Indonesia Has Highest Gender Inequality in ASEAN, Singapore Lowest

According to data from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published by the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), Singapore has the lowest Gender Inequality Index (GII) in ASEAN, while Indonesia has the highest score.

The UNDP gave Singapore a GII score of 0.065 points. This means that the country has the best GII achievement among other ASEAN countries.

Singapore's GII achievement is very good in all aspects. These aspects include reproductive health and adolescent fertility, marked by low Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and Adolescence Birth Rate (ABR). In addition, the equality of educational attainment, employment opportunities, and women's involvement in parliament are also very good.

Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam are ranked second and third with the lowest GII in ASEAN, with scores of 0.253 points and 0.255 points respectively. The low GII in these two countries is supported by fairly good reproductive health indicators and a low gap in educational achievement between men and women.

Meanwhile, Indonesia has the highest GII score in ASEAN, namely 0.48 points. This shows that Indonesia is a country with suboptimal gender development achievements compared to other ASEAN countries.

Not only in the ASEAN region, but Indonesia's gender development achievements are also suboptimal compared to countries in the world and East Asia and the Pacific. Indonesia's gender inequality in 2019 was ranked 121st out of 162 countries.

Indonesia's GII score is even above the world average of 0.436 points. Based on this, further efforts must be made by the Indonesian government through various policies in the areas of health, empowerment, and access to the labor market to catch up.