APPENDIX 1 – BACKGROUND INFORMATION GENERAL MATTERS OF IMPLEMENTATION – ARTICLE 2 DATA COLLECTION 1. The New Zealand Government has endorsed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (“the SDG Agenda”). The SDG Agenda is the benchmark by which achievements in human development and human rights will be measured until 2030. Many of the Goals have a direct correlation to the Government’s CEDAW obligations such as achieving gender equality (Goal 5), ensuring decent work for all (Goal 8), and reducing inequalities (Goal 10).1 2. The Commission considers that implementation of the SDG Agenda in New Zealand’s policy and legislative framework has considerable potential to drive enhanced human rights outcomes. As a developed country New Zealand will be expected to report on its SDG indicators.2 These indicators, which are currently being developed, will provide an international benchmark that will assist with the assessment of measures taken to implement CEDAW obligations. 3. The lack of robust disaggregated data across a number of key indicators has been noted by the Commission for many years. For example, the lack of disability data and a commonly accepted definition of disability makes it difficult to obtain an accurate view of the many issues that have an impact on the lives of disabled people. It also hinders the measurement of progress and the recognition of improvements that have been made. This is particularly true for areas of multiple discrimination such as for ethnicity or gender. 4. In order to robustly report against the SDG indicators, the Government needs to improve its data collection capabilities in order to ensure that data is appropriately disaggregated by sex, disability, race, sexual orientation and gender identity. The Government’s Data Futures Partnership has been tasked with the development of data use projects that allow progress on system-wide public-sector issues. 5. The Office of Disability Issues and Statistics New Zealand have also launched a number of initiatives to begin to address the data gap including a Disability Data and Evidence Working Group, a proposed Outcomes Framework for the New Zealand Disability Strategy and the inclusion of targeted disability questions in the Household Labour Force Survey. However, ongoing work is required to ensure that robust, timely and useful data is regularly collected across a range of sectors and agencies. 1 See http://www.humanrights.dk/our-work/sustainable-development/human-rights-sdgs See https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/1684SF_-_SDG_Universality_Report__May_2015.pdf 2