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The purpose of this indicator is to allow for a stronger presence of women in parliament and local government.

The proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (Indicator 5.5.1 (a)) is currently measured as the number of seats held by women members in single or lower chambers of national parliaments, expressed as a percentage of all occupied seats. National parliaments can be bicameral or unicameral. This indicator covers the single chamber in unicameral parliaments and the lower chamber in bicameral parliaments. It does not cover the upper chamber of bicameral parliaments. Seats are usually won by members in general parliamentary elections. Seats may also be filled by nomination, appointment, indirect election, rotation of members and by-election. Seats refer to the number of parliamentary mandates, or the number of members of parliament. The proportion of positions held by women in local government (Indicator 5.5.1(b)) is expressed as a percentage of elected positions held by women in legislative/ deliberative bodies of local government. This indicator measures the degree to which gender balance has been achieved in, and women have equal access to, political decision-making in local government.

Women's Department

Election and Boundaries Department (EBD)

Election and Boundaries Department (EBD)

Annual

Percentage (%)

Indicator 5.5.1(a) measures the degree to which women have equal access to parliamentary decision making. Women’s participation in parliaments is a key aspect of women’s opportunities in political and public life and is therefore linked to women’s empowerment. Equal numbers of women and men in lower chambers would give an indicator value of 50 per cent. Indicator 5.5.1(b) complements the Indicator 5.5.1(a) on women in national parliaments, and accounts for the representation of women among the millions of members of local governments that influence (or have the potential to influence) the lives of local communities around the world. All tiers of local government are covered by the indicator, consistent with national legal frameworks defining local government.

Seats refer to the number of parliamentary mandates, also known as the number of members of parliament. Seats are usually won by members in general parliamentary elections. Seats may also be filled by nomination, appointment, indirect election, rotation of members and by-election.

Local government is one of the sub-national spheres of government and a result of decentralization, a process of transferring political, fiscal, and administrative powers from the central government to sub-national units of government distributed across the territory of a country to regulate and/or run certain government functions or public services on their own.

Legislative/ deliberative bodies, such as councils or assemblies, are formal entities with a prescribed number of members as per national or state legislation. They are usually elected by universal suffrage and have decision-making power, including the ability to issue by-laws, on a range of local aspects of public affairs.

Executive bodies, consisting of an executive committee or a mayor, may be elected, appointed or nominated and they prepare and execute decisions made by the legislative/ deliberative body.

Elected positions are the most common manner of selection of local government members. They are selected in local elections, based on a system of choosing political office holders in which the voters cast ballots for the person, persons or political party that they desire to see elected.

Indicator 5.5.1 (a) can be disaggregated for analysis by geographical region and sub-region, legislature type (single or lower, parliamentary or presidential), the method of filling seats (directly elected, indirectly elected, appointed) and the use of special measures. For Indicator 5.5.1 (b), data on elected positions in legislative/deliberative bodies of local government have to be disaggregated by sex to enable the calculation of the indicator. No additional disaggregation is required for SDG reporting.

For Indicator 5.5.1 (a), the proportion of seats held by women in national parliament is derived by dividing the total number of seats occupied by women by the total number of seats in parliament. There is no weighting or normalising of statistics.

The method of computation of Indicator 5.5.1 (b) is as follows:

Wome's Department can advocate for the introduction of policy measures to increase women’s shares of parliamentary seats as well as positions in the cabinet, ministerial positions, selected public order and safety occupations (judges/senior magistrates etc) and other senior-level positions in government (Permanent Secretaries, Governor of the Central Bank, Commissioners of various services etc).

• There can be difficulties in obtaining information on by-election results and replacements due to death or resignation. These changes are ad hoc events which are more difficult to keep track of. By-elections, for instance, are often not announced internationally as general elections are.
• The data excludes the numbers and percentages of women in upper chambers of parliament.
• In terms of measuring women’s contribution to political decision making, this indicator may not be sufficient because some women may face obstacles in fully and efficiently carrying out their parliamentary mandate.
• Local government officials holding executive positions who are not simultaneously holding a position within the legislative/deliberative body, or who are appointed and not elected, are not considered in this indicator.
• The indicator refers to representation among members of local government and not the quality of their participation. Countries may therefore consider assessing political participation through national or subnational studies involving qualitative and/or quantitative methods of research. Additional indicators of political participation may also be monitored at national level, such as women’s share among voters and candidates in local elections, to monitor the closing of other gaps on women’s political participation.

It is recommended that women’s representation in executive positions, particularly at the level of the head of the executive (such as mayor), is monitored separately at national and global levels, but not as a headline SDG indicator.

Aspects of local governance beyond the formal institutions of local government, such as public administration staff, are not included in the indicator 5.5.1(b), and may be covered by other indicators in the SDG framework, particularly within the Goal 16 on inclusive societies.

All the metadata shown in this document was gathered from United Nation Statistics Division. The metadata was extracted from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/.