Transcript Global Forum on Gender Statistics Rome, Italy 10-12 December 2007 Producing gender statistics: A perspective from Asia and the Pacific Andrés Montes ESCAP Statistics Division.

Global Forum on Gender Statistics
Rome, Italy 10-12 December 2007
Producing gender statistics:
A perspective from Asia and the Pacific
Andrés Montes
ESCAP Statistics Division
Recent workshops in the ESCAP region
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ESCAP & ADB workshops on Enhancing Social and
Gender Statistics (2002/2003).
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UNIFEM & ESCAP workshop on an Integrated
Approach to Gender Statistics and workshop on Using
Statistics for Gender-Responsive Policy Analysis and
Advocacy (2002/2003).
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DAW & ESCAP Enhancing Participation of Women in
Development through an Enabling Environment for
Achieving Gender Equality and the Advancement of
Women (2005).
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UNSD & the Government of India: Inter-regional
workshop on the Production of Gender Statistics
(2007).
Recent publications in the ESCAP region
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Statistics on Women in Asia and the Pacific.
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Women and men country profiles.
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Gender equality and empowerment: A statistical
profile of the ESCAP region.
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Integrating unpaid work into national policies.
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Gender Indicators for monitoring the
implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action
on women in the ESCAP region.
A better understanding and more advocacy are needed
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Need to increase knowledge: gender statistics
does not only mean disaggregating data by sex.
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Without a good understanding of the underlying
factors, indicators will prove irrelevant.
Indicators need to be feasible and information
should be accessible at an acceptable cost-benefit
ratio.
Create synergy improving inter-institutional
communication between NSOs and policy makers.
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Promote a change in behaviour and a
comprehensive approach towards gender issues.
The importance of understanding what we
want to measure
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Make women’s contribution to society more
visible?
Monitor compliance with agreements?
Follow progress towards a goal?
Determine the status of women in a given
society?
Observe legislation implementation?
Make indicators comparable at the international
level and across cultures?
data => indicators => analysis => policy making
Importance of censuses for gender statistics
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Microlevel data (individual level).
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Universal coverage (vulnerable groups).
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It is the benchmark for assessing main social
and demography issues.
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Wide array of subjects (demography, education,
health, disability, migration, employment,
housing characteristics & services).
Challenges in producing gender statistics
based on censuses
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Lack of resources is still a problem.
Results are not timely available for policy making.
Information is not used to the extent possible.
Many NSOs lack internal capacity, particularly for
analysing data.
Reduced use of international recommendations and
standards.
Lack of a systematic approach to identify gender
issues and provide information accordingly.
Projects related to censuses
The census programme in the ESCAP region is
divided into three components:
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Promoting global census principles and
recommendations with a focus on gender statistics.
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Building a disabilities and migration data system
around population censuses.
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Supporting effective use of information technology
in population censuses.
Projects in other areas
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Linking MDGs with CEDAW and Beijing
indicators (ESID).
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Inter-commission project on violence against
women (EISD & SD).
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Informal sector project (SD).
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Microdata project as a key information repository
(SD).
Useful links on gender in the ESCAP region
Statistics Development Section
Statistics Division
http://www.unescap.org/stat/statcap.asp#genstat
Gender and Development Section
Emerging Social Issues Division
http://www.unescap.org/esid/GAD/index.asp