LECTURE: GENERATING ISSUE-ORIENTED STATISTICS AND INDICATORS Opoku Manu Asare

1. NATIONAL TRAINING WORKSHOPS WITH PRODUCERS AND USERS OF GENDER STATISTICS 2-4 October 2017, Kampala, Uganda LECTURE: GENERATING ISSUE-ORIENTED STATISTICS AND INDICATORS Opoku Manu Asare

2. At this presentation, we shall briefly focus on generating issues and they relate to SDGs statistics and indicators (3, 4, 5 and 8)

3. What are gender issues? • The term ‘gender issue’ refers to any issue or concern determined by gender-based and/or sex-based differences between women and men. Gender issues include all aspects and concerns related to women’s and men’s lives and situation in society, to the way they interrelate, their differences in access to and use of resources, their activities, and how they react to changes, interventions and policies. (European Institute for Gender Equality – EIGE (2014)

4. What are Gender statistics and indicators? • Gender statistics have been defined as statistics that “adequately reflect differences and inequalities in the situation of women and men in all areas of life” (United Nations 2006).    • Statistics and indicators that reflect the realities of the lives of women and men are needed to describe women’s and men’s role in the society, economy and family, to formulate and monitor policies and plans, monitor changes, and inform the public. Conference of European Statisticians (CES) October, 2014    

5. Integrating gender perspectives into statistics and indicators • Integrating a gender perspective throughout the statistical system is a methodological requirement for improving both data coverage and data quality.  It requires the integration of gender and the participation of women, including in decision making.    • The gender statistics literature identifies a need for a gender perspective in statistics in five areas: • Content: the topics and issues covered and how these are decided • Structure: concepts, definitions and classification systems • Method: Data collection methods   • Reporting: Data compilation and dissemination • Disaggregation: Data analysis.

6. Gender mainstreamingThe Statistics approach (Use the Gender toolkit) • Clarify objectives • Design questionnaire • Define sample methodology • Develop Instructional manual • Conduct a pilot/trail • Select and train Enumerators and supervisors • Advertise the survey or census to the public • Collect, code and edit • Tabulate data and generate analysis • Gender and sex-disaggregated data • Monitoring, Evaluation and impact assessment • Store, archive, retrieve • Present, publish and disseminate • Any other aspect of data management and development • IN ALL SUBJECTS

7. What are Gender indicators: Background • Gender indicators are designed to measure women’s empowerment and progress toward gender equality between women and men, including women’s and men’s status, gender roles and relations in social, economic, cultural and political life • Gender equality/inequality can be measured directly or indirectly.    Since equality and inequality are multi‐dimensional phenomena, composite indicators are required to measure equality/inequality directly  • However, the available composite measures face major conceptual, practical and measurement difficulties and none are able to measure gender equality/inequality directly.    • Most regional and national efforts to develop gender indicators use sets of indicators covering a range of topics considered to contribute directly or indirectly to gender equality or women’s empowerment   • The topics have often been drawn from UN processes, particularly the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).   

8. Global efforts to develop gender indicator sets • Beginning with the processes around the World Conferences on Women, the United Nations system and UN agencies have been the major focus of international efforts to develop and promote the use of gender statistics and gender indicators.   • Paras 209‐212 of the 2005 Beijing Platform for Action provides a comprehensive description of the responsibilities of national, regional and international statistical agencies for providing sex‐disaggregated data, data on specific gender issues and gender‐ responsive data and statistics.   • However, at its twenty‐third special session (Beijing+5), the General Assembly of the United Nations noted the lack of a minimum set of gender indicators to monitor initiatives to implement the BPFA at the national, regional and global levels.   

9. Global efforts to develop gender indicator sets • As a result, in 2006 an Interagency and Expert Group on the Development of Gender Statistics (IAEG‐ GS) was convened by the United Nations in New York to review initiatives supporting capacity development of national statistical systems to develop gender statistics.   • Subsequent meetings were held in Rome (2007), Accra (2009) and Manila (2010).    • In Rome advisory groups were established on establishing an international gender statistics and indicators database and on gender statistics training.   • In 2009, a subgroup of the Advisory Group working on the international database was formed to develop a Global Minimum Set of Gender Indicators and a new advisory group was established on gender statistics legislation.  

10. Global efforts to develop gender indicator sets • In 2011, a programme review of gender statistics prepared by Ghana (E/CN.3/2011/3) was discussed by the 42nd session of the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC), which requested implementation of a global programme on gender statistics including a further review of gender statistics aimed at establishing a minimum set of gender indicators (E/2011/24‐E/CN.3/2011/37).   • These were subsequently developed by the subgroup “for international compilation and dissemination to facilitate global comparisons of the state of gender statistics to evaluate the situation of women and men and the capacity of countries in this regard” (ESA/STAT/AC.242/5).   

11. Global efforts to develop gender indicator sets The concept note recognised at least three levels of. The main criteria for inclusion in the Global Minimum Set of Gender Indicators were that the indicators should: • Address relevant issues related to gender equality and/or women’s empowerment   • Be conceptually clear, easy to interpret, and have an agreed international definition • Be regularly produced by countries, with sufficient coverage to track progress over time. • However, the final set included indicators that only partially meet the criteria.  The set is divided into three tiers: Indicators in Tier 1 meet all three criteria.  Those in Tier 2 meet criteria 1 and 2, while Tier 3 includes indicators that meet only criterion 1 but are conceptually important and are therefore included to “encourage methodological development and/or further data production” (ESA/STAT/AC.242/5: 3).   

12. Structure of the set of indicators • The indicators are organised into five domains: • Economic structures and access to resources, • Education, Health and related services, • Public life and decision-making, • Human rights of women and child. Each domain addresses one or more of the Beijing Platform for Action critical areas of concern. Owing to the unavailability of either data or clear concepts and definitions, three of the 12 critical areas of concern are not covered in the minimum set of gender indicators.

13. The indicators are categorised into three tiers • Tier 1: indicator addresses relevant issues related to gender equality and/or women's empowerment; is conceptually clear and has an international established methodology and standards; and data are regularly produced by countries, with sufficient coverage to allow tracking progress over time • Tier 2: indicator addresses relevant issues related to gender equality and/or women's empowerment; is conceptually clear and has an international established methodology and standards; but data are not regularly produced by countries • Tier 3: indicator addresses relevant issues related to gender equality and/or women's empowerment; but with no internatioanl established methodology or standards; data are not regularly produced by countries

14. The list of Minimum Set of Gender Indicators • 52 quantitative indicators • 11 qualitative indicators related to national norms Among the 52 quantitative indicators: • 37 Tier 1 indicators • 8 Tier 2 indicators • 7 Tier 3 indicators Among the 11 qualitative indicators: • 9 Tier 1 indicators • 2 Tier 2 indicators

15. Global Minimum Set of Gender Indicators by Domain and Tier

16. Developing indicators: Challenges • Despite these efforts, development of gender indicator sets did not lead to a significant increase in the availability of gender statistics or gender indicators.   • Nor did it increase the use of the indicators that were available.  This was partly due to problems in the way in which the first gender indicators were developed and to weaknesses in the indicators themselves: • Lack of technical input from statistics agencies or statistics experts resulted in major technical flaws in early indicator sets that made it difficult for national statistics offices to become involved or to provide support • Organising the indicators around the critical areas of concern resulted in very large indicator sets that could not be regularly produced or supported by national statistics offices.   

17. Requirements for a Global/Regional/National Core Set of Gender Statistics and Indicators (Africa) • Facilitate cross‐country comparisons within the region and at global level • Address the specific needs and situations of member states in the Africa region • Meet the needs of users • Address the needs of data producers • Utilise existing data • Identify areas that require the development of new gender statistics

18. Developing indicators: Challenges • Organising the indicators around the strategic objectives for each of the critical areas of concern had the advantage of creating a clear link to policy but contributed to the large number of individual indicators.  • Organising the indicators around the critical areas of concern also led to indicator sets that lacked a clear focus on gender equality or women’s empowerment and which included many general indicators (particularly on poverty) that were not directly linked to a gender dimension • Indicators were not designed to meet the needs of specific users.  In particular, the needs of civil society users for simple, easy‐to‐use indicators tended to be overlooked • The purpose of indicators was usually not specified, making it difficult for many potential users to understand how to use them • Development of indicator sets was often not linked to capacity development for either users or producers  

19. Way forward • Develop a policy and strategic plan for Gender • Stakeholders should show commitment • Global/regional/national efforts needed • Train more experts, with interest in GS • Integration through gender mainstreaming is critical • Political and leadership commitment is crucial • Commit more resources

20. Sources Data and metadata for the indicators: United Nations Statistics Division, as the Secretariat of IAEG-GS, is tasked to collect and compile data and metadata from leading agencies and make those data available online at: • http://genderstats.un.org • http://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/Framework-and-Indicator-set.pdf

21. Group exercise Identifying gender issues with indicators • Group 1 – SDG 3 • Group 2 – SDG4 • Group 3 – SDG5 • Group 4 – SDG 8

22. Thank you