United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Presented by: Souleymane ABDALLAH Economic Affairs Officer, ACGS The African Gender and Development Index (AGDI) GLOBAL FORUM ON GENDER STATISTICS Accra, Ghana January 2009 A framework to measure gender equality in Africa

2 Presentations Outline Background What is the AGDI? The Gender Status Index The African Women Progress Scoreboard Cross-analysis

3 Background ECAs mandate coordinate, support, monitor, evaluate and report on the implementation of international agreements on gender issues; Lack of common set of gender responsive indicators to measure progress made in the advancement of women ECAs response: AN AFRICAN SPECIFIC GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT INDEX (AGDI)

4 What is the AGDI? The AGDI is a comprehensive composite index made up of two complementary components: (1) The Gender Status Index (GSI); (2) The African Womens Progress Scoreboard (AWPS)

5 Objectives of AGDI Three main objectives underscore the development of the AGDI: To provide African Governments with data and information on the status of gender equality and the effects of their gender policies in tackling womens marginalisation; To provide African Governments with an African Specific tools to monitoring the progress made in implementing regional and international resolutions and conventions on promotion of gender equality and the advancement of women in Africa; To provide African Governments with not only quantitative statistics but also qualitative ones so as to measure both quantitative and qualitative progress.

6 What Is the GSI? The Gender Status Index is the quantitative part of the African Gender and Development Index; GSI covers aspects of gender relations that can be measured and provides a quantitative assessment of gender equality; The GSI is based on three blocks: social power capabilities, economic power opportunities and political power agency.

7 GSI Architecture

8 Social Block

9 Social Block (Contd)

10 Social Block (Contd)

11 Economic Block

12 Economic Block (Contd)

13 Economic Block (Contd)

14 Economic Block (Contd)

15 Political Block

16 Political Block (Contd)

17 Political Block (Contd)

18 Computation of the GSI Guiding principles: Each basic indicator has the same weight in each sub-component; Each sub-component has the same weight in each component; Each component of the GSI has the same weight in each block; Finally, each block has the same weight in the GSI.

19 Computation of the GSI (Contd) For each variable, the indicator of gender equality is calculated the same way: Comparison (ratio) of female achievement to male achievement. The closer the indicator is to 1, the better the performance on gender equality is in the country: Example: Primary enrolment rate for girls: 65% Primary enrolment rate for boys: 80% Enrolment rate indicator: 65/80 =

20 Computation of the GSI (Contd) The value for each sub-component, component and block is calculated as the simple arithmetic mean of respectively the indicators, sub-components and components. The GSI is then compiled as the mean of the three blocks to give the overall gender profile of the country.

21 Computation of the GSI (Contd) Exceptions (Deprivation indicators): 5 indicators do not follow the rule: These are related to education (dropout), health (stunting, underweight, mortality) and time-use (domestic, care and volunteer activities): Here we compute male result versus female result. If an indicator is missing, the other indicators of the sub-component are re-weighted, to take account of the actual number of available indicators.

22 The African Women Progress Scoreboard (AWPS) The (AWPS) is a matrix that captures qualitative issues in relation to the performance of gender policies of African governments. It provides an assessment of the gap between political commitment and the implementation of gender policies.

23 AWPS Focus Womens rights : CEDAW and its optional protocol, the Protocol to the African Charter of Human and Peoples Rights on Womens Rights. Social Power: BPfA, Violence against women (domestic, sexual, rape, traffic),African Charter on the rights of child, ICPD PoA+5 (STIs, HIV/AIDS, maternal mortality, contraception), 2001 Abuja declaration on HIV/AIDS, education (girls drop out, education on womens rights).

24 AWPS Focus (Contd) Economic Power: ILO Convention (100, 111, 183, policy on HIV/AIDS), Engendering NPRS, Access to agricultural extension services, access to technology, equal access to land. Political Power: UN security council resolution 1325, Beijing PFA effective and accessible national machinery, Policy for womens quota and affirmative action, Policy to support womens in decision making positions within parliament/ministries, Gender mainstreaming in all departments

25 Vertical Axis 1. Ratification 2. Reporting 3. Law 4. Policy Commitment 5. Development of a Plan 6. Targets 7. Institutional Mechanism 8. Budget 9. Human resources (Training) 10. Research 11. Involvement of civil society 12. Monitoring and evaluation 13. Information and dissemination

26 AWPS FORMAT Block RatificationReportingLaw… Womens Rights Social Score Economic Political

27 Scoring AWPS Simple scoring system that is sensitive to progress made; The scoring is done on a three-point scale; For all cells where it is possible, a three point score (0 – 1 – 2,) is used: 0 (zero) indicates a zero performance; 1 (one) indicates a poor - fair performance; 2 (two) indicates a good – to excellent performance.

28 Cross-analysis BlockGender Status Index African Women Progress Scoreboard Social Secondary dropout ratio = Girls drop out Law=0, Policy=0, Plan=0 Economic Ownership of plot/land = Equal access to land law=2, Policy=2 Political Members of local councils = Support women in decision making Law=2, Policy=1, Plan=0

29 THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION! Please visit to download the AGDI bookletwww.uneca.org/acgd