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

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

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)

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.

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’.

GSI Architecture

Social Block

Social Block (Cont’d)

Social Block (Cont’d)

Economic Block

Economic Block (Cont’d)

Economic Block (Cont’d)

Economic Block (Cont’d)

Political Block

Political Block (Cont’d)

Political Block (Cont’d)

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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).

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

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

AWPS FORMAT Score Block Women’s Rights Social Economic Political Ratification Reporting Law … Women’s Rights Social Score Economic Political

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.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION! Please visit www.uneca.org/acgd to download the AGDI booklet