Even prior to the pandemic, funding for data and statistics amounted to just half of the funding required to produce sufficient data to meet the SDGs. Today, at the halfway point of the 2030 Agenda, fewer than half of low and lower middle-income countries are able to produce data on even a third of the SDG indicators. The further decline of data funding in 2020 will widen the funding gap and make it all the more difficult for countries to catch up, with negative consequences for evidence-based policy making at the country level. Support for SDG data cannot wait until crises are over.

Though overall funding for gender equality increased in 2020, funding for gender data dropped by more than 50% from 2019. This is inconsistent with global ambitions to support gender equality.

This worrying trend is consistent with the broader trend in gender equality, where progress has not only stalled but reversed in some cases. Without a gendered approach to data production and use, there will be a lack of insights needed to evaluate how various policies affect women and girls and then take appropriate steps to achieve gender equality.