United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
African Centre for
Statistics
Towards a More Effective
Production of Gender Sensitive
Data in African Countries: Ongoing
and Planned Activities by the
UNECA
Forum on Gender Statistics
10–12 December 2007, Roma, Italy
Dimitri Sanga, Ph.D.
Senior Statistician
Outline
 Background
Countries’ Development Agendas
Why are Gender Statistics Critical?
Gender Statistics Challenges in Africa
 ECA’s
Response to Gender Statistics
Challenges
 The Way Forward
 Conclusions
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Background
3
Countries’ Development Agendas

National, regional, and international initiatives
aimed at promoting economic and social
development in African countries
NEPAD adopted as a reference framework for the
Africa’s development (2000)
The Millennium Declaration (2000, MDGs)
The Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs)
All these initiatives recognize that women and
men face different socio-economic challenges
 To be effective, they therefore, need to reflect
the situation of women and men

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Why are Gender Statistics Critical?
Thus, the importance of gender statistics in the
implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of
these initiatives and others
 Gender statistics: Data collected, compiled and
analyzed taking in consideration that genderbased factors influence women’s and men’s
economic, social conditions, relations, and
access to resources
 Gender statistics ≠ Sex disaggregated statistics

 Sex: exogenous biological differences of men and women
Gender: socially constructed differences between
sexes (endogenous)
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Why are Gender Statistics
Critical? (Cont’d)

Gender statistics:
Allow for unbiased evidence-based policy
formulation and decision making
Address issues of inequalities and empowerment of
women
Raise consciousness, persuade policy makers and
other stakeholders to take into account the gender
dimension in policy and decision making
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Gender Statistics Challenges in
Africa
Inadequate advocacy for gender statistics: lack
of strong commitment to gender statistics
development by NSS
 Lack of mainstreaming of gender statistics in
statistical programmes and activities
 Lack of technical skills and adequate
statistical infrastructure (sampling frames,
classifications, concepts, definitions and
methods)
 Inadequate gender sensitive data management
(archiving, analysis, and dissemination)

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ECA’s Response to
Gender Statistics
Challenges
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Selected UNECA’s Initiatives

ECA’s initiatives aimed at addressing gender
statistics challenges include:
The development of the African Gender and
Development Index (AGDI)
Engendering the P&R on Population and Housing
Censuses
Setting up an African gender statistics network
Engendering agricultural and trade statistics
Dissemination of methodologies and tools for the
development of gender sensitive data
Advocating and initiating the undertaking of Time
Use surveys
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The AGDI

A composite index made of two components:
 The Gender Status Index (GSI): captures quantitatively
measurable issues related to gender equality
 The African Women’s Progress Scoreboard (AWPS):
measures government policy performance regarding
transformation of social institutions that affect women’s
advancement and empowerment
 3 blocks, 7 components, 12 sub components, 42 indicators

Some desirable features of the AGDI?
 Incorporation of qualitative issues
 Monitoring mechanism to assess performance in
implementing the various instruments African countries
have ratified (CEDAW, BPFA, ACHPR, etc.)
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Engendering the P&R on
Population and Housing Censuses

Importance of PHCs:
Primary source of information about the number
and characteristics of a given population
Completeness of coverage and the details they
provide about the population in local areas provide
a need that no other data source can meet
Provide the sampling frame for many other
statistical infrastructures (surveys)
The sole source of information on population and
housing characteristics for some countries

A potential source for gender-based
information at the lowest level possible
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Engendering the P&R on
Population and Housing Censuses
(Cont’d)
Review and recommendations on how to take
into account gender perspectives in census
undertaking in the framework of the 2010
RPHC
 Built on:

On-going work on the AGDI and its sectoral
components
Tools on gender statistics and time use developed
by the UNSD and the UNECA
On-going work on the African Supplement to the
P&R on PHC undertaken by the UNECA
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Engendering the P&R on
Population and Housing Censuses
(Cont’d)
Review various stages of PHCs with a view to
engender them
 Planning and design:

selection of topics, coverage, and frame shall reflect
gender relations an opportunities

Methodology:
concepts, definitions, questionnaire, coding shall
reflect gender diversities in the society

Data collection, capture and treatment:
respondents, imputation, quality checks

Data analysis, presentation, and dissemination:
tabulations, outputs
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The Way Forward
 Extend
the AGDI to more African
countries
 Advocating for the creation of gender
statistics units in NSOs
 Putting in place a regional gender
statistics programme
 Considering the creation of an African
gender statistics City Group under the
umbrella of the Statistical Commission for
Africa
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Conclusions

Mainstreaming gender within NSS is of
paramount importance

NSOs need to be provided with adequate
resources to coordinate and generate relevant
Gender sensitive data and make them
accessible to the public at large

Reinforcing the capacity for the production
and use of gender responsive data is crucial in
the formulation of comprehensive gender
sensitive policies that benefit the entire society
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Thank you!
African Centre for Statistics
Visit us at http:www.uneca.org/statistics/
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