International Meeting on Gender Statistics within the Framework of the Millennium Development Goals Aguascalientes 19-21 September 2006

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International Meeting on Gender Statistics
within the Framework of the Millennium
Development GoalsAguascalientes19-21 September
2006

• Demographic and Social Statistics Branch
• Statistics Division, DESA
• United Nations, New York

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The Worlds Women 2005Progress in Statistics
http//unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic
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Use of Gender Statistics

• Statistics are essential ingredients for
  socio-economic planning
• Have been critical in focusing international
  attention on gender equality and equity questions
• Four issues produced
• The first issued in 1991, and subsequently in
• 1995, and 2000
• The current one was issued 2005

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Change in Focus

• The fourth issue of The Worlds Women departs
  from the three previous issues
• Earlier issues
• Present statistics on gender issues
• Assesses the levels and trends with respect to
  selected gender-specific indicators
• Provide analysis of regional differentials
• Cover selected topics and limited to countries
  for which data were readily available
• Data drawn from a variety of sources, primarily
  from United Nations system, including specialized
  agencies
• Identified gaps in the available data

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New Focus Progress in Statistics

• All the three previous issues highlighted the
  deficiencies and gaps in statistics
• The Beijing Platform for Action calls for all
  statistics on individuals to be disaggregated by
  age and sex
• The fourth issue therefore addressed one of the
  key fundamental problems in the promotion of
  gender equality Availability of gender
  statistics

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Focus on Official Statistics

• The assessment focused on official national
  statistics, as provided to the United Nations and
  its specialized agencies (not internationally
  prepared estimates, which tend to fill the gaps
  and therefore cover up the lack of statistical
  capacity)
• Statistics reviewed include population, health,
  education and work (that have also been covered
  in previous issues)
• The report also assesses the current state of
  statistics on relatively new issues such as
  violence against women, poverty, power and
  decision-making, and human rights (which were
  touched on in past issues but have still not
  found a place in official statistics

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Statistical Capacity

• Two main dimensions in the assessment of national
  capacities in the production of gender statistics
• Capacity with respect to two major sources of
  data
• Conduct of population censuses
• Completeness of birth registration
• Availability of sex- and age- specific data (as
  reported to international data collection systems
• Detail of reporting (total only, disaggregation
  by sex or age only, or by sex and age)
• Frequency of reporting within a specific period
• Covering a period of three decades (1975-1984
  1985-1994 1995-2004)

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Statistical Capacity Assessment

• Five indicators were selected as illustrative of
  national statistical capacity to produce and
  report gender statistics
• Population census conducted (1995-2004)
• Birth registration completed, with at least 90
  of births registered (1995-2003)
• Population reported by sex and age (1995-2003)
• Births reported by sex of child
• Economic activity reported by sex and age

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Five indicators considered
Source United Nations, Worlds Women 2005
Progress in Statistics
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Still too many countries/areas did not conduct a
census in 2000 round
Source United Nations, Worlds Women 2005
Progress in Statistics
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Many countries/areas have still a long way from
complete registration
Source United Nations, Worlds Women 2005
Progress in Statistics
12
Civil registration
Source United Nations, Worlds Women 2005
Progress in Statistics
13
Reporting of total population
Source United Nations, Worlds Women 2005
Progress in Statistics
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Vital statistics reporting
Source United Nations, Worlds Women 2005
Progress in Statistics
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Reporting on vital statistics
Number of countries or areas that reported deaths for the period 1995-2003, by geographic region Number of countries or areas that reported deaths for the period 1995-2003, by geographic region Number of countries or areas that reported deaths for the period 1995-2003, by geographic region Number of countries or areas that reported deaths for the period 1995-2003, by geographic region Number of countries or areas that reported deaths for the period 1995-2003, by geographic region Number of countries or areas that reported deaths for the period 1995-2003, by geographic region Number of countries or areas that reported deaths for the period 1995-2003, by geographic region
  Africa North America South America Asia Europe Oceania
All countries or areas 55 27 13 50 42 17
Deaths
Total, at least once 22 25 13 40 42 13
By sex, at least once 18 22 12 33 42 7
By sex and age, at least once 15 21 11 28 40 6
By sex and age, at least five years 4 15 8 20 36 5
Source United Nations, Worlds Women 2005
Progress in Statistics
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Tracking capacities from economic activity
reporting
Source United Nations, Worlds Women 2005
Progress in Statistics
17
Reporting on employed population by sex and major
occupational group, by number of years data were
reported during the period 1995-2003
Source United Nations, Worlds Women 2005
Progress in Statistics
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Reporting on Wage

• Gap between womens and mens pay
• 108 of 204 countries or areas report data on
  total wages
• Less than a quarter of countries report data by
  sex

Source United Nations, Worlds Women 2005
Progress in Statistics
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Surveys on violence against women
Source United Nations, Worlds Women 2005
Progress in Statistics

• Out of 13 countries and areas in South America
• 8 have conducted at least one survey
• 5 of which conducted at least one survey with
  national coverage

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Some critical observations

• Slow progress in the development of statistics
  (as regards availability of data from major
  sources)
• Sex and age disaggregation are not being
  routinely made available
• Gender statistics more scarce when issues are
  more specific and require greater detail
• No clear trend in the availability of gender
  statistics
• Gender issues/topics covered by official
  statistics remain limited to the traditional
  statistical topics
• Emerging issues are still being taken up largely
  outside the official statistics

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The way forward

• National statistical systems need to be
  strengthened
• Official statistics not being maximized
  (including making data available for wide use)
• Mainstream gender in all aspects of production of
  statistics
• Support and strengthen gender statistics units
• Develop and improve concepts and methods where
  they are inadequate
• Support development of emerging topics with
  relevant classifications

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Thank you
Reference The Worlds Women 2005 Progress in
Statistics United Nations Publication, Sales No.
E.05.XVII.7, ISBN 92-1-161482-1
http//unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic