Transcript Engendering development statistics: a new opportunity Francesca Perucci Statistics Division, DESA United Nations, New York Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007

Engendering development
statistics: a new opportunity
Francesca Perucci
Statistics Division, DESA
United Nations, New York
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
Outline
1.
2.
3.
A new approach to development
Can we monitor progress in gender equality?
Conclusions and way forward
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
Outline
1. A new approach to development
2.
3.
Can we monitor progress in gender equality?
Conclusions and way forward
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
The Millennium Declaration: a new
approach to development
Millennium Declaration in 2000
Eight universally-agreed “Millennium
Development Goals” (MDGs)
Development is not exclusively
economic, but also embraces
human, social and environmental
dimensions
Specific measurable and
time-bound targets for
each Goal
A shift in emphasis from
inputs to results
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
Monitoring progress towards the MDGs
• The establishment of the MDGs was followed
by the identification of an agreed set of targets
and indicators to measure achievements
• The Secretary-General mandated the United
Nations Inter-agency and Expert Group (IAEG)
on MDG Indicators with the production of data
and reporting
• The IAEG established thematic sub-groups
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
Monitoring and the need for statistics
• The political importance of the MDGs and the
need to monitor progress have shaped the
development of indicators and related statistical
capacity-building programmes over the past few
years.
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
Monitoring and the need for statistics
• The Millennium Declaration and the
establishment of the MDGs have also
contributed to:
– Bring about an increased recognition of the
importance of statistics for policy-making and
monitoring
– Highlight the overall lack of adequate statistical
capacity in many developing countries
– A higher recognition and awareness of the urgent
need to build stronger national statistical systems
– The development of new capacity building initiatives
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
Outline
1.
A new approach to development
2. Can we monitor progress in gender
equality?
3.
Conclusions and way forward
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
Gender equality as a necessary
condition for development
• There is universal recognition that gender equality and
women’s empowerment are necessary conditions to achieve
development
– Women contribute to household income
– There is compelling evidence that gender equality and
women’s empowerment are necessary to achieve universal
primary education, lower under-five mortality, improved
maternal health, and lower likelihood of contracting
HIV/AIDS
– Women’s greater control over household resource allocation
improve children’s health, nutrition and education
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
Why the need to monitor gender
equality and women’s empowerment
Governments need to
honor existing
international
commitments to
mainstream gender
and promote the
empowerment of
women into all
development policies
Data should be
available to
support this effort
and to identify the
progress that is
being achieved.
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
Monitoring Goal 3 - Promote gender
equality and empower women
Indicators:
Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary
education
Share of women in wage employment in the nonagricultural sector
Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
Monitoring Goal 3: Why is it difficult?
•Only some of the dimensions of gender equality and
empowerment are captured by the three indicators
•All three indicators only partially address the
dimensions they are expected to monitor.
•There are problems of data availability and data
quality.
•Although other aspects of women’s lives are covered
by some of the other goals, few of the indicators under
those goals are appropriate or sufficient to fully assess
the situation of women and men.
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
MDG-indicator 11: Share of women in wage employment in the nonagricultural sector
Percentage of countries with at least 2 data points since 1990
(country data and estimated data)
67%
83%
73%
67%
74%
73%
24%
Source: www.mdgs.un.org, accessed 3
Global Forum on
Gender Statistics,
December
2007 Rome, 10-12 December 2007
20%
Goal 3: Modification of existing indicators
Share of women in wage
employment in the nonagricultural sector
Share of women in employment by type:
1. Share of women in total employment
2. Share of women in agricultural employment
3. Share of women in non-agricultural wage
employment (current MDG indicator)
3.1 Informal wage employment
4. Share of women in non-agricultural selfemployment
4.1 informal self-employment
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
Goal 3: Proposed new indicators
Domestic violence
Infrastructure
and women’s
contribution to
the economy
Control of
resources
Participation in
local governments
Proportion of women who ever had
a partner, 15-49 years old, who
have ever experienced physical
violence by an intimate partner
Hours per day (or year) women and
men spend fetching water and
collecting fuel
Land ownership by sex
Housing title, disaggregated by male,
female or jointly held
Percentage of women elected to local
government bodies
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
Monitoring Goal 3: Recommendations
by the sub-group
• For most of the indicators proposed the
current data availability was still
insufficient to produce the indicator for all
regions and for two points in time (for
trend analysis).
• The focus should be on promoting
adequate data collection programmes.
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
Monitoring Goal 3: Recommendations
by the sub-group
Women’s empowerment in the are of health and
their ability to control their reproductive life
•
•
Adolescent birth rate
Unmet need for family planning
New indicators included in the new MDG
framework, under Goal 5, presented to the
General Assembly, September 2007
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
Outline
1.
2.
A new approach to development
Can we monitor progress in gender equality?
3. Conclusions and way forward
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
How far have we gone?
•
•
The call for improved availability of data on
women and men started with the first World
Women’s Conference in 1975. At the end of
the women’s decade, in Nairobi, the first
comprehensive compilation of gender statistics
was presented.
More than thirty years on, the data available
from official national and international sources
still do not allow us to monitor the basic
aspects of development related to gender and
to inform policies with the necessary statistics.
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
How far have we gone?
•
The current availability of statistics from
national official sources indicate that
statistical systems have failed to fully
integrate a gender perspective in all
areas of statistical production and to
provide policy makers with the kind of
data required for gender-sensitive
policy formulation
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
The way forward: A new environment
•
•
The urgency for development partners to address the lack of
data has become more evident
Important new initiatives for statistical capacity-building:
–
Marrakech Action Plan for the improvement of
development statistics
–
Steering and Working Groups on MDG Africa: Thematic
Group on Statistical System
–
IAEG’s initiatives in statistical capacity building
–
CCSA’s new efforts to improve coordination and delivery of
capacity building programmes
–
2006 ECOSOC resolution
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
The way forward: Seizing the opportunity
•
The MDGs and the new monitoring requirements
have not only created the need but also provided
an opportunity to improve data and genderbased data.
•
The opportunity should not be lost to ensure that
the need for improved gender data is addressed
•
Statisticians concerned with the development of
gender statistics need to become fully involved
in the implementation of these initiatives and
programmes.
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
The way forward: Seizing the opportunity
•
Many developing countries are working to
build national statistical systems:
– National Strategies for the Development of
Statistics
– 2010 World Population Census Programme
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
The way forward: A few important steps
•
Ensure that capacity building programmes
and initiatives to improve the financing for
the development of statistics also include a
gender perspective
•
Develop standards and guidelines through
the formal intergovernmental process (UN
SC) to ensure full involvement and
commitment by national statistical systems
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
The way forward: A few important steps
Ensure that the new initiatives include a gender
perspective:
•
Population census as a source of gender
statistics
•
Household surveys as a source for data on:
access to resources
health indicators (maternal mortality)
poverty indicators
•
Vital statistics as a source for data by sex
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007
THANK YOU
Visit mdgs.un.org
Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Rome, 10-12 December 2007