Making gender data insights accessible: Five steps to develop an effective gender factbook

The World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives called for using existing data more effectively to improve development outcomes. In line with this commitment, the recently launched World Bank Group Gender Strategy 2024 – 2030 calls for greater action to use data and evidence to promote solutions for gender equality.

Data communication is an essential part of this process, although it is often overlooked. Effective communication improves accessibility to data insights among people who are not data experts, including policymakers, civil society advocates, media representatives, and the general public.

To disseminate gender data, many countries use gender factbooks, which often cover a wide range of topics, from health and education, to work and employment, and women’s representation in political leadership.  To date, more than 120 countries have produced at least one (see map below), though they vary widely when it comes to visual appeal, readability, and timeliness.

To support widespread access to and use of existing data, the World Bank developed the Strengthening Gender Statistics (SGS) project, a partnership between the Gender Group, the Poverty and Equity Global Practice, and the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS)—the World Bank’s flagship household survey program. The objective of the SGS is to work with national statistical offices (NSOs) in 12 partner countries to improve the availability, quality, and use of gender data in the economic domain; and to share learnings, promote global engagement and plan dissemination events. To date, it has supported 22 countries.

To help NSOs in the production of gender factbooks, the SGS team developed a guidance note that provides a roadmap for countries working on their first factbook and insights for those that already have it.

The recommendations have been organized into five sections:

1. Planning, planning, planning: Developing a gender factbook is often a months-long process involving coordination across several government institutions, so planning is critical.

• Identify relevant stakeholders, especially the main producers and users of gender data. 
• Make sure the core production team includes experts in statistics, data visualization and writing analyses. 
• Consider the length of time needed to obtain data and calculate indicators.
• Develop a dissemination and communication strategy for the factbook early in the production process. 
   

2. Getting the right people involved: Stakeholder engagement matters for uptake, so get them involved early and often. This offers an excellent opportunity to gather input and build ownership. 

• Engage producers and users of gender data to agree on the themes and validate the list of indicators, from national and international frameworks, to be considered for the factbook. 
• Agree on the type of data sources that should be included and map data availability for the selected indicators. 
• Share the final list of proposed indicators with stakeholders for their approval. 

Read more about Cameroon’s recent experience in bringing the right people together to develop a gender factbook here.
 

3. Turning data into insights: The most powerful gender factbooks offer data insights, not only data.

• Assemble selected indicators from existing publications or internal files. They can also be calculated from original data.
• Ensure that the methodology used to produce indicators follows international standards (for example, as outlined in the metadata for the UN Minimum Set of Gender Indicators), and also that documentation is clear and comprehensive. 
• Gather information on relevant legal and policy frameworks to provide context for the indicator’s data. 
• Analyze the data to identify interesting patterns, for example, trends over time or significant differences across subgroups of the population. 
• Discuss these patterns with stakeholders to determine key messages to highlight in the factbook.
   

4. Making data insights accessible through visuals and text: Effective data visualization requires the presentation of insights in a way that it is easy to understand to improve uptake. Bear in mind that readers of a gender factbook will bring different levels of data literacy, and key audiences, such as policymakers, may not have much time to figure out how to interpret the data. 

• Present data in a variety of ways and use formats that are easier to understand, like charts, maps, pictograms, or streamlined tables. 
• Choose visualizations that suit the type of data you have and the insights you want to highlight. It is important to follow best practices for visualizing gender data. 
• Use text alongside the visualizations, as well as tables to contextualize, clarify, and explain the insights presented.

For examples of best practices, explore the collection of gender factbooks linked in the interactive map above.
 

5. Disseminate, disseminate, disseminate: Effective dissemination puts the data insights you’ve worked so hard to develop in the hands of people who can use them to maximize reach and impact.

• Organize a launch event to share insights timely and strengthen cross-institutional collaboration.
• Develop tailored materials that package messages for different audiences, including fact sheets that summarize sector-specific insights for line ministries, or infographics that communicate high-level takeaways for the general public.
• Spread the word about the launch event strategically and broadly, through newsletters or multimedia materials, and encourage participation of relevant decision-makers and wider audiences.

To see dissemination in action, watch a short video by Malibooknews about a recent workshop in Mali that highlighted gender data insights from the country’s annual household survey, the Enquête Modulaire et Permanente Auprès des Ménages 2022.

By supporting data accessibility, gender factbooks provide data on gender gaps to inform policymaking and track progress over time. For example, a gender factbook can show that large gender gaps remain in unemployment despite a gap reduction in educational attainment.

Factbooks dissemination activities are planned in different countries for the coming months, so it will be important to document learnings on the most effective ways of using this data to influence policy.