The Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) was developed by the OECD Development Centre, along with Wikigender, a web 2.0 platform to exchange information on gender equality. The SIGI provides a very comprehensive picture of women’s position in 119 countries. Details of the methodology, definitions, scoring framework and data sources can be found on www.genderindex.org.
The SIGI captures and quantifies discriminatory social institutions – which include among others, early marriage, discriminatory inheritance practices, violence against women, son bias, restrictions on access to public space and restricted access to productive resources. The SIGI also assesses some elements related to women’s land rights and women’s ability to participate in land governance on an equal footing.
The SIGI’s 14 variables and 5 sub-indices measure discrimination against women in social institutions at country level, therefore allowing cross-country, regional and sub-regional analyses. The scores and ranking of each country is complemented with detailed country profiles which set the context and describe how social institutions discriminate against women with country specific information. The country notes are available both on www.genderindex.org and on www.wikigender.org.
As part of a commitment to provide country pages with gender-disaggregated information, the Land Portal displays the SIGI and the following relevant variables on its country pages as follows:
- Discriminatory family code. This sub-index assesses laws, institutions and data on i) legal age of marriage; ii) early marriage; iii) parental authority; and iv) inheritance.
- Inheritance (variable related to discriminatory family code) This score is based on two components: inheritance rights of spouses and inheritance rights of daughters, assessed as follow: 0: Women and men have equal rights of inheritance; 0.5: (some) women have (some) rights, but less than men; 1: Women and men have unequal rights of inheritance.
- Restricted resources and Entitlements. This sub-index assesses laws, institutions and data on i) access to land; ii) access to credit; iii) access to property other than land.
- Access to land (variable related to restricted resources and entitlements). This score is based on women’s legal rights and de facto rights to own and/or access agricultural land. Values are based on the following scale: 0: Women have the same legal rights as men to own and access land; 0.5: Women have equal legal rights with men to own and access land, but discriminatory practices restrict women’s access to and ownership of land in practice; 1: Women have no/few legal rights to access or own land or access is severely restricted by discriminatory practices.
- Restricted civil liberties. This sub-index assesses laws, institutions and data on i) access to public space; and ii) political voice.
In the SIGI, discrimination against women is indicated on a scale from 0 (no discrimination) to 1 (total discrimination).
In the Land Portal, both the country’s SIGI value as well as position in a world ranking are displayed. The variables relevant to women’s land rights, inheritance and access to land, are displayed in a traffic light system (green: no discrimination; yellow: some discrimination; red: discrimination).
Wikigender is a Land Portal partner.