Inside UNDP's work on a global LGBTI inclusion index

CANBERRA — The United Nations Development Programme is set to pilot an implementation LGBTI Inclusion Index, first-ever global index launched in March following three-year effort to identify data on LGBTI populations that would support the design and implementation of better policies aimed at inclusion. Researchers are increasingly interested in better understanding the challenges that LGBTI populations face under different settings — and the development sector is also increasingly recognizing the data gap. Victor Madrigal-Borloz — an expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity — recently presented a report to the Human Rights Council. Borloz found that “information about the lived realities of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender-diverse persons around the world is, at best, incomplete and fragmented.” UNDP’s latest index is one initiative that seeks to build the knowledge required to support LGBTI populations globally. Development of the index UNDP began work on developing the index following the adoption of the 2030 Agenda. “Through the SDGs, we were able to develop a U.N. inter-agency statement on ending violence and discrimination against LGBTI people — and this is how we started working on the need for inclusive development of LGBTI people,” Boyan Konstantinov, policy specialist for key populations, LGBTI, and rights at UNDP, explained to Devex. UNDP, LGBTI communities, academics, and other key stakeholders started consultations to develop the index. Outright Action International and the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights were among the LGBTI partners who have been instrumental in supporting the development of the index. OHCHR played an important role in discussions of data, safety, and security, while the World Bank supported a range of consultations during 2016 and 2017 with academics, multilateral organizations, and civil society organizations to support the finalization of indicators. Understanding feasibility of indicators — including building an understanding of the efforts needed to collect data or whether new data will need to be generated — also formed an important part of the consultation. “This was a highly consultative approach to determine the indicators,” Konstantinov said. The resulting index of 51 indicators have the SDGs at the core. They are oriented toward sustainable, uniform, and disaggregated data collection for all five sub-population groups of lesbian, gay, bi, trans, and intersex people. They aim to measure five priority areas: civil and political participation; personal safety and security; health; education; and economic empowerment. Indicators supporting education include rates of bullying, anti-bullying policy, nondiscriminatory policies, and educational attainment. Those supporting political and civil participation include decriminalization of gender expression, statistical inclusion, and LGBTI representation in parliaments. Economic autonomy indicators include relative poverty rates, equal benefits, and LGBTI-owned or LGBTI-led businesses. The sources of data for the index are laws and policies — including their implementation — as well as public opinion and surveys of LGBTI people. The index was created using methodology defined by OECD. “We are planning to collect data on LGBTI Inclusion through 51 indicators for five population groups in close to 200 countries,” Justus Eisfeld, senior consultant LGBTI, rights, and inclusive development at the UNDP, explained to stakeholders earlier this year. “That is a lot, and will not be done overnight.” While other indexes do exist, Eisfeld found that these were limited in their scope — including by geography, sections of the LGBTI communities, and scope of data available. The LGBTI inclusion index considers multiple types of stigma and discrimination and aims to inform inclusive policy development; reduce stigma, violence, and discrimination against LGBTI populations; and determine if countries are on track to deliver on their pledge to achieve the sustainable development goals. Building security and safety in data practices Developing the index will not immediately result in countries worldwide contributing quality data. Stigma and even laws discriminating against LGBTI populations in some regions of the world can put individuals at risk, just by collecting data. “We need to set the rules of the game of how LGBTI data will be collected and used so as not to expose communities to danger.” --— Boyan Konstantinov, UNDP policy specialist for key populations, LGBTI, and rights “Data security is a huge concern of the UNDP and to the LGBTI community, academics, and stakeholders,” Konstantinov explained. “There is concern over how data available in the virtual space can be used to target LGBTI individuals with horrible consequences, recently in Tanzania and even more recently in Chechnya, and in many other places around the world.” This has led to data security being an important point of discussion throughout the development of the index. “We need to set the rules of the game of how LGBTI data will be collected and used so as not to expose communities to danger of allowing LGBTI data to be used to reverse engineer policies that are harmful for LGBTI communities,” Konstantinov said, saying the engagement was an opportunity to introduce the “big debate” that was a concern of his — how to collect information under the European Union General Data Protection Regulation. “This did not exist when we first developed the index, but it is now a reality,” he said. “It’s the new regional and global standard for data safety and security and has already seen issues in [collecting personal details for] passenger manifest, student identity, and more. So we have to be very careful in engineering this data collection to be compliant so we can partner with government.” Another key area of concern in the progress of the index is the politics of LGBTI issues — both within U.N. member state countries and the U.N. system itself. “When it comes to the political support for the rights of LGBTI people, it looks very different today to when the index started,” Konstantinov said. “We had support from the previous administrator of the UNDP, who has since been replaced with a new administrator. I am not saying that the new top level do not support LGBTI equality — quite the opposite. But we are still in the process of gathering the same political support we had a few years ago. Never mind that quite a lot of national governments — important and influential — were advocates and strong supporters, but our political system has changed,” Konstantinov explained. Implementing the index will begin this year as part of a pilot project, which is a critical component of determining how it will work in the context of different countries. And it will also help build an understanding of the utility of the data, including how it can and should be used to support policy and program development. But pilot countries will be selected based on a number of factors, including their receptiveness to the index. “Piloting is tricky because UNDP is obviously a membership organization and we can only pilot if we have countries that volunteer to work with us. We cannot parachute ourselves or our implementing partners in a country and start collecting data,” Konstantinov said. “So we need to take into account the political context.” The piloting phase will also seek to understand the impact of different definitions of “LGBTI” and data harmonization on being able to directly compare countries and regions. But through the pilot and eventual expansion, Konstantinov hopes the data can help show the real world for LGBTI people. Implementing practices beyond the data UNDP’s index is part of broader support required to build equality for LGBTI populations globally as the collection of quality data will remain a challenge in countries where sexual orientation or gender identity are criminalized. Madrigal-Borloz, in his report on data collection and management for the Human Rights Council, recommended a range of supporting measures that will help build the data systems. These include the repeal of laws that criminalize consensual same-sex relations, gender identity or expression, and policies and legislation that prevent discrimination. Legal obstacles that prevent organizations’ promotion of the rights of persons of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities also need to be removed, and effective systems need to be introduced for recording and reporting hate crimes, according to Madrigal-Borloz. Madrigal-Borloz recommended that any data should support a “do no harm” approach with the aim to deliver the SDGs and LGBTI rights globally.