?

While the 2024 SDG Gender Index remains the most comprehensive SDG-aligned gender Index available, it must contend with a persistent lack of gender-sensitive data that are globally comparable and for individual-level data disaggregation by other characteristics such as age, socio-economic status, gender identity, etc.

The Index tracks indicators for 14 of the 17 SDGs. Unfortunately, there were not sufficient number of globally comparable indicators specific to gender and three SDGs related to the environment: SDG 12 on sustainable consumption and production; SDG 14 on life below water; and SDG 15 on life on land. The official SDG indicators for these Goals tend to focus on indicators about the scientific measures of the physical environment rather than social impact.

Nevertheless, indicators related to gender and the environment are found in different goals, starting with SDG 13 on climate change but also in other goals, such as SDG 6 on access to clean water and SDG 7 on use of clean energy at home. Women’s view of air pollution, water quality and their views on the environmental policies of their government are part of the Index.

Does the Index measure the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender equality?

The Index measures change across three reference years: 2015, 2019 and 2022. The 2019 reference year is the last year before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020. The 2022 data can shed light on some of the impacts. For example, indicators on girls’ education for a number of countries showed stagnation and even reversals between 2019 and 2022. At the global level, after the score for SDG 4 on education increased ‘fast’, by 2.3 points from 2015 to 2019 the Index score did not change from 2019 to 2022, suggesting some effects from the temporary closure of schools and related policies. This is not the case for other goals and how countries experienced reversals and recoveries from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic may vary greatly and should be carefully contextualised.

Why does the Index not reflect gender categories beyond the binary?

EM2030 acknowledges that the SDGs (and, as a result, the Index itself) do not address the obstacles faced by gender-diverse groups. The EM2030 partnership is committed to advocate for more and better gender data to accurately measure and understand intersectional inequalities, including deeper feminist critique that departs from gender binary language and that challenges existing social, economic and political systems that perpetuate all forms of inequality.

Are UN Women and other UN agencies already doing this?

There is currently no global Index that compares progress on girls, women, and gender equality across each of the individual SDGs. The Index provides a picture that goes beyond SDG 5 on gender equality. It brings the different data that UN agencies collect from Member States and add complementary measures collected by others into a single holistic framework for gender equality.

UN Women and other UN agencies (such as UNESCO, UNICEF, UNFPA et al.) play a key role as custodians for compiling, quality assuring and disseminating gender data reporting by countries for a wide range of indicators, some of which are part of the SDG framework.

The SDG Gender Index compiles the available gender-related data reported by countries to UN agencies and complements the SDG outcome measures with a wider range of gender equality issues and measures, including legal frameworks, women’s voice and gender specific issues (e.g., legal grounds for abortion (Ind. 5.3), women in climate change leadership (Ind. 13.1), national production of disaggregated statistics (Ind. 17.4), and so on.

How does this Index compare to other global gender indices?

The development of the SDG Gender Index has drawn from the approaches and lessons from other global gender indices as well as from the frameworks for gender-related indicators produced by the UN.

Whereas other major global gender indices take a small set of indicators to focus on the overall gaps between women and men (Global Gender Gap/World Economic Forum) or disparities in five key development domains (Gender Inequality Index/UNDP) or focus on specific themes, such as Family Code, Physical Integrity, Son Preference, Civil Liberties and Ownership Rights (SIGI/OECD) or gender, peace and security issues (Women, Peace and Security/GIWPS and PRIO), the SDG Gender Index provides a summary across the broad range of individual SDGs and development issues that affect girls and women. It is also the only one that is explicitly aligned to the SDGs.

The JRC Index explorer (see https://composite-indicators.jrc.ec.europa.eu/explorer) provides the opportunity to compare the conceptual and measurement frameworks for a number of global gender indices (and others).

Are all gender-related indicators from the SDGs included in the Index?

Not all of the official UN indicators for the SDG framework that are gender-related or that require data disaggregation by sex are part of the SDG Gender Index. This is mainly due to the fact that many indicators still lack sufficient data, or lack of disaggregated data, for many of the gender-related indicators.

The total number of unique indicators within the SDG Framework is 231 indicators, and the total number of unique gender-specific indicators is 52. According to the latest assessment from UN Women, more than 80 countries on average are missing date for at least one SDG 5 indicator and data availability on SDG 5 is only at 56 per cent.

Open Data Watch identifies also the extent to which gender data are available for 53 relevant indicators through national statistical offices’ websites and other government websites. To be complete, they must not only be available by sex but also be available for multiple years, with geographical and other relevant disaggregation such as age or disability status. Based on the most recent assessment done, gender data are not readily available in most countries, and where they are available, they are often not fully open. Furthermore, there is a lack of support throughout the gender data system for the production and use of gender data.

How much of the world’s women and girls does the SDG Gender Index cover?

he SDG Gender Index covers more than three-quarters (139 of 193) of countries that have signed on to the Sustainable Development Goals. These countries account for almost all of the women and girls in the world, largely because many countries that are not reporting data, and therefore not included in the Index, have very small populations.

The Index covers 96% of the world’s population of girls and women in 2022 (based on UN estimates for 188 countries). By region, the index covers the highest proportion of women in the Europe and North America region (100%). In other regions, 95% of the female population or higher is covered except for the Middle East and North Africa region (94%).

Why does the Index focus on the SDGs instead of CEDAW implementation?

The SDG Gender Index is designed to track progress on the SDGs, a framework that has strong commitments to progress on gender equality that exists alongside commitments under CEDAW and other human rights conventions. The SDG Gender Index takes into account many of the issues covered by CEDAW but recognises that other bodies are comprehensively monitoring CEDAW implementation through direct reporting by countries to the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights (see national reports compiled here).

The SDG Gender Index is a useful tool for advocates who are also engaged in monitoring CEDAW implementation. Moreover, this work is also being pursued by other organizations, see: https://www.humanrights.dk/tools/sdg-human-rights-data-explorer)

Who was consulted on the design of the Index?

From the outset of the 2019 SDG Gender Index, the design of the SDG Gender Index was informed by consultations within and across the EM2030 partnership, including national partners in seven countries; broader public consultations, including online and during global meetings and conferences; inputs from gender policy and measurement experts (including a Technical Reference Group, which brings together experts from the UN and civil society with knowledge of gender statistics, SDG data, Index design and communication); and surveys of policymakers and gender advocates worldwide.

Why are there non-official SDG indicators in the Index if this is an SDG tracker?

Almost one third of the indicators in the SDG Gender Index are based on official SDG indicators reported by countries. The remaining indicators are based on different data sources that help to provide a more complete picture of progress on the gender equality issues that are relevant to each SDG. Some of these indicators are part of thematic or regional SDG frameworks and others have been recently developed by non-governmental and inter-governmental constituencies.

Why are some indicators gender-blind if this is a gender Index?

The majority of indicators (66%) in the Index are designed to capture the specific conditions of girls and women. The remaining indicators may not be explicitly gender-related but implicitly capture issues that research has shown to have a disproportionate effect on the lives of girls and women. For example, while there are not global data on the intra-household allocation of resources or how money is spent within the household, we know that living in a household that is considered in poverty disproportionately limits the opportunities of girls and women (Proportion of the population living below the international poverty line ($3.65 a day), Ind. 1.1).

What are “official” SDG indicators?

SDG indicators are compiled by UN agencies and other custodians are based on international agreed-upon standards and methodologies to ensure comparability across a measurement framework adopted by all countries. National statistics are based on national contexts, definitions, and methodologies, which can differ from one country to another. UN organisations use a common framework to collect, compile, and disseminate data based on national reporting which may account for the lag time in between the release of national data. The work of custodian agencies in applying standardised tools and methods to produce relevant global statistics ensures that the indicators used in the Index are comparable

When does one refer to an indicator score and the original indicator value?

When aggregating different indicators to generate an indicator score, we transform the original indicator values so that they are based on a common scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is the worst possible score and 100 is the best possible score. This allows us to compile the transformed indicator scores into a composite indicator that combines four or five different indicators to give us the picture of women and health issues, for example.

The direction of the original indicators should be harmonized as a lower value (fewer deaths) is desired for the maternal mortality ratio, but a higher value (greater satisfaction) is desired for views on healthcare. By the process of normalisation, the highest score for both indicators is 100 and moving nearer to 100 represents positive progress.

Another reason to do this is because the indicator metric can be defined quite differently. For example, an indicator like the maternal mortality ratio (Ind. 3.1) isn’t based on a scale of 0 to 100 but can range for countries around the world from 0 to as high as 1220 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. It needs to be aggregated on a common scale as the proportion of women satisfied with the quality of their healthcare (Ind. 3.4) to help generate a composite score for Goal 3 on health.

When referring to a single indicator, without reference to other Index indicators, it is often preferable to communicate the original indicator values, as this may be more likely recognised and cited by stakeholders.For example, one might cite the maternal mortality ratio rather than the indicator score for maternal mortality.

What was done when there were no timely data available?

The design of the Index aims to prioritise indicators that countries have reported to global databases, in line with the SDGs’ country-led approach. Therefore, nationally reported data are used wherever possible, and estimates based on imputations was used in this edition of the Index to increase coverage, especially after the COVID pandemic and the difficulties countries have had in collecting data throughout that period and even for 2022 data.

Does the Index give more or less weight to certain goals or indicators? Should they be treated equally despite some having greater consequences for gender equality than others?

By using the arithmetic mean to calculate the goal scores, the weights given to the indicators are the same across the Index. However, even if the number of indicators varies among the SDGs, (e.g. SDG 5, 8, and 10 have each 5 indicators), they won’t have a larger impact on the global Index scores, as the SDG Gender Index overall score is calculated based on a geometric average.

Does a score close to 100 mean that the country has met the targets related to gender equality in that SDG?

The closer a score is to 100, the closer a given country is to having achieved the targets set for each of the indicators chosen for that SDG in the Index. The indicators chosen for the Index are our best attempt to compile available data to measure a wide range of gender equality issues.

However, they should only be interpreted as a snapshot of the set of issues we were able to include. In some cases, the indicators chosen may not be as ambitious as the vision laid out in the SDGs. For example, the indicator in the Index related to access to clean water (Ind. 6.1) reflects only access to basic water sources rather than the preferred indicator of access to good quality water sources because the latter indicator is not reported by a sufficient number of countries.

What reference years does the Index use?

The 2024 SDG Gender Index presents scores for three reference years: for 2015, 2019 and 2022 (latest year available) for 139 countries. The difference between reference years helps to provide insights on the direction and pace of change for a specific time period (e.g, 2015-2022, 2019-2022). The trend analysis sheds light on the progress a country, a region or the world have made in achieving the targets for the issues included in the Index. When describing progress or change, the Index uses four categories: ‘fast progress’, ‘some progress,’ ‘no change’, and ‘declining’.

How frequently is the Index updated?

The 2024 SDG Gender Index is the third iteration of the Index, presenting observed data for three reference years: 2015, 2019 and the latest year available (2022). The next update of the Index is anticipated in the Fall/Winter of 2026, which will add data for 2024.

How can I provide feedback on the further design and use of the Index?

Equal Measures 2003 invites feedback, suggestions, and engagement from a wide range of stakeholders across every sector in order to strengthen the SDG Gender Index. Inputs related to the SDG Gender Index can be sent to info@equalmeasures2030.org.