United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Dimitri Sanga Senior Statistician Improving Gender Responsive Data Production and Use in African Countries: Challenges and Opportunities IAEG on Gender and the MDGs in the Arab Region September 2007,Cairo, Egypt

2 Outline Background  Countries’ Development Agendas  Why are Gender Statistics Critical?  Gender Statistics Challenges in Africa ECA’s Response to Gender Statistics Challenges Future Developments Conclusions

3 Background

4 Countries’ Development Agendas National, regional, and international initiatives aimed at promoting economic and social development in African countries  NEPAD adopted as a reference framework for the Africa’s development (2000)  The Millennium Declaration (2000, MDGs)  The Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs) All these initiatives recognize that women and men face different socio-economic challenges

5 Why are Gender Statistics Critical? Thus, the importance of gender statistics in the implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of these initiatives and others Gender statistics:  Allow for unbiased evidence-based policy formulation and decision making  Address issues of inequalities and empowerment of women  Raise consciousness, persuade policy makers and other stakeholders to take into account the gender dimension in policy and decision making

6 Gender Statistics Challenges in Africa Inadequate advocacy for gender statistics Lack of strong commitment to gender statistics development by NSS. Hence, lack of mainstreaming of gender statistics in statistical programmes and activities Inadequacy between statistical programs and national data priorities Low profile of statistical units in line ministries where they exist Lack of technical skills and adequate statistical infrastructure (sampling frames, classifications, concepts, definitions and methods) Inadequate sex disaggregated data management (archiving, analysis, and dissemination)

7 Particular Difficult Areas Data on gender based violence are difficult to obtain:  Within the family: intimate partner violence, harmful traditional practices …  Within the community: femicide, sexual harassment, trafficking in women …  Other: Violence against women in armed conflicts, sexual slavery… Data on women’s contribution to the economy:  Unqualified domestic work  Inadequate data on informal sector

8 ECA’s Response to Gender Statistics Challenges

9 Selected Initiatives ECA’s initiatives aimed at addressing gender statistics challenges include:  The development of the African Gender and Development Index (AGDI)  Engendering the P&R on population and housing censuses  Setting up an African gender statistics network  Engendering agricultural and trade statistics  Dissemination of methodologies and tools for the development of gender-disaggregated data  Advocating and initiating the undertaking of Time Use surveys

10 The AGDI A composite index made of two components:  The Gender Status Index (GSI): captures quantitatively measurable issues related to gender equality  The African Women’s Progress Scoreboard (AWPS) complements the GSI by measuring government policy performance regarding transformation of social institutions that affects women’s advancement and empowerment Some desirable features of the AGDI?  Making use of data sets that are nationally available  Incorporation of qualitative issues  Monitoring mechanism to assess performance in implementing the various instruments African countries have ratified (CEDAW, BPFA, ACHPR, etc.)  12 African countries completed the process so far

11 BlockComponentSub componentIndicator Social power “capabilities ” Education Enrolment rate Primary enrolment rate Secondary enrolment rate Tertiary enrolment rate Dropout Primary dropout ratio Secondary dropout ratio Literacy Ability to read and write Primary school completed Health Child health Stunting under 3 Underweight under 3 Mortality under 5 Life expectancy at birth New HIV infection Time spent out of work Some Components of the GSI

12 Some Components of the AWPS Ratification Reporting Law Policy commitment Development of a plan Targets Institutional mechanism Budget % WOMEN’S RIGHTS CEDAW Ratification without reservation Optional protocol Art 2 Art 16 African Charter of Human and People’s Rights- Women’s Rights Protocol- Harmful Practices SOCIAL Beijing Platform for Action Violence against women Domestic violence Rape Sexual harassment Traffic in women African Charter on the rights of the Child art XXVII 2001 Abuja Declaration on HIV/AIDS and women

13 The AGDI: Lessons Learned Lessons learned from field trials:  Problems with data accessibility even where available for confidentiality reasons  Inadequate equipment or training and insufficient resources  Tapping the national information sources of the countries proved to open a rich mine of data and stimulate a consensus binding process  Use of national data allowed access to the most recent data available

14 Engendering the P&R on Population and Housing Censuses Review and recommendations on how to take into account gender perspectives in census undertaking in the framework of the 2010 RPHC Built on:  On-going work on the AGDI and its sectoral components  Tools on gender statistics and time use developed by the UNSD and the UNECA  On-going work on the African Supplement to the P&R on PHC undertaken by the UNECA Potential activities  Review various stages of censuses undertaking with a view to take into account gender issues  Draft an African Gender Supplement to P&R on PHC

15 African Gender Statistics Network To provide a framework for knowledge sharing, peer learning and networking between all stakeholders dealing with gender statistics issues The Network would:  Advocate for the integration of gender equality concerns into the policy agenda and the development of standards, frameworks and guidelines (P&R on PHC, RRSF, NSDSs…)  Contributions to the preparation and organization of various consultative meetings from a gender perspective  Participate in other meetings of statistical bodies such as ABSA, StatCom-Africa  Dissemination of information on gender statistics

16 Engendering Agricultural and Trade Statistics Deepening the work on the AGDI in trade and agriculture. Why these sectors?  Most African economies rely heavily on agricultural production  Women: majority of the agricultural workforce while their access to land, seeds, water… is still limited  Agriculture: An essential part of intra-African and international trade  Understanding the multidimensional aspects of feminized poverty as they relate to food security, access to resources, services… Activities:  Identification of issues related to gender, trade, and agriculture, current indicators used in these two areas, gender gaps in available statistics  Development of the sectoral indexes

17 Dissemination of Methodologies and Tools for the Development of Gender Statistics Guide for mainstreaming gender perspectives and household production into national statistics, budgets and policies in Africa Improve the skills of statisticians, national accountants and policy analysts, on how to engender national planning instruments Disseminate the methodologies developed by ECA for the collection of gender-responsive data

18 Time Use Surveys Time Use Surveys are useful statistical tools:  Generating data on how individuals spend their time  Producing sex disaggregated statistics on productive activities by households and estimating the value of unpaid work  Building national gender satellite accounts of household production  Defining macro-economic policies that take into account women’s unpaid work  Experiencing TUS in Djibouti underway

19 Future Developments Extend the AGDI to more African countries Advocating for the creation of gender statistics units in NSOs Putting in place a regional gender statistics programme Considering the creation of an African gender statistics City Group under the umbrella of the Statistical Commission for Africa

20 Conclusions Mainstreaming gender within NSS is of paramount importance Statistics on individuals should be collected, collated, analysed, and presented disaggregated by sex Identifying gender issues and ensuring that data addressing these (gender-responsive statistics) are collected and made available NSOs need to be provided with adequate resources to coordinate and generate relevant sex disaggregated data and make them accessible to the public at large Reinforcing the capacity for the production and use of gender responsive data is crucial in the formulation of comprehensive gender sensitive policies that benefit the entire society

21 Thank you!