Guide on Gender Analysis of Census Data Full Draft of 6 December 2012 Contents
Appendix 5: From Understanding the Gender Data Gap to Improving the Production and Analysis of Gender Statistics
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- Recommendation 1: Data must be relevant to Gender Equality Issues- Need for strong alliances between data users and producers Why is this important
- Country example: Uganda.
- ( Germany example, p. 141, UNECE What is this )
- Text Box 13: Gender-Responsive Budgeting
- Country examples: Kyrgyz Republic
- Recommendation 3: Gender data must be reliable and adhere to international standards – Need for common definitions and quality standards to enhance comparability
- ( From UN Women: the cited examples have not referred only to censuses. It is important to cite the guide of ECLAC/UNIFEM/UNFPA, that include some recommendations about census work).
- Potential problems and benefits
- Regional example
- Latin America and the Caribbean Gender Equality Observatory
- Challenge 5: Micro-data on gender issues is dispersed - Need to unify what is available, upstream small-scale data Why is this important
- Country examples : [find] Recommendation 6: Information is available but not used - Need for better communication and dissemination of gender data
Appendix 5: From Understanding the Gender Data Gap to Improving the Production and Analysis of Gender StatisticsThe phrase gender data gap refers to the fact that the coverage of gender issues, including women’s lives and realities, is generally inadequate in mainstream data and statistics. This occurs to some degree everywhere but is worse in some regions (Africa and Oceania) and for some types of statistics (e.g. social services, disability, time use and unpaid work, gender-based violence, access to resources, access to decision-making processes, informal economy) (UNSD, 2005). There are several reasons for the existence of a gender data gap including:
The following will examine some of the major recommendations to producing and using high-quality gender statistics as well as outline the global standards, potential problems and country examples. Recommendation 1: Data must be relevant to Gender Equality Issues- Need for strong alliances between data users and producers Why is this important? Gender statistics are the foundation of gender-based analysis and go well beyond sex-disaggregation. As such, producers of gender statistics are required to know more about the topics of gender, and users of gender statistics must know about the scope and limitation of the data. Collaboration between the producers and users of gender statistics will help ensure that gender statistics are more meaningful and user-friendly and include issues from multiple angles while also keeping in mind policy and planning imperatives. Raising the awareness of the institutions that produce statistics about gender issues may also help increase the demand for gender sensitive data for public policies. Global standards: Strategic objective H.3./206.c) of the Beijing Platform for Action asks Statistical Services to “Involve centres for women's studies and research organizations in developing and testing appropriate indicators and research methodologies to strengthen gender analysis, as well as in monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the goals of the Platform for Action”. It is now widely understood that other governmental (Ministry of Fmaily/Women/Social Affairs for example) and civil society organisations (non-governmental organisations, universities, media, trade unions, etc.) should also be involved in this process. Potential problems: A potential problem is the asymetry of power relations: Women’s machineries are often marginalised in government, suffer from a chronic lack of resources and have limited/no understanding of the availability of data or how to use data for programme/policy development. Consultations wth civil society organisations are sometimes mere window-dressing in response to growing national and international pressure to engage with them. If data users are not at the table at the time census questionnaires are designed and tabulations are planned, it will be hard to present gender statistics in a user-friendly way. Data may not be published “just in time” for crucial policy decisions if there is no interaction between policy-makers and data-producers. Country example: Uganda. The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) regularly promotes Public Seminars, organized in collaboration with policy makers and users of statistics (stakeholders), to present analysis and research findings using data routinely collected by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), including census data and gender indicators. One of the main purposes of the seminars is to educate the public about the use of statistics. Internationally: Over the last ten years, alliances between producers and users of statistics have been strengthened through international meetings on gender statistics. For example, a Working Group on Gender Statistics was created during the fourth meeting of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in 2007. This inter-institutional and inter-agency (UN Women and the Gender Affaires Division/ECLAC) initiative has led to progress in statistical activities across the region. (Germany example, p. 141, UNECE? What is this ?) You should be included as an example of alliances between producers and users, the international meetings of gender statistics that have been carried out for more than ten years (without interruption). They have been regarded as a good practice, and that is an inter-agency effort (UN Women and Gender Affairs Division/ECLAC) and inter-institutional. The meeting is part of the activities of the working group on gender statistics of the Statistical Commission of the Americas. Recommendation 2: An enabling institutional environment is needed for the production of gender statistics – political will, a legislative framework, sufficient funding, commitment and buy-in from senior leaders Why is this important? Gender statistics emerge from demand, whether from politicians, specific ministries, women’s departments or the public. Political will for gender statistics can be thought of as support from political leaders that results in policy change. It generally originates with a single individual or small group, often situated somewhere within the state apparatus (best if at a high level) who become the “champion” for gender statistics, build coalitions and, as part of those coalitions, raise funds for the issue, push for its firm anchoring in the legislative framework and try to sustain the policy change once achieved. Where political will is lacking, funds are unlikely to be allocated to gender statistics and an enabling environment (legislative and administrative framework) is unlikely to be created. Global standards: Many countries incorporate CEDAW provisions on gender equality and women’s empowerment into domestic law, in particular their civil, penal and labour codes. Countries also reform their Gender Equality Architecture, conduct Gender Audits and initiate Gender-Responsive Budgeting to monitor whether and how political translates into funding and impact. Gender analysis of sex-disaggregated data is needed to monitor progress in compliance with CEDAW and other international and national instruments at country-level. Text Box 13: Gender-Responsive Budgeting Gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) is government planning, programming and budgeting that contributes to the advancement of gender equality and the fulfillment of women's rights. It entails identifying and reflecting needed interventions to address gender gaps in sector and local government policies, plans and budgets. GRB also aims to analyse the gender-differentiated impact of revenue-raising policies and the allocation of domestic resources and Official Development Assistance. Source: http://www.gender-budgets.org/; accessed 1 March 2011. Potential problems: As UNSD pointed out, it is essential to “distinguish between a national plan on gender statistics and a law on gender statistics”, since “without a specific law, there is no guarantee that gender statistics will be included in the work plan each year” (UNSD 2009). Moreover, the laws on gender statistics must also be relatively detailed, clearly spelling out administrative and budgetary implications. Where a law on gender statistics exists, budget negotiations will be easier and the gender statistics architecture is more likely to dispose of the means it needs to fullfil its functions. Country examples: Kyrgyz Republic: Obliges State bodies, institutions of local self-government and heads of legal entities regardless of forms of ownership to submit appropriate information on gender issues to the National Statistical Committee (Art. 30). Philippines and Nepal:, CEDAW Monitoring Bodies have been set up that are responsible for producing and diffusing gender statistics. Italy: A detailed law on gender statistics makes producing sex-disaggregated data from population censuses compulsory, including data on households and institutionalized persons, as well as on different household typologies. (UNECE/UNDP, 2004) Korea: A new statistical act was released (2007), giving the Korean Statistical Office the jurisdiction to expand the topics included in data collection, in order to provide more relevant data for gender analysis (UNSD, 2009). Spain: The 2007 statistical legislation of the Andalusia region included the provision for gender mainstreaming which created an enabling environment for the production of gender statistics, also leading to laws requiring gender budgeting and the monitoring of its effectiveness (UNSD, 2009). [Colombia, Trinidad & Tobago, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru (Costa Rica has a law project) have laws requiring the NSO to collect information on time use and non-remunerated work for unremunerated satellite accounts (set of experiences that have shared best practices in the context of the work carried out by ECLAC and UN Women and the institutions mentioned above] Recommendation 3: Gender data must be reliable and adhere to international standards – Need for common definitions and quality standards to enhance comparability Why is this important? Gender statistics are essential for monitoring progress on international treaties and agreements as well as providing countries with comparable data to track progress being made in promoting gender equality. In order to do so, comparison of data must be possible both over time and between countries. However, concepts such as household and household headship, marriage, economic activity, informal sector, etc. pose numerous measurement problems. The main benefit of having common definitions and quality standards is disposing of evidence that is sound and reliable and that is a solid base for informed policy decisions. Global standards: While the Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses, Revision 2, form the normative basis for census taking and census analysis, no such reference framework is available for gender statistics. (From UN Women: the cited examples have not referred only to censuses. It is important to cite the guide of ECLAC/UNIFEM/UNFPA, that include some recommendations about census work). Existing informal guidance documents include a number of publications by the UN Statistics Division and other international agencies, including development banks (see appendix 2). Potential problems and benefits: In terms of definitions, the main issue is to balance between “validity” (measuring what you went out to measure, which implies using a culturally appropriate approach) and comparability. When standard definitions are too forced, categories lose their meaning on the ground and hence are no longer useful tools for policy-making. In terms of quality, the main issues are capacity and resources: To produce highest quality gender statistics, National Statistics Offices need the appropriate human and financial resources to pilot test and analyse, train enumerators, invest in data editing, etc. Regional example: The Gender Statistics programme of the Secretariat of the Pacific Communities has created a website (PRISM) collating statistics from 22 countries and territories in the Pacific on common indicators used for monitoring gender equality (see http://www.spc.int/prism/data/gender). Other regional observatories: Latin America and the Caribbean Gender Equality Observatory (http://www.cepal.org/oig/) with the support of UN Women. Recommendation 4: There is severe underreporting on gender issues – Need for capacity-building for NSOs Why is this important? Underreporting on gender exists both in terms of who gets enumerated/surveyed and in terms of what gets published. Therefore, the institutionalization of gender mainstreaming is crucial to engendering all statistical operations. On an organizational level, this means training staff on gender statistics and gender analysis as well as establishing Gender Units in NSOs. On an operational level, it implies ensuring gender responsiveness in questionnaire elaboration, field operations and their supervision, as well as in data management, analysis, publication and dissemination. Global standards: Data is supposed to adequately reflect the situation of all citizens (male and female, old and young, indigenous populations and persons with or without disabilities, etc). Being inclusive of every citizen and asking truly relevant questions is therefore imperative in order to achieve high data quality. Collecting data on women and girls and on gender-specific issues is one step into the direction of achieving a fuller, more valid picture of the situation in a country. Potential problems:In many countries, high turnover of staff (sometimes due to unattractive working conditions and remuneration) makes capacity-development a never-ending challenge. Specialized gender teams, inter-sectoral and inter-agency gender working groups, and gender departments established in the National Statistics Offices, can ensure that the participation of gender statistics experts in other relevant official statistical productions is institutionalized. Capacity-development is also needed for effective data dissemination strategies: “The analytical capacity of national statistical systems should be strengthened to ensure that available data are used productively and the findings communicated more successfully to the appropriate audiences, especially to the policy makers and the media […]” (UNDESA, 2006: 29-30). Country example: Nepal: Regional training workshops on gender sensitization were conducted in joint partnership with international agencies and included participants of senior and mid-level officers of the Central Bureau of Statistics. Challenge 5: Micro-data on gender issues is dispersed - Need to unify what is available, upstream small-scale data Why is this important? At the national and international levels, there is still a large gap with regards to the availability of data on social services, disability, time use and unpaid work, gender-based violence, access to resources, and the informal economy, to name just a few important gender concerns. Such data are needed by in-country NGOs, line ministries and local governments to monitor projects, prepare advocacy materials and negotiate budgets. If National Statistics Offices could act as a clearing house for disparate small-scale data at the sub-national level, or effectively cross-analyse data from various sources (vital statistics, census, surveys, etc.), much could be gained for understanding gender issues “on the ground”. Global standards: The UN’s Inter-Agency and Expert Group Meeting on the Development of Gender Statistics emphasized the need of two specific issues: 1) “the review of existing national data collections to identify and develop inventories of sex-disaggregated statistics and gender related indicators”; and the need to 2) “the re-coding, re-tabulation and re-analysis of micro-data from surveys or censuses, from a gender perspective” (idem: 08). Similarly, “one of the strategies recommended by FAO for filling the gender data gap is to promote the coordination, integration and re-tabulation of agricultural data by sex and age at the sub-national level (FAO 1999:23)” Potential problems: A high level of technical expertise is needed for cross-analysing data collected on small samples of different population groups at different points in time. Despite huge efforts in combining sources, data quality may be too low for meaningful analysis. Country examples: [find] Recommendation 6: Information is available but not used - Need for better communication and dissemination of gender data Why is this important? It is not enough for gender data to simply be available. To make a difference in the lives of women and men, girls and boys, these data need to be disseminated – and ideally used – by policy-makers, opinion leaders and the general public. A variety of formats are required to achieve this. Along with reports and press releases, dictionaries and metadata are important tools for ensuring that the underlying concepts are actually comprehended and that the results are well interpreted. Online resources and services, like query databases and downloadable files, are now a large part of the public’s information toolkit. Documents, tables, maps and images available on the internet facilitate the access and visualization of data. Global standards: Several issues are at play here: The public’s right to information is key, as is the moral imperative to feed knowledge back into the public domain. Policy makers can be reminded of norms such as transparency and accountability to invite them to cement the knowledge-base on which their policy-decisions are based. Potential problems: If NSOs are increasingly offering a broader range of formats for dissemination, users of gender statistics also need to be more proactive in accessing and using the existing data. Benefits include a better-informed public, and – in the best case – better informed public policies. A collateral benefits is heightened visibility for the NSO (which can have budgetary repercussions). Country examples: [find] Download 4.06 Mb. Share with your friends:
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