With 17 goals, 169 targets and 232 indicators (of which 54 are gender-specific), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a historic global compact to achieve gender equality by 2030.
Gaps in gender data and the lack of trend data make it difficult to monitor progress for women and girls. Unless gender is mainstreamed into national statistical strategies and prioritized in data collection, gender data scarcity and gaps will persist. Investment in national statistical capacity is central to improving the coverage, quality and timeliness of data for monitoring gender equality and the SDGs.
Over 2.5 billion women and girls around the world are affected by discriminatory laws and the lack of legal protections, often in multiple ways.1 The spaces in which laws have been designed, implemented or even studied as a profession have historically excluded women and girls. As a result, their voices and perspectives continue to be largely absent from laws and legal practices.