A public administrator records information from a young mother in Madagascar. / Photo: World Bank Group
When women thrive, economies thrive. Yet, a significant gap remains in understanding women’s full participation in entrepreneurship and the formal economy, largely due to the lack of timely, granular, and sex-disaggregated administrative data. Without this crucial information, governments and institutions struggle to accurately measure women’s contributions, identify barriers, track progress, and design effective, targeted solutions.
Recognizing this need, the World Bank, in partnership with the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), launched an initiative to assess and strengthen the gender-responsiveness of administrative data systems in several countries, including Colombia, Indonesia, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, and Tunisia. These economies represent different regions and various income groups. The project examined the availability, quality, and use of sex-disaggregated administrative data across the entire entrepreneurial lifecycle: business entry, access to land, access to finance, access to jobs, taxation, access to justice, and access to public procurement.
The power of administrative data
Traditional surveys offer valuable but episodic snapshots of economic activity. Administrative data, generated through routine government functions such as firm registrations, tax filings, and court records, can provide continuous, actionable insights when collected and published with a gender lens. Sex-disaggregated administrative data is essential for evidence-based policy and program design, helping pinpoint where women encounter obstacles in the economic system.
Methodology: a deep dive into data systems
This initiative employed a common methodology to assess sex-disaggregated administrative data, involving mapping data sources, evaluating whether sex is collected (mandatory or optional), assessing data quality and interoperability, and cataloging indicators and reporting routines. The process involved document reviews, interviews, and technical consultations, resulting in tailored recommendations from quick wins to medium-term reforms.
Economy snapshots: trends and country examples
Across all countries, several trends emerged.
First, although many countries have made progress by introducing mandatory gender fields in business registries, gaps persist in areas like public procurement, land ownership, and credit access. For instance, in Indonesia, vendors are not required to submit sex-disaggregated data (e.g., number of women employees, female ownership) as part of the standard bidding process. Although Colombia has a mature statistical system and gender policy architecture, firm ownership records often lack sex disaggregation.
Second, interoperability between data systems remains a major challenge, even when sex disaggregated data is collected. This is the case in Tunisia, where the business registry and the land registry are not interoperable. Across countries, credit information systems rarely capture or publish sex-disaggregated data. Limited interoperability between business and financial institutions further constrains tracking women-owned businesses’ access to finance and designing targeted financial inclusion policies.
Third, to improve consistency in sex-disaggregated administrative data, some countries have adopted official definitions of women-owned businesses. For example, Sri Lanka classifies firms as women-owned or led if they are over 50% female-owned, or at least 20% female-owned with a woman in a key decision-making role and a board that is at least 30% female, where applicable. In Colombia, women-owned or led enterprises are defined by at least 50% female ownership or 50% female senior management for a minimum of one year, or operation by a woman as a natural person. However, in practice, different government agencies used different definitions and did not follow the national definition.
Fourth, publication routines are irregular. In Madagascar, despite strong leadership from the Ministry of Women, institutions such as business registries that collect sex-disaggregated data do not make it publicly available. A similar situation exists in Indonesia, where sex-disaggregated data collected by agencies such as the business registry are not systematically published. As a result, most publicly available sex-disaggregated statistics in Indonesia are derived from surveys rather than administrative registries. In other contexts, including Sri Lanka, the absence of reliable data itself constrains publication. However, efforts to digitize land registration are ongoing to improve data quality and eventually enable regular publication.
Recommendations: common challenges and country actions
A detailed action plan with tailored recommendations was developed for each country. Key recommendations are to make gender fields mandatory, improve data exchange protocols, and develop basic dashboards for monitoring. In Tunisia, for instance, operationalizing the business registration system with mandatory gender fields, connecting business and civil registries, and publishing dashboards are important next steps. Sri Lanka is working toward requiring all licensed financial institutions to collect and report sex-disaggregated data on client complaints, enhancing finance granularity, and standardizing land registry gender fields. Indonesia is encouraged to enhance its land registry webpages by providing gender-specific information and publishing detailed reports that highlight gender breakdowns in both internal and external documentation related to land services and programs. It is also recommended that staff receive targeted training on gender issues, and that gender indicators be systematically integrated to monitor and analyze land-related complaints and disputes. In Madagascar, it is recommended to roll out the new business registration system as a priority and accelerate the digitization and integration of land, tax, and credit information systems to improve data availability and interoperability.
Making women visible in administrative data unlocks their economic potential and drives shared prosperity. Better data means better outcomes for everyone. The World Bank stands ready to support countries with diagnostics, roadmap development, and tailored implementation assistance.
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