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African statisticians challenged to produce gender responsive data
ECA Press Release No. 46/2008
Addis Ababa 15 December (ECA) – African statisticians have been challenged to move beyond sex-disaggregated data to produce
“gender responsive” or “gender sensitive” data.
Speaking at the opening session of a 2-day regional workshop on gender statistics in Addis Ababa today, the Director of the African Centre for Statistics, Mr. Ben Kirergyera, explained that “gender responsive” or “gender sensitive” data is got by mainstreaming gender issues and concerns in the statistical value chain that begins with determining what data to produce and used especially in for policy and decision-making.
Kirergyera said that although gender advocates have achieved a great deal sensitizing policy and decision-makers to become more gender sensitive, a lot remains to be done to have data producers see the need for mainstreaming gender issues in statistical programmes and activities.
This, he said, explains what he called yawning gaps on gender statistics in many African countries.
The workshop that ends tomorrow is being organized by the African Center for Statistics in collaboration with Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21), Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung gGmbH (InWent), and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
During the workshop participants will focus on how to provide strategic direction and impetus for the mainstreaming of gender statistics principles in national statistics systems, with the view of enhancing the capacity of key change agents in the development of statistics at the national level.
It is expected to come out with concrete inputs for the African Gender Handbook for Censuses and Surveys and a time frame for the next steps for the regional programme and the development of country gender statistics strategies drawn from the regional programme.
It is a follow-up to ADF VI to tackle issues on Gender Statistics in Africa and National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS).
Mr. Kirergyera took the opportunity to announce that the African Centre for Gender and Social Development and the African Centre for Statistics plan to undertake five sub-regional workshops for national statistical offices to disseminate methodologies and tools for the development of gender statistics.
But as early as in January 2009, Africa will be hosting in Accra, Ghana, a Global Forum on Gender Statistics under the auspices of the UN Statistics Division.
The idea of gender statistics has come a long way in Africa, beginning with the third Africa Symposium on Statistical Development (ASSD) in Accra, followed by the first meeting of STATCOM-Africa, in Addis Ababa, and the High Level Policy Dialogue, in Kampala as one of the outcomes of the STATCOM-Africa meeting.
Since NSDS was conceived in 2004 a number of sub-regional workshops have been held in Africa to introduce key actors to the NSDS concept and process.
Alongside these introductory sub-regional workshops, PARIS21 has developed documentation on the NSDS concept and process.
The AfDB, PARIS21 and INTERSECT have produced a guide on how to mainstream sectors into the NSDS process.
To promote the continuous assessment of global trends in the development of gender statistics, the United Nations has established a Gender Statistics Global Forum, and quickened the pace of development of statistics; and the Statistical Commission for Africa (STACOM-Africa) has set up a standing Working Group on Gender Statistics.
Participants in the Addis Ababa workshop are mostly made up of heads of National Strategy Organizations, coordinators of NSDS, representatives of Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Units (PRSP), key line ministries, heads of regional statistical training centres, head of statistics and gender programmes in regional economic communities (RECs), gender specialists and representatives of development partners.
Issued by the ECA Information and Communication Service P.O. Box 3001
Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Tel: 251 11 5445098 Fax: +251-11-551 03 65 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.uneca.org
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