Availability of Gender-Disaggregated Data on the ASEAN Digital Economy

All Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Member States acknowledge the importance of gender data for policymaking on women’s economic empowerment and full integration into the economy, and are instituting measures to improve the collection and use of disaggregated data. Considering the central role of the digital economy, it is imperative that any improvements in gender data collection include the production of data on the digital economy. This paper discusses the importance of gender data for the pursuit of gender equality in the digital economy and summarises the current availability of sex-disaggregated data on digital access, skills, and economic activity in the ASEAN region. The results show that there is uneven availability of sex-disaggregated data on the ASEAN digital economy in most global databases. Alternative data sources, such as big data, could help to fill data gaps but should be used with care due to unresolved concerns relating to data bias, privacy, and security.

Availability of Gender-Disaggregated Data on the ASEAN Digital Economy