UN Women and Kerala government collaborate for India's first Gender Data Hub

The Kerala government and UN Women have collaborated to establish India's first Gender Data Hub. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in this regard on Monday in the presence of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Ahead of the inking of the MoU, officials of UN Women held a meeting with the state's Minister for Health and Social Justice K.K. Shailaja at the UN House in New Delhi, where the broad framework of the co-operation was discussed.

The Gender Hub builds on the goals established through the International Conference on Gender Equality held in November 2015, to collect, analyse and use more nuanced data and inform policy formulation in a manner that centre-stages women's rights. "I am sure that this collaboration will broaden and deepen various pioneering initiatives for gender equality and women empowerment launched by the Social Justice Department of Kerala through The Gender Park. We aim to invest in policy and socio-economic initiatives for gender equality, where the Gender Park will work as a South Asian hub for gender-related activities with UN Women," said Vijayan.

While speaking about the collaboration and this initiative, UN Women Deputy Representative Nishtha Satyam said, "We come together as equal partners in the vision of realising the Agenda 2030 and closing the gender gaps across the adopted indicators and targets. What we propose through this collaboration is to work on innovative and tech-enabled solutions to address gender inequalities, strengthen inclusion of women and girls in all their diversities, in the development process."

Three key areas of co-operation, as specified in the MoU, will be setting up the Gender Data Centre at The Gender Park, launching the second edition of the International Conference on Gender Equality, and increasing engagement on the global normative frameworks on gender equality and empowerment of women. As a convergence centre for all the gender and development work in the state, the unique facilities at the Gender Park include a Gender Library, Gender Museum and Training Centre on sustainable entrepreneurship, social business and markets for women from economically-backward social groups.