KIDS IN AFRICAUncategorized
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new report shows Kenya is not doing badly in implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially on gender.
According to the SDG Gender Index 2022, they included data from 144 countries in 2020; 135 of which have data for two data points, which makes it possible to track progress for those countries between 2015 and 2020 and covers 36 countries in Sub Saharan Africa or 96% of the region’s girls and women in 2020 and 5 North African countries making a total of 41 African countries.
Mauritius had the highest Index score in the SSA region, at 75.3 points in 2020; Mauritius scored first on 11 goals including SDG 3, SDG 4, SDG 8 and SDG 17.
On the other hand, South Africa had the highest global rank for SDG 5 on gender equality, ranking third in the world (94.9 points); Kenya’s highest global rank was for SDG 8 on work, ranking 41st in the world (82.0 points).
On SDG 17; on partnership, Kenya had the lowest score, at 29 points, which puts it just below the regional average.
Kenya also scored below 50 on Goal 9: Innovation and Goal 10: Inequality.
In 2020, Kenya’s scores on SDG 11 declined on women’s perceptions of sufficient household income decreasing from 46 to 22 points and satisfaction with food costs decreasing from 46 to 25 points in that year.
SDG11: Indicators measured focused on proportion of women who reported that they did not have adequate resources for housing/shelter in the last 12 months.
The SDG Index covered gender equality across 14 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which covers 56 key gender issues – with each SDG represented by between three and five gender-related indicators.
Polycom
The report was shared by SDGs Kenya Forum Gender Lead , Hellen Apila, during the recent Seventh Urban Thinkers Campus forum held in October, at a Nairobi hotel and organized by Polycom Development Project whose Executive Director is Jane Anyango.
Polycom has grown from a Kibera-based Community based organisation in Nairobi City County to National NGO, promoting girl-child education and women’s empowerment among others across 4 Counties.
The Urban Thinkers Campus’ Theme was The City We Need is Safe, Inclusive and Promotes Gender Equality and was attended by over 100 participants, led by women leaders from the city’s formal and informal settlements who shared their stories and recommendations on how to make the capital city safer, cleaner and better place to live, do business and work in.
Other factors identified in the SDG Index Report were Carbon dioxide (CO2) total emissions from fuel combustions in metric tons; proportion of women who reported that they are satisfied with public transport in their area; and proportion of the urban population living in slums.
The survey also looked at the contextual issues that shaped Gender Equality for women and girls such as the Covid-19 Pandemic: existing gaps in access to social services, social protection-no safety, care systems, and rising cost of housing.
Says the report: “On intersectionality: getting back to normal is not enough, gender neutral recovery will leave women and girls even further behind.”
It also notes on policies that there are major gaps in gender sensitivity-as addressed under Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) campaign, Strengthen WE security, or support unpaid care.
Other concerns include more need for recovery interventions that closes gender gaps and builds resilient systems.
On gender data, the report notes that there big gaps that need to be addressed: “There is lack of data to highlight impact of inequalities: systemic inequalities and persistent data gaps for some indicators, lack of disaggregation does not reveal how intersectional inequalities affect particular groups of women and girls than others.”
There is an urgent need to close the gaps in gender data, says the report, data is more than mere numbers, those without power remain unaccounted for.
