Recent years have seen an increased appreciation of the importance of measuring and monitoring gender inequality to successfully address existing gaps in policy planning and implementation. Malaysia's Gender Gap Index (MGGI) comprises four component sub-dimensions covering the areas of health, education, economic activity, and the empowerment of women.

The MGGI makes extensive use of Malaysia's sex-disaggregated data. Its primary purpose is to monitor gender disparities between men and women in development outcomes and to track changes over time. It provides a broad measure of gender equity that supports monitoring progress towards the achievement of the Third Millennium Development Goal (MDG) — promoting gender equality and empowering women (MDG3).