Moldova has now GenderPulse – a tool that transforms statistical indicators into interactive infographics

GenderPulse has been developed in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics and with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). GenderPulse is intended for all those interested in gender issues: the representatives of the central and local public administration authorities involved in decision-making in political, social and economic fields, as well as for non-governmental organizations, representatives of academia and media that monitor and analyse the situation of equal opportunities for women and men, but it is also available to the public.

“Interactive visualization and presentation of statistical data is a popular subject for the most of national statistical offices. We all live in the era of a large variety of statistical data and information which can easily mislead the users. Nevertheless, the development of such tools for data visualization in a most easy way, but also in an illustrated and attractive manner, is more important than ever for producers and users of gender sensitive statistics”, said Ala Negruta, Deputy General Director of the National Bureau of Statistics.

Statistical indicators visualized via GenderPulse are synchronised with the bank of statistical data StatBank, which brings together data collected from different institutions and validated by the National Bureau of Statistics.

To make women and men visible in the statistics, the data are sex-disaggregated. Such data enables the understanding of women and men’s roles in society, their activities, the ways in which they interact, the differences in access and use of resources, in the potential and opportunities available to them.

Gender statistics shows how power and influence are distributed between women and men – through management or execution functions that are assigned to them in public sector, in business or in civic activity. The level of education, health status, remuneration for the work carried out speak about the economic independence enjoyed by women and men. The way in which women and men participate in domestic work confirms or denies the equality in the household’s administration and the roles’ distribution in the family, both representing unpaid work. To tackle the integrity of physical and psychological comfort in everyday life, data on violence against women, men or children are being referred to.

"For all member states of the United Nations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we need reliable and disaggregated data, that is easy to understand. GenderPulse provides a better picture of inequalities between women and men which would otherwise remain invisible. It is the first attempt to make disaggregated data accessible, understandable not just to decision-makers but also to any citizen", said the country representative of UN Women in Moldova, Ulziisuren Jamsran.

The data viewed on GenderPulse are grouped in 5 thematic areas, relevant for the analysis of gender issues: demography, participation in decision-making process, education, health and economic empowerment.

Doina Munteanu, UNDP Assistant Resident Representative – Programme, said: "We are confident that sustainable human development cannot be achieved without full participation of women and girls. By active use of these data, which today are more accessible, we can intervene where it is really needed and contribute to tangible results, harnessing the potential of each woman and man”.

Most infographics on GenderPulse are accompanied by short texts, in user-friendly language which explain the meaning of visualised statistical indicator to show the observed gender differences or to describe the evolution in time of the phenomena measured by statistical indicators.

Automated data transfer, open source technologies and open data principles and hosting on the government cloud have been used for this application’s design, all these ensuring a high sustainability and potential for development of other web applications based on available systems or adapted to mobile technologies.

In July 2016, the UN in Moldova has launched the statistical profiles of 10 groups of girls and women in the Republic of Moldova.

These products represent the first steps towards achieving the target to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by characteristics relevant in national contexts - the target no. 17.18 which is included in the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. The 2030 Development Agenda was adopted unanimously by all UN member states in September 2015 and comprises of 17 Global Goals, which aim at fighting against poverty, inequality and climate change.