Imagine you are in the process of creating a delicious new recipe. The main ingredient is Gender Equality. Add a pinch of gender data gap and a nice handful of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Mix well and put everything in the Pacific Region bowl, then include some of the world’s most remote countries and an entrenched Patriarchal culture. This is the recipe from UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji to support a gender-sensitive SDGs Monitoring and Reporting.

In committing to the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, member states recognized that the dignity of the individual is fundamental and that the Agenda’s Goals and targets should be met for all nations and people and for all segments of society. Ensuring that these commitments are translated into effective action requires a precise understanding of target populations. However, the disaggregated data needed to address women, youth and vulnerable groups – including children, persons with disabilities, people living with HIV, older persons, indigenous peoples, refugees, internally displaced people and migrants – are sparse. Gaps in gender data make it difficult to monitor progress for women and girls. Not only women, girls and vulnerable groups are left behind, but they risk being pushed further behind by a variety of forces, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the negative impacts of climate change and other forms of environmental degradation.

The UNDP Pacific Office supports Pacific Island Countries (PICs) in SDGs Monitoring and Reporting through institutional strengthening for SDGs mainstreaming and the development of gender-sensitive monitoring frameworks. The 17 SDGs are integrated - that is, they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others. Working closely with national governments, UNDP supports the mainstreaming of the SDGs into National Sustainable Development Strategies and strengthening monitoring and evaluation (M&E) frameworks of National Sustainable Development Strategies. Through capacity-building of the National Statistics Office and National Economic Planning Office, PICs are equipped to review and update the M&E frameworks through a structured process and to collect data from the identified sources to be able to monitor and report on the status of their progress towards  National and Global Sustainable Development Goals on a consistent and regular basis. This includes disaggregated data by sex, age and geographic area.

Working closely with regional partners such as UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and the Pacific Community (SPC), UNDP conducted training workshops for the 2019 Voluntary National Review (VNR) reporting countries in Fiji, Nauru, Palau, Tonga and Vanuatu, on the VNR formulation process, as well as facilitation of South-South knowledge exchange, drawing from the experiences of PICs such as Samoa and Kiribati that have already reported at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. UNDP in partnership with UNESCAP and SPC provided similar support to the Federated States of Micronesia and Solomon Islands for their presentation during the High Level Political Forum in 2021.