United Nations
Economic Commission for Africa
Labour statistics requirements
for measuring gender equality
through the African Gender and
Development Index (AGDI)
Workshop on Household Surveys and Measurement of
Labour Force with Focus on Informal Economy
Maseru, Lesotho, 14-18 April 2008
Presented by: Souleymane Abdallah
Economic Affairs Officer, ACGSD
Presentation’s Outline
Background
What is the AGDI?
The Gender Status Index
Social Block
Economic Block
Political Block
The African Women Progress
Scoreboard
2
Background
 ECA’s mandate coordinate, support, monitor,
evaluate and report on the implementation of
international agreements on gender issues;
 Lack of common set of gender responsive
indicators to measure progress made in the
advancement of women
ECA’s response: AN AFRICAN SPECIFIC
GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT INDEX
THE AGDI
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What is the AGDI?
The AGDI is a comprehensive composite
index made up of two complementary
components:
(1) The Gender Status Index (GSI);
(2) The African Women’s Progress
Scoreboard (AWPS)
4
Objectives of AGDI
Three main objectives underscore the
development of the AGDI:
 To provide African Governments with data and
information on the status of gender equality and the
effects of their gender policies in tackling women’s
marginalisation;
 To provide African Governments with an African
Specific tools to monitoring the progress made in
implementing regional and international resolutions
and conventions on promotion of gender equality and
the advancement of women in Africa;
 To provide African Governments with not only
quantitative statistics but also qualitative ones so as
to measure both quantitative and qualitative progress.
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What Is the GSI?
The Gender Status Index is the quantitative
part of the African Gender and Development
Index;
GSI covers aspects of gender relations that can
be measured and provides a quantitative
assessment of gender equality;
The GSI is based on three blocks: social power
‘capabilities’, economic power ‘opportunities’
and political power ‘agency’.
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GSI Architecture
Blocks
Components
Sub-Components
Indicators
(3)
(7)
(12)
(42)
Enrolment
Social Power
Block
Education
Drop out
Health
Literacy
Income
GSI
Economic
Power Block
Time-Use or
Employment
…
.
.
Means of
production
Management
Public
sector
Civil
Society
Secondary
Dropout
…
.
Ownership
.
of plots or
land
Access to
credit
Access to
resources
Political
Power Block
Primary
Dropout
…
.
.
Freedom to
dispose own
income
…
.
.
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Social Block
Enrolment
Dropout
Education
Literacy
Child Health
Social Power
Block
Life expectancy
Health
New HIV infections
Time spent out of
work
8
Social Block (Cont’d)
Primary Enrolment rate
Enrolment
Secondary Enrolment rate
Tertiary Enrolment rate
Primary Dropout ratio
Education
Dropout
Secondary Dropout ratio
Ability to read and write
Literacy
Primary school completed
9
Social Block (Cont’d)
Stunting under 3
Child Health
Underweight under 3
Mortality under 5
Life expectancy
Life expectancy at birth
New HIV infections
New HIV infections
Time spent out of
work
Time spent out of work
Health
10
Economic Block
Wages
Income
Income
Time-Use
Economic
Power Block
Time-Use or
Employment
Employment
Means of production
Access to
resources
Management
11
Economic Block (Cont’d)
Wages in Agriculture
Wages in civil service
Wages
Wages in formal sector
Wages in informal sector
Income
Income from informal
enterprise
Income
Income from small
agricultural household
enterprise
Income from remittances
and inter-household transfers
12
Economic Block (Cont’d)
Time spent in market
economic activities
Time-Use
Time spent in non-market
activities or as unpaid
family worker in market
activities
Time spent in domestic,
care and volunteer
activities
Time-Use or
Employment
Employment
Share of paid employees,
own-account workers and
employers in total
employment
13
Economic Block (Cont’d)
Ownership of rural/urban
plots or land
Means of production
Access to credit
Freedom to dispose own
income
Access to
resources
Employers
High civil servants
(Class A)
Management
Members of professional
syndicates
Administrative, scientific
and technical staff
14
Political Block
Public sector
Political
Power Block
Civil Society
15
Political Block (Cont’d)
Public
sector
Members of Parliament
Members of Parliament
Cabinet Ministers
Cabinet Ministers
Higher courts judges
Higher courts judges
Members of local councils
Members of local councils
Higher positions in civil service
Higher positions in civil service
16
Political Block (Cont’d)
Sr. positions political parties
Sr. positions Trade unions
Civil
Society
Sr. positions political parties
Sr. positions Trade unions
Sr. positions Employer’s
associations
Sr. positions Employer’s
associations
Sr. positions Professional
syndicates
Sr. positions Professional
syndicates
Heads or managers of NGOs
Heads or managers of NGOs
Heads of community-based
associations or unions
Heads of community-based
associations or unions
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Computation of the GSI
Guiding principles:
Each basic indicator has the same weight
in each sub-component;
Each sub-component has the same weight
in each component;
Each component of the GSI has the same
weight in each block;
Finally, each block has the same weight in
the GSI.
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Computation of the GSI (Cont’d)
For each variable, the indicator of gender
equality is calculated the same way:
Comparison (ratio) of female achievement to
male achievement. The closer the indicator
is to 1, the better the performance on gender
equality is in the country:
Example: Primary enrolment rate for girls:
65%
Primary enrolment rate for boys: 80%
Enrolment rate indicator: 65/80 = 0.8125
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Computation of the GSI (Cont’d)
The value for each sub-component,
component and block is calculated as the
simple arithmetic mean of respectively the
indicators, sub-components and
components.
The GSI is then compiled as the mean of the
three blocks to give the overall gender profile
of the country.
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Computation of the GSI (Cont’d)
Exceptions (Reverse indicators):
 5 indicators do not follow the rule: These are
related to education (dropout), health (stunting,
underweight, mortality) and time-use (domestic,
care and volunteer activities): Here we measure
male achievement versus female achievement.
 If an indicator is missing, the other indicators of
the sub-component are re-weighted, to take
account of the actual number of available
indicators.
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The African Women Progress
Scoreboard (AWPS)
The (AWPS) is a matrix that captures
qualitative issues in relation to the
performance of gender policies of African
governments.
It provides an assessment of the gap
between political commitment and the
implementation of gender policies.
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AWPS Focus
 Women’s rights : CEDAW and its optional
protocol, the Protocol to the African Charter of
Human and People’s Rights on Women’s Rights.
 Social Power: BPfA, Violence against women
(domestic, sexual, rape, traffic),African Charter on
the rights of child, ICPD PoA+5 (STIs,
HIV/AIDS, maternal mortality, contraception),
2001 Abuja declaration on HIV/AIDS, education
(girls drop out, education on women’s rights).
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AWPS Focus (Cont’d)
 Economic Power: ILO Convention (100, 111, 183,
policy on HIV/AIDS), Engendering NPRS,
Access to agricultural extension services, access
to technology, equal access to land.
 Political Power: UN security council resolution
1325, Beijing PFA effective and accessible
national machinery, Policy for women’s quota
and affirmative action, Policy to support
women’s in decision making positions within
parliament/ministries, Gender mainstreaming in
all departments
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Vertical Axis
1. Ratification
2. Reporting
3. Law
4. Policy Commitment
5. Development of a Plan
6. Targets
7. Institutional Mechanism
8. Budget
9. Human resources (Training)
10. Research
11. Involvement of civil society
12. Monitoring and evaluation
13. Information and dissemination
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AWPS FORMAT
Block
Ratification
Reporting
Law
…
Women’s
Rights
Social
Score
Economic
Political
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Scoring AWPS
Simple scoring system that is sensitive to
progress made;
The scoring is done on a three-point scale;
For all cells where it is possible, a
three point score (0 – 1 – 2,) is used:
0 (zero) indicates a zero performance;
1 (one) indicates a poor - fair
performance;
2 (two) indicates a good – to excellent
performance.
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION!
Please visit www.uneca.org/acgd to download the AGDI booklet
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