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UNIFEM
Asia-Pacific
and Arab States Regional Programme for Engendering Economic Governance demystifying economics and empowering women |
|
UNIFEM
Asia-Pacific
and Arab States Regional Programme for Engendering Economic Governance demystifying economics and empowering women |
The workshop was jointly organized by UNIFEM and the Statistics Division of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia-Pacific (UN-ESCAP).
Summary
The workshop provided an introduction to gender statistics from an integrated perspective. It covered both the socio-demographic and economic dimensions of national statistical systems, and provided basic skills in presenting gender statistics to non-technical users.
The thirty-two participants included a social statistician, an economic statistician and an expert from the national women’s machinery from each of Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cambodia, Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal and Timor Leste. A list of participants is attached.
The core resource team comprised:
Lorraine Corner, Regional Economic Advisor for UNIFEM in Asia and the Arab States, who provided the background paper “From Margins to Mainstream: from Gender Statistics to Engendering Statistical Systems” (you can read an extract on-line, and download complete paper (Acrobat file, 140kb)).
Lene Mikklesen, Chief of Statistical Development, Statistics Division, UN-ESCAP
Teena Cabbab, Facilitator and Change Management Consultant, and
Indira Hirway, economist and advisor to Central Statistics Organization India on Time Use Surveys, Centre for Development Alternatives, Ahmedabad, India.
Inputs were also provided by:
Carmelita (Bobbie) Nuguid Ericta, Administrator, National Statistics Office, Philippines on the Philippines experience in gender statistics;
Joel Jere, Statistician, UN-ESCAP on the System of National Accounts from a gender perspective;
Fred Baker, Senior Statistician, FAO on engendering agricultural statistics; and
- Jan P. Smit, Managing Director, S&R research Co., Ltd on A macro-economist’s perspective on gender issues in the use of the National Accounts.
The programme, presentations and a list of participants are available on the Statistics Division, UN-ESCAP web site.
The workshop found that in most countries work on gender statistics has focused primarily on social and demographic statistics collected by national statistics offices and on presenting such statistics disaggregated by sex. However, the data have been collected by conventional, gender-blind methods.
An interesting exception to this is the 2001 round of the national census in Nepal and India, which included a specific review of gender issues in data collection, analysis, presentation and dissemination. The review led to significant revisions to individual questions, the questionnaire and interviewing procedures, and a campaign to recruit women as interviewers and supervisors. Classification systems for variables, particularly those related to work and occupation, were revised to better capture the reality of women’s lives, and a special set of tabulations addressing gender issues was prepared and published.
In most countries in the region, little attention has been paid to the gender dimensions of economic or administrative statistics collected by other agencies, or to the conceptual framework for, or the data used in, the preparation of the National Accounts. In particular, activities related to unpaid work in families, households and communities are excluded from consideration. As a result, existing data bases are partial and provide an inadequate basis for policy analysis, formulation and monitoring.
The workshop emphasized the need to engender the entire process of data collection, analysis, and presentation and to engender national statistical systems as a whole, particularly preparation and use of the National Accounts. Participants also reviewed some innovative ways of presenting gender statistics to non-traditional users, such as NGOs, women’s groups, the media and the general public.
As a follow-up to the workshop, national training workshops will be organized with appropriate technical and other support from UNIFEM and UNESCAP. The first country workshop will be held in Cambodia 21–23 March, 2003.
A resource kit is being developed from materials used during the workshop.
dated: 1May2003
