Gender Statistics in Asia-Pacific Lorraine Corner Regional Economic Advisor UNIFEM Asia-Pacific & Arab States

2 Overview n Early 90s – statistics on women n India – engendering 1991 census to capture realistic Female Labour Force n – Swedish model - statistics on women & men l UNIFEM- UN-ESCAP Statistics Division regional project – 6 countries l UNIFEM national projects – China, Indonesia

Evaluation n Overall l “Users” were NOT users but sectoral producers l Under-utilization of gender statistics – & statistics in general l Failure to identify or train users l Failure to recognize different uses ' Awareness-raising – eg women’s unpaid work ' Policy advocacy ' Policy analysis ' Programme development & implementation – monitoring for management ' Accountability – monitoring government commitments n Regional approach l Economies of scale in training l “Good” competition l Standardized “recipe” ' Weak institutionalization ' Missed synergies n Country-specific approach l More innovative - adapted to local situation l Stronger institutional impact

4 Current Perspective n Past focus on socio-demographic statistics n Need economic gender statistics l Implementation of extended 1993 SNA l Sources of SNA data on trade, services etc from a gender perspective l Time use studies for: ' hard-to-measure sub-sectors – informal sector, homeworkers ' female labour force ' poverty n Stronger focus on users and uses n Build demand for gender statistics on MDGs, PRSPs, etc

5 Current Activities n India, Nepal – impressive work to engender 2001 census – process, tabulations n Arab States – work on gender indicators to monitor commitments to women n Regional collaboration with UNDP-APGEN gender programme on time use surveys n Work with UN-ESCAP Statistics Division & Regional Statistics Committee l Time use surveys – gender issues, feminized poverty, hard-to-measure segments l Informal sector – focus on flexibility & in-depth sub-sector surveys linked to labour force surveys l Homeworkers – distinction between homework and homeworkers, in- depth surveys, community approaches l Training materials and modules – ' an integrated approach to gender statistics 8-10 Jan 03 ' Gender statistics for policy advocacy and policy analysis Mar 03 n Engendering the newly emerging national statistical system of Timor Leste