Painting by numbers: The big picture for gender equality
This blogpost by Hazal Belford from IFAD highlights the challenges related to sex-disaggregated data collection and the limited availability of accurate statistics that reflect the reality of women in poor, rural parts of the world. However, Belford argues that the 2030 Agenda will ensure a focus on gathering reliable statistics segregated by sex. In the blog, some data is shared that is relevant to IFAD’s mission related. Subjects that are discussed are: economic empowerment, women’s workload, women’s influence, and gender-based violence. The post also states that there are no clear and consistent global statistics available on women’s land use and ownership and that the statements related to the statistics that are often used (for example “less than 2% of the land is owned by women”) are being challenged by researchers. Nevertheless, the data that is available does show that women are at a disadvantage when it comes to land ownership. The author concludes that while statistics are important to make a case and draw attention to gender inequality, data and statistics must always be seen in their wider context, factoring in the complexity behind the numbers.