Programme
Driving Change with Gender Statistics: A Path to Equality
National Statistics Office of Georgia will host the 10th United Nations Global Forum on Gender Statistics in Tbilisi, Georgia from 1 to 3 October 2025. The event will take place in the Biltmore Hotel Tbilisi.
The Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics (IAEG-GS) will hold its 19th meeting (closed and by invitation only) on 30 September 2025, before the Global Forum.
Theme of the day
Gender statistics are essential for evidence-based policymaking and for fulfilling international commitments, including the Beijing Platform for Action and the Sustainable Development Goals. The first day of the 10th Global Forum on Gender Statistics will focus on strengthening the role of gender data in advancing gender equality and sustainable development. Discussions will reflect on progress since the Beijing Declaration, explore persistent gaps, and highlight national experiences and systemic enablers that support more effective and inclusive gender data systems.Registration
Please bring a photo identification and make your way to the lobby of the Grand Royal Ballroom, where the organising team will deliver your name badge. This may take a while, so you are encouraged to arrive to the Biltmore Tbilisi Hotel well ahead of time.
- Wednesday, 1 October 2025 08:30 - 09:00 Georgia Standard Time Grand Royal Ballroom
Welcome and opening remarks
This opening session will set the stage for the Forum, welcoming participants and outlining the objectives for each day. It will establish the broader context and purpose of the meeting, highlighting both the persistent challenges and emerging opportunities in the production and use of gender statistics. Speakers will emphasize that gender data is essential to achieving gender equality and the Sustainable Development Goals, yet critical gaps remain. The session will advocate for the systematic integration of gender into statistical processes, the strategic use of existing data to inform effective policies, and the adoption of innovative practices to close data gaps. By doing so, it aims to reinforce the Forum's call to action: to ensure no one is left behind and to accelerate the journey from data to impactful policy.
- Wednesday, 1 October 2025 09:00 - 09:40 Georgia Standard Time Grand Royal Ballroom
Keynote speaker
- Wednesday, 1 October 2025 10:15 - 11:00 Georgia Standard Time Grand Royal Ballroom
High-level panel A: From Beijing to 2030 and Beyond - The Evolution of Gender Statistics for Sustainable Development
This high-level panel will reflect on the transformative journey of gender statistics over the past three decades—from the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, through the MDGs and SDGs, and now looking beyond 2030. Panelists will examine how gender data systems have evolved to inform sustainable development and highlight key areas of progress in closing gender data gaps. At the same time, the discussion will draw attention to persistent challenges that continue to limit the power of data to drive equitable policy change.
Against the backdrop of lagging progress on implementing SDGs, the panel will issue a renewed call to action to accelerate the production, harmonization, and use of gender statistics to inform public policies that advance gender equality and improve the lives of women and girls. As the global community looks beyond 2030, the panel will explore how gender statistics can be strengthened to anticipate future needs, support long-term planning, and ensure no one is left behind. (SDGs: SDG 1, SDG2, SDG 3, SDG 4, SDG 5, SDG 6, SDG 7, SDG 8, SDG 9, SDG 10, SDG 11, SDG 13, SDG 16, SDG 17)
- Wednesday, 1 October 2025 11:00 - 12:30 Georgia Standard Time Grand Royal Ballroom
Session 1: Mainstreaming Gender in national statistical production - Country Practices and Lessons Learned
Gender mainstreaming in official statistics requires more than the periodic production of gender statistics—it calls for embedding a gender lens across the entire statistical value chain. This session will feature country experiences in institutionalizing gender mainstreaming in their statistical processes, with an emphasis on governance, coordination, and sustainability. Presenters will share how they have operationalized gender mainstreaming through strategies, organizational reforms, capacity-building efforts, and methodological innovations.
Discussions will explore: how gender perspectives have been integrated into planning, data collection, analysis, and dissemination; the role of institutional commitment, leadership, and cross-sectoral collaboration; challenges encountered and strategies adopted to overcome them. (SDGs: SDG 5, SDG 17)
- Wednesday, 1 October 2025 13:30 - 15:00 Georgia Standard Time Grand Royal Ballroom
Session 2: Lightning Talks - Enablers in Gender Data Systems
This dynamic lightning talk session will bring together a variety of voices to spotlight specific aspects of gender data systems. Presenters will offer rapid insights into enabling environments and systemic barriers that shape the production, use, and dissemination of gender data.
Topics include: building gender data capacity in national statistical offices and beyond; emerging areas of progress and persistent gaps; institutional and policy enablers that promote comprehensive gender data ecosystems; structural, technical, and political barriers that hinder mainstreaming efforts. (SDGs: SDG 5, SDG 17)
- Wednesday, 1 October 2025 15:30 - 17:00 Georgia Standard Time Grand Royal Ballroom
Theme of the day
Building on the synergies between the Beijing Platform for Action and the 2030 Agenda, the second day of the Forum focuses on overarching dimensions to advancing gender equality and the rights of women and girls. Discussions will explore how gender data can support progress across key dimensions, including women's economic empowerment as a driver of social and economic development, freedom from violence and harmful stereotypes, the intersection of gender with environmental sustainability and climate resilience, and the realization of women's human rights.Session 3: Women's economic empowerment for social and economic development
This session will focus on how gender statistics can support efforts to advance women's economic empowerment by shedding light on persistent inequalities in access to decent work, financial services, trade, entrepreneurship, and wealth creation. It will address challenges in measuring informality, the gender pay gap, and poverty, while highlighting innovations and national experiences in improving data to inform policies that promote inclusive economic opportunities and sustainable development. (SDGs: SDG 1, SDG 5, SDG 8, SDG 9)
- Thursday, 2 October 2025 09:00 - 10:30 Georgia Standard Time Grand Royal Ballroom
Session 4: Freedom from violence against women, discrimination and stereotypes
This session will focus on strengthening gender statistics to better capture and address persistent and evolving forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls. It will highlight progress in measuring discriminatory social norms and attitudes that sustain inequality. Participants will share national experiences, international initiatives, and innovative methodologies to produce high-quality, disaggregated data capable of informing effective prevention and policy responses. By promoting comprehensive and coordinated data systems, this session will emphasize the critical role of gender statistics in ensuring accountability and protecting the rights and dignity of women and girls. (SDGs: SDG 5, SDG 10, SDG 16)
- Thursday, 2 October 2025 11:00 - 12:30 Georgia Standard Time Grand Royal Ballroom
Session 5: Gender and climate change
This session will explore the intersection of gender and climate change through the lens of data, focusing on how gender statistics can inform and strengthen climate action and resilience strategies. As climate change continues to intensify environmental, social, and economic vulnerabilities, it disproportionately affects women and marginalized groups — yet these impacts are often invisible in the data used for policymaking. The session will highlight national experiences in integrating gender perspectives into climate-related data collection and analysis, including efforts to measure gender-differentiated exposure, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity. It will also showcase international initiatives working to develop conceptual frameworks, methodologies, and indicators that better reflect the gender dimensions of climate change. By sharing practical examples and lessons learned, the session will identify opportunities to strengthen the production and use of gender-environment statistics, promote coordination across statistical and environmental institutions, and support data-informed policies that leave no one behind in the transition to a more sustainable and resilient future. (SDGs: SDG 5, SDG 13)
- Thursday, 2 October 2025 13:30 - 15:00 Georgia Standard Time Grand Royal Ballroom
Session 6: Gender and migration
This session will explore the production and use of gender-sensitive migration statistics to better understand the diverse experiences of women and men throughout the migration cycle. It will examine how gender influences the drivers, patterns, and impacts of migration—including labour migration, forced labour, and displacement—and highlight the need for more granular, timely, and disaggregated data to inform inclusive policies. By showcasing national and international initiatives, the session will underscore the importance of integrating gender into migration data systems to uncover inequalities, protect rights, and support evidence-based responses that address the specific vulnerabilities and contributions of women and girls in migration contexts. (SDGs: SDG 5, SDG 8, SDG 10, SDG 16, SDG 17)
- Thursday, 2 October 2025 15:00 - 16:30 Georgia Standard Time Grand Royal Ballroom
Theme of the day
Gender statistics are crucial to drive transformative change by informing better development policies and delivering tangible impact. Discussions will focus on two pivotal areas for achieving gender equality: care systems and digital transformation. By highlighting how gender data can uncover structural inequalities, support the design of inclusive care policies and systems, and address digital divides, the sessions will emphasize the importance of integrating gender statistics into policy frameworks. The day will reinforce the call to move from data collection to data use—leveraging gender statistics to shape more equitable, responsive, and forward-looking development strategies.Session 7: Gender statistics at the core of care systems transformation
Transforming care systems is essential for achieving gender equality and promoting inclusive, sustainable development. This session will explore how gender statistics—particularly those that capture the unequal distribution of unpaid domestic and care work—can drive meaningful change in care-related policies. It will highlight the critical role of time-use surveys in revealing how women and men allocate their time across paid and unpaid activities, and how this data can be used to inform policies around work-life balance, labour market participation, and social protection. Discussions will include national efforts to measure and assign value to unpaid care work through satellite accounts and other valuation methods, elevating its visibility in economic planning.
By showcasing national experiences and emerging methodologies, the session will emphasize how robust gender data can support the design of equitable care policies, strengthen social protection systems, and prepare societies for demographic shifts, including population ageing. Ultimately, it will advocate for the integration of gender statistics into the core of care system reforms to ensure fairer, more inclusive outcomes for all. (SDGs: SDG 1, SDG 3, SDG 5, SDG 8, SDG 17)
- Friday, 3 October 2025 09:00 - 10:30 Georgia Standard Time Grand Royal Ballroom
Session 8: Gender data and the digital transformation
The rapid digital transformation is reshaping economies, societies, and public services, yet its benefits remain unevenly distributed. This session will explore how gender statistics can illuminate and help address the persistent gender digital divide in access, use, and outcomes of digital technologies. It will examine opportunities to expand the benefits of the digital economy to all women and girls, particularly in critical areas such as entrepreneurship, education, work, and health. It will highlight the use of innovative technologies and approaches, including privacy-preserving technologies and non-traditional data sources, to improve the availability and quality of gender data. Speakers will also reflect on the role of inclusive, open, safe, and secure digital spaces, and how gender statistics can inform policies to protect rights and foster participation. This session aims to inspire action and innovation in using digital tools and data to accelerate gender equality in an increasingly connected world. (SDGs: SDG 1, SDG 4, SDG 5, SDG 8, SDG 9, SDG 17)
- Friday, 3 October 2025 11:00 - 12:30 Georgia Standard Time Grand Royal Ballroom
High-level panel B: From Data to Impact - Leveraging Gender Statistics for Better Policies
This high-level closing session will emphasize the critical role of gender data in shaping effective, inclusive, and accountable development policies. Panelists will reflect on how robust gender statistics have supported concrete policy decisions, addressed inequalities, and driven measurable change across sectors. The discussion will highlight country experiences and global efforts that successfully link data to action, while identifying what is needed to strengthen this connection, from institutional commitment and capacity to collaboration between data producers and users. The session aims to inspire renewed momentum toward transforming gender data into real-world impacts.
- Friday, 3 October 2025 14:00 - 15:30 Georgia Standard Time Grand Royal Ballroom
Conclusions and closing remarks
- Friday, 3 October 2025 15:30 - 16:00 Georgia Standard Time Grand Royal Ballroom
Fourth Joint AfDB-ECA Regional Workshop on Africa Gender Index 2023 (AGI 2023): Intercountry Data Validation and Index Calculation
The Africa Gender Index (AGI) is a composite index jointly developed by the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). It is intended to, among other things, gauge how women are faring compared to men in three dimensions of human wellbeing-economic, social, and empowerment (political and institutional representation).
This Fourth Regional Workshop on the Africa Gender Index 2023 will bring together members of the AGI technical team, including gender statisticians from 54 national statistical offices, gender experts from ministries responsible for gender and women's affairs as well as gender and statistics experts from the Bank, ECA, UN Women and other development partners. The workshop will introduce the AGI calculation and provide a platform to review and validate country data.
- Wednesday, 30 August 2023 17:00 - 18:00 Georgia Standard Time Boardroom 123
Organizers:
African Development Bank Group & United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
Agenda:
The provisional agenda is available here.
Registration
Please note that the venue only allows a limited number of participants. To secure a space in this event please RSVP via here.
Strengthened Marriage Registration as a Tool for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment
The objectives of this session are to provide a brief overview of the global landscape on marriage and divorce registration and to review recent experiences, innovations and lessons in marriage registration system strengthening from Uganda, Indonesia and Guatemala. To prove marriage and divorce shape the lives of individuals, families and society at-large and play a particularly significant role in the ability of women and girls to claim their fundamental rights and access relevant services. Yet, despite the recognition of official marriage registration and divorce registration within international human rights conventions for more than 58 years, in practice they are often neglected.
- Thursday, 31 August 2023 07:00 - 08:30 Georgia Standard Time Boardroom 123
Organizers:
United Nations Population Fund & Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems
Agenda:
The provisional agenda is available here.
Registration
Please note that the venue only allows a limited number of participants. To secure a space in this event please RSVP via coe-crvs@unfpa.org.