Narrowing Data Gaps To Ensure No Woman Or Girl Left Behind

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 It has been said that data is currency. Data is power. Data is perhaps even the new fuel.
As the world celebrated International Women’s Day last month and renewed commitments to women’s empowerment and gender equality, I was repeatedly reminded of the limited availability of good quality gender data, including gender-disaggregated data.
Why is this important? Well, many would argue that women and girls experience the world quite differently from men and boys.
Gender-disaggregated data sheds light on where there are similarities and where there are differences.
And if we want policies and programmes that promote equity for all, then it is important to take into account these different experiences and needs so we can address them.
For example, a policy paper by the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (Isis) Malaysia estimates that women make up 98 percent or 3.1 million of the 3.2 million people who remain outside the labour force or in part-time work due to unpaid care work.
Should these 3.1 million women participate in paid employment or move from part-time to full-time work, the female labour force participation rate (LFPR) would rise from 56 percent to about 83 percent. In comparison, the male LFPR in Malaysia is about 82 percent.
Assigning a GDP value to the unpaid care work produced in Malaysian homes each day would value it at RM379 billion, making it the second largest economic sector after manufacturing.
These statistics illustrate how it is primarily women who take on unpaid care roles such as caring for children, older persons, or both.
Often women do so at the expense of their own careers and economic advancement. This, in turn, presents missed opportunities to increase the productivity of the entire nation.
The findings of the Isis Malaysia policy paper complement a UNFPA Malaysia report that presents the potential returns on investment (ROI) should Malaysia invest in family support policies like incentivising fathers to take parental leave and providing childcare subsidies.
With all this gender data and analysis in hand, UNFPA Malaysia has been able to engage in multi-stakeholder dialogues to propose policy options to the government on improving the care economy so it does not unfairly penalise women.
Gender data gaps
Quality data gives clarity, paving the way for good policies and impactful programmes.
However, having data gaps in many important areas means we are often limited to making assumptions.
Assumptions that, however well-intentioned, are not an optimal basis for policy interventions.
Gaps in gender data can be due to data accessibility and usaebility issues, as well as deficiencies in data collection and analysis.
Earlier this month, UNFPA Malaysia and United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH) released “Portraits: Journeys of Gender-Based Violence Survivors across Malaysia’s One-Stop Crisis Centres (OSCCs)”.
Drawing upon the stories and experiences of gender-based violence survivors as they navigated through the OSCC system, the report, using personas, highlights pathway challenges and proposes improvements to such centres.
While indeed pioneering when first established at Kuala Lumpur Hospital 31 years back, the report called for the OSCC model to be strengthened to become a more effective response to gender-based violence.
Qualitative data methodologies communicate real life experiences and when combined with quantitative data sets, provide rich evidence on which policy and programme decisions can be made.
Gender-based violence data
Yet there remains a dearth of quantitative prevalence data on gender-based violence in many countries.
While administrative records are routinely kept of the number of reported cases officially received by the police or the Social Welfare Department, analysis of that data primarily reflects reporting biases as many cases, especially intimate partner violence cases, simply go unreported to authorities.
We can agree that gender-based violence - whether by an intimate partner, in the domestic sphere, or otherwise - is a serious problem that demands strong interventions.
Access to robust and comprehensive prevalence data, collected safely and ethically, provides critical insights into the magnitude of the issue and its consequences for individuals, communities, and whole societies.
Having an evidence-informed understanding of the situation would also allow us to be much more effective in preventing and responding to gender-based violence.
Data that is disaggregated and analysed by age, disabilities, and socioeconomic status among other variables, can further illustrate the intersectional nature of gender-based violence and therefore support a multisectoral response.
As UNFPA executive director Dr Natalia Kanem highlighted recently: “The cornerstone of gender equality is indeed evidence, data, facts and truth”.
Lessons from Sarawak
In a recent mission I took to Kuching, I had the pleasure of formally meeting with high-level representatives of the local government and was able to inform them about an upcoming publication entitled “Population Dynamics and the Changing Socio-economic Landscape in Sarawak.”
This book aims to provide better access to gender data and narrow critical development data gaps.
UNFPA Malaysia rep Dr Julitta OnabanjoWorking with partners from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Universiti Malaya, the Statistics Department (DOSM), and the National Population and Family Development Board, the publication seeks to answer questions like - what do Sarawak youth think about family and marriage? What is holding Sarawakian women back from having the number of children they desire? What is the demographic profile of Sarawak’s fast-ageing population?
As Sarawak embarks on its journey of social, economic, and people-centred development, the importance of deriving vital population data has never been more urgent or necessary.
Taking into account the territory’s vast size, infrastructural and accessibility challenges, as well as its socio-cultural diversity, embedding mechanisms and gathering integrated and disaggregated data will empower the government to make data-driven and evidence-based targeted interventions and investments.
Access to disaggregated population data will also empower civil society and community-based organisations to work hand-in-hand with the government to identify gaps and issues that may be contributing to inequity.
I found this to be the case after having insightful conversations with local advocates and civil society representatives who continue to struggle in their mission of alleviating the inequity of marginalised populations in the state, as well as to bridge gender inequality.
We look forward to jointly launching the upcoming book together with the government of Sarawak.
It will be part of a book series following a similar publication on Sabah that UNFPA Malaysia and the Sabah government launched in 2023.
We anticipate it will help to inform decisions on fertility, youth, ageing and gender equality efforts in the larger context of Sarawak’s exciting development journey and the upcoming 13th Malaysia Plan.
We are honoured to be able to accompany the development of Sarawak along with its dynamic, diverse, and determined people.
Data for the future
On the topic of Malaysia’s gender data, I recently had a meeting with the leadership of DOSM and was encouraged to learn about its annual publication of “Statistics on women empowerment in selected domains”.
The 2024 version included data on the Malaysian gender gap index, labour force participation rate (LFPR) by gender, women in Parliament and ministerial positions, women's dependency ratio, fertility rates, and cases of violence against women.
Based on the United Nations Statistics Division’s guidelines, this publication is precisely the kind of gender data we need to improve on Malaysia’s 114 out of 146 ranking on the Global Gender Gap Index by the World Economic Forum, and accelerate efforts around the Sustainable Development Goal 5 on Gender Equality.
Another initiative I am excited about is a global youth reproductive choices survey that UNFPA will initiate.
Youth reproductive choices
The survey aims to understand how 15 to 40-year-olds across 50 countries approach reproductive choices, what barriers and enablers they face related to those choices, and how those choices differ by country, socio-economic status and other variables.
Preliminary results are expected late this year and will be insightful for those working or interested in population dynamics and policymaking.
This is especially insightful when many countries are grappling with below replacement fertility rates, fast-ageing societies, and the strains these are having on individuals - almost always women - who are simultaneously caring for their ageing parents and their children.
I hope this study will be interesting for Malaysia and spark a local, in-depth study on similar topics.
“Leaving no one behind” has been the guiding principle for us at UNFPA as well as for the broader United Nations system as we accelerate to the 2030 finish line for the sustainable development goals.
Thus, it is even more imperative that we harness the power of data to identify who is furthest behind and work harder and faster to reach them. Time is not on our side!
Sustainable, inclusive development in line with the core values of Malaysia Madani can only be achieved when our data accounts for women and girls across Malaysia. - Mkini
DR JULITTA ONABANJO is the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) country representative for Malaysia and country director for Thailand.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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