United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Statistical Division Statistical framework to mainstream gender in economics Enrico Bisogno Meeting of experts on Mainstreaming Gender into Economic Policies Geneva, 9-10 July 2007

Piera Tortora Slide 2Geneva, 9-10 July 2007 Introduction  Statistics as an important instrument towards gender equality  Very important in those countries where political discourse traditionally incorporates gender equality  need to scrape the surface

Piera Tortora Slide 3Geneva, 9-10 July 2007 Quality approach to improve statistics  Relevance  Accuracy  Accessibility  Timeliness  Interpretability  Based on international standards

Piera Tortora Slide 4Geneva, 9-10 July 2007 Approach within SPECA program: Tiers  Many different needs/gaps exist: how to prioritize? How to build a strategy?  A framework based on tiers, with different degrees of feasibility and targeting different groups of users

Piera Tortora Slide 5Geneva, 9-10 July 2007 Four tiers  Tier 1: Data produced and based on standard methods  Tier 2: Data could be produced on the bases of existing sources, but they are not. In other cases, data are not produced according to international standards  Tier 3: Data not yet available in official statistics, very relevant, but no standard in place  Tier 4: Qualitative assessments difficult to include in a statistical frame

Piera Tortora Slide 6Geneva, 9-10 July 2007 Tier 1  Data produced and based on standard methods  Challenges: Make data collection regular Not all countries able to collect these data Improve dissemination Facilitate use of data

Piera Tortora Slide 7Geneva, 9-10 July 2007 Tier 1: examples  Unemployment and employment rates  Employment by status (own-account worker, employer, employee, etc.)  Basic welfare information, such as number of pensioners and children in preschools

Piera Tortora Slide 8Geneva, 9-10 July 2007 Tier 1: examples for challenges  Data dissemination: some publications available, but on-line databases are still rare  Labour force surveys not yet regular in some countries  Link between data and policies: to what extent national strategies are benchmarked against indicators?

Piera Tortora Slide 9Geneva, 9-10 July 2007 Tier 2  Data could be produced on the bases of existing sources, but they are not  Data are not produced according to international standards  Challenges: Make full use of available sources Standardize definitions so that data become more relevant and comparable

Piera Tortora Slide 10Geneva, 9-10 July 2007 Tier 2: examples  Data on entrepreneurship, such as % enterprises/farms managed by women  Informal employment  Employment by family status  Gender pay gap

Piera Tortora Slide 11Geneva, 9-10 July 2007 Tier 2: examples for challenges  Work to improve selected indicators (for example gender pay gap)  Improve LFS to incorporate informal employment  Improve business statistics (registers)  Produce data for sub-national levels

Piera Tortora Slide 12Geneva, 9-10 July 2007 Tier 3  Data not yet available in official statistics  Very relevant and needed, but no standard in place  Challenges: Develop new standards and definitions Identify appropriate sources

Piera Tortora Slide 13Geneva, 9-10 July 2007 Tier 3: examples  Access to economic assets (land, loans, etc.)  Intra-household distribution of income  Gender attitudes

Piera Tortora Slide 14Geneva, 9-10 July 2007 Tier 4  Qualitative assessments  Qualitative targets  Examples: Improve education system Improve governance

Piera Tortora Slide 15Geneva, 9-10 July 2007 Questions  What are the most relevant statistical challenges in your country?  Where is the priority: the use of data? the link between data and research or between data and policies? Relevance and/or accuracy of selected indicators?  At what level: national or regional?