Transcript Gender & the Millennium Development Goals Toward More Gender-responsive MDGs Monitoring & Reporting in the Arab Region ESCWA Literature Review Background Document.

Gender & the Millennium Development Goals
Toward More Gender-responsive MDGs
Monitoring & Reporting in the Arab Region
ESCWA
Literature Review
Background Document
Purpose
common understaing on ways to engender
monitoring & reporting on the Goals
Equipping statisticians & policy makers with a
conceptual tool & a core set of gendersensitive indicators.
The MDGs
1. Eradicate extreme poverty & hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality & empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria & other
diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for
development
MDGs & CEDAW/ BPFA/CRC
Gender equality & human rights for all
are essential to advancing
development, peace & security in the
world at large. Hence, linkages with
existing Rights’ Instruments &
Frameworks are crucial for tracking
progress toward gender equality,
women’s empowerment & the girl
child
BPFA ‘s 12 critical areas
Women & poverty
2. Education & training of women
3. Women & health
4. Violence against women
5. Women & armed conflict
6. Women & the economy
7. Women in power & decision-making
8. Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of
women
9. Human rights of women
10. Women & the media
11. Women & the environment
12. The girl-child
1.
Appropriate strategies of engendering the
MDGs

Partnership building

Capacity building on gender mainstreaming

Establishing & boosting the role of women state
machineries

Multi-sectoral gender theme groups

Inter-agency / inter-ministerial collaboration on national
planning

Gender sensitive national information management
systems/ data bases
Some successful gender sensitive initiatives
in MDG monitoring & reporting

UN Development Group Task Force (UNDG TF)

UN Millennium Project

WFP’s Food for Education

ILO Decent Work Agenda

WHO’s En-gendering’ the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) on Health

WB’s "Engendering Development - Through Gender
Equality in Rights, Resources, & Voice" Policy Research
Cont…

The United Nations Girl Education Initiative (UNGEI)

UNDP’s Capacity 2015 for the Arab States” (C2015-AS)

ESCWA’s
– Development of Gender Statistics Programs in the Arab
Countries”(GSP) (ESCWA)
– Development of Gender Statistics in Iraq
– Toward More Gender Responsive MDG Monitoring &
Reporting in the Arab Region”
– Series on Women & Men in some Arab Countries

DevInfo: MDG based information management system tool

All efforts were designed & implemented with UNIFEM’s
active involvement
The relevance of gender in the Arab
MDGs ??
LAS pledged commitment
to the
MD & MDGs
through
the Arab Declaration
&
to promoting
peace & security, democracy, good governance &
human rights, freedoms &
development &
eradicating poverty, improving living conditions for men &
women alike
In the Arab World
equitable & sustainable
Within
Int rights frameworks CEDAW & BPFA
The present picture in the Arab World
Bleak!
Despite the relatively encouraging
educational & health progress made since
2000, wide gaps still persist, as this
progress was not translated into equal
opportunities in economic & political
participation
Key gender issues & perspectives
Economic: Income, Poverty & Property Rights

under-valuing of women’s work in the household & in subsistence
family production (rearing animals, farming & working in the field, fetching water & fuel,
cooking, care for the sick & elderly by society & by women themselves

high rate of women headed families amidst lack of sufficient social
welfare system

women as major victims of poverty & poor infra-structure: illiteracy,
mal-nutrition, heavy workload, big families, etc

risk of drug addiction & sexual exploitation among street children

culture tolerant to child labor
Cont…

inflexibility of working hours for nursing mothers

exploitation, harassment & abuse in the work place

poor infra-structure & unequal access to & ownership of assets &
resources
– marginalization of women in a male biased labor market
– high unemployment among young women
– lower paid jobs concentrated in
– non-decision making positions dictated by women’s traditional roles
– weak representation of women in decision-making bodies
Education & training of women

High illiteracy, considerable gender gaps, high drop-out & low
retention rates , & high rural/urban disparities due to:
– unequal access to educational services,

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

bad infra structure male biased teaching methodologies, school
management & curricula
insufficient public spending to achieve gender parity
religious misconceptions on the role & rights of women & girls in the
society & their involvement in education & economic sectors
high female literacy rates have minimal impact on female
employment nor political participation due to:
– obsolete curricula
– marginalization from certain educational domains &
specializations
– Unequal access to information and communication technology
Women in positions of authority

unfair civil , legal & family legislations & biased/
patronizing legal systems

lack of women/girl friendly legislative system &
legal protection

marginalization of women from the positions of
political & administrative responsibility & lack
of political awareness due to the male dominated
political culture

under-representation in political councils
Women & media


Disempowering formal & informal discriminatory
practices
images of gender stereotypes in the media &
school books
Women, housing & environment



unequal access to safe water & adequate
sanitation
heavy burden on rural girls & women due to lack
of/ poor infra-structure
neglect & marginalization of rural areas & rural
women & girls
Human security & social justice/Women & violence

stereotyping in cultural norms & social traditions

Prevalence of traditional harmful practices (such as FGM, early marriages, “honor” crim
& undermining women status in the society

sexual violation (including rape & incest/an issue under the table), domestic violence &
abuse

the lack of a sufficient institutional response & legal support for victims of violence
silence the victims & perpetuate the violence

severe marginalization from the social life

son preference & discrimination in education, health care and social mobility for girls

women & girls ejected from their family homes after suffering physical & sexual attacks b
husbands or other relatives, either end up in (jail like) police custody for the rest of their
lives, or revert to the streets for sex work to subjected to further violence & sexual abuse
Cont….

women lack of control of resources (income,
land tenure, agricultural equipment)

lack of decision making in agricultural
planning & rural development programs,

unequal benefit from basic education
services, information & technology

low rate of participation in needs
assessments, situation analysis, & in
program design, monitoring & evaluation.
Refugees & migrant domestic workers

Invisible occupations in individualized & unregulated work
environments within families & in closed homes

obscure undocumented abuses & hidden labor exploitation
exposure to punishment, humiliation & sexual harassment

lack of protective measures & legislation & insufficient tracking
& records on domestic migrant workers, refugees, and
displaced populations

lack of familiarity with refugee & migrant mobility

increased illegal sexual activity & exploitation/ trafficking
among migrants and refugees
Girl Child Health

absence of sex / age disaggregated data for
children ‘s diseases

absence of sex disaggregated data on infant &
under 5 mortality

high malnutrition rates of girls under 5 years
of age

high rate of anemia among adolescent girls

early marriage & consecutive pregnancies
Reproductive health & women's health

lack of knowledge & awareness on SRH & insufficient access to
services & information on contraceptives & HIV/AIDS counseling &
testing services

high fertility rates particularly among illiterate female population

unhealthy lifestyles among adolescent girls

inadequate spending on health

gender discrepancies in public health, nutritional security, maternal
health, & contagious diseases

High prominence of breast cancer

inability to say no & inability to make decisions on their sexuality

lack of laws & legislation for protection of women against rape

lack of policies for promoting maternal & child health,
General health issues

lack of access to testing & counseling services, RSH
Reproductive & sexual health education & information

HIV/AIDS & STDs & drug addiction among street
children

increasing rate of HV/AIDS infections among Arab women
& girls

poor school curricula when it comes to school health
education & life skills

Women living under foreign occupation, as well as migrant
workers, both Arab & non-Arab are particularly subject to
different invisible kinds of violence & sexual abuse which
Availability of sex disaggregated data & gender
sensitive indicators
Major challenge:
the lack of quantitative sex disaggregated data & qualitative
gender disaggregated data ie on roles perceptions , impact ,
changes in practices & attitudes due to:

Inaccurate tabulation & analysis & unsystematic reporting to the
appropriate channels

Ambiguity about & resistance to major gender concepts by both
data users & producers

Unavailability of required data system & ICT technology nor
financial & human resources

Gender is not a priority in real terms but in theory
Major challenges

lack of peace and security

extreme poverty and underdevelopment (in some
countries)

neglect and lack of respect for human rights

lack of democracy and good governance

environmental degradation

population growth

debt burden

arid nature of the region
Cont…..

scarcity of water resources and limited agricultural land

weak participation by the civil society in the process of
development

weak political and economic reforms and institutional
infrastructures

obsolete legal and educational systems

centralized administration and management

political instability, conflict and crisis in Iraq, Sudan,
Palestine, Somalia and Lebanon

with their reservations on a number of articles of CEDAW,
countries encumbered the treaty and thus striped it of its
substance”,
Other major challenges
Taboo issues such as:



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FGM
incest
domestic violence
sexual abuse,
And on the marginalized and un-reached:

refugees & internally displaced people (IDPs) particularly women

abused domestic workers (migrant & local)

exploited home workers

street, orphaned & homeless girls

underage mothers (both legal & out of wedlock)

female delinquents (in custody/ prison, in the streets, sex workers, drug
addicts & HIV positive females,
Therefore gender sensitive outreach methodologies & tools must
be designed to collect data on the
many different and diverse issues
THOUGH countries should
prioritze according to their specific
issues
Sources of qualitative data
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women & girls themselves
religious entities
NGOs & civil society
organization
community leaders
rearchers
academia
health professionals
different government program
personnel
Data collection methodologies & tools


survey questionnaires
PRA (participatory rapid appraisals) & KAP studies
(knowledge, attitudes & practices),

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
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interviews & opinion surveys
observation
focus groups
informal discussions
literature review
anthropological studies
household Survey
Gender-sensitive analysis & reporting
Gender sensitive analysis – an analytical
tool which aims at identifying sexual
division of labor & gender based
differences, & highlights challenges as
well as opportunities to reduce gender
gaps in project/ program situation & in
everyday real life
Finally
“The basic strategy with gender sensitive
indicators is one of using quantitative &
qualitative methods in combination to
measure gender related changes in
society over time
& relying on research staff & statisticians who
are gender sensitive