The Center for Development Data at the World Bank Institute for Economic Development held an advanced course titled "Leveraging Household Surveys to Close the Gender Data Gap" from May 20 to 24, 2024. The event took place at the Sa.Di.Ba. in Perugia, Italy. The course targeted mid-level to senior officials in statistics offices or ministries involved in statistics production, as well as staff from training and research centers providing technical assistance to national statistics offices. Participants were required to have experience in statistics production and working with surveys and survey data, along with a good knowledge of Stata to perform the workshop’s practical exercises.
The course aimed to address the increasing demand for high-quality gender statistics driven by international frameworks and national development strategies. Substantial gaps persisted in the availability of gender-disaggregated data, with only 42 percent of the data needed to monitor gender-specific SDG indicators available globally, and over 75 percent of the available data being more than a decade old. To tackle these issues, the World Bank had partnered with international organizations and National Statistical Offices in low-income countries over the past decade. These partnerships focused on developing improved survey methods, establishing international guidelines for collecting individual-level data on various topics, and providing technical assistance for the adoption and scale-up of these guidelines.
The course covered the context and motivation for improving gender statistics and individual-level data, addressing all components of the data life cycle from collection to analysis to dissemination. Participants learned best practices in questionnaire design, respondent selection, sampling, and fieldwork considerations to collect accurate data reflecting gendered patterns in work and employment, education, health, agriculture, asset ownership, time use, and other topics, based on the latest international guidelines. The course included hands-on training in using existing individual-level survey data and standardized methodologies to produce gender-disaggregated economic indicators drawn from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the UNSD Minimum List of Gender Indicators. Additionally, participants received training on transforming statistical outputs into polished visualizations and data stories.
The five-day course featured interactive elements combining lectures and hands-on sessions. Participants were provided with data files from living standards household surveys used in lectures and class discussions, and an Excel Workbook to demonstrate best practices in data visualization. All materials were openly available, and participants were encouraged to use them in their own training programs.