gender statistics training workshops: vietnam session 1 overview of users, uses and production of...

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Gender Statistics Training Workshops: Vietnam

SESSION 1

Overview of Users, Uses and Production of Gender Statistics

February 18-20, 2014: Moc Chau – Son LaFebruary 25-27, 2014: Da Nang

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Objectives of Session

The main objectives of this session are to explain:

• what gender statistics are;

• who uses the statistics;

• why the statistics are needed;

• how they are used;

• the value of ‘mainstreaming’ a gender perspective in the production of statistics;

• the main features of a mainstreaming strategy.

Primary reference:UNSD 2013, Integrating a Gender Perspective in Statistics, Chapter 1

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What are gender statistics?

“Gender statistics are statistics that adequately reflect differences and inequalities in the situation of women and men in all areas of life.”(UNSD The World’s Women 2005: Progress in Statistics)

Gender statistics are about everybody: women and men, girls and boys. They have the following characteristics:

• disaggregated by sex;• reflect gender differences or issues;• based on concepts and definitions that embrace the diversity of

women and men and capture all aspects of their lives; and• obtained using data collection methods that take into account social

and cultural factors that may induce gender biases in the data. • Data statistics indicators

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Distinction between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’

Confusion between sex and gender still persists among producers and users of statistics.

• ‘Sex’ refers to biological differences between women and men.

• ‘Gender’ refers to socially constructed differences in attributes and opportunities associated with being female or male and the social interactions and relationships between women and men.

• Gender statistics are disaggregated by sex, not by gender. Sex disaggregated data, when analysed, can reveal differences in women’s and men’s lives that are the result of gender roles and expectations.

• Gender equality means equal opportunities, rights and responsibilities for women and men, girls and boys

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Change over time in focus of gender statistics

Focus has shifted over last decade or so from statistics about women only to statistics about women and men.

This shift occurred as it became clear that:

• comparisons with men and attention to differences between them were needed to adequately describe and analyse women’s situation;

• statistics on men needed improvement as well (e.g., to cover specific concerns affecting men’s lives such as risky behaviours, violence);

• the policy context was changing, due to the recognition that– greater attention to roles, responsibilities and interrelationships of both

women and men could improve policy effectiveness, and– isolation of women’s concerns from mainstream policies limited their

impact on such policies and programs.

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Who uses gender statistics?

Gender statistics are needed by a wide range of users:

Users Examples of UsesPolicy makers and planners in different fields of government

• Use enrolment rates and ratios to identify problems with either girls or boys entering or staying in schools, so as to inform policies or programs to address them.

Researchers and analysts in government, research institutions, businesses and private sector organisations.

• Interested in how differences between men’s and women’s employment rates can reflect constraints to women’s employment or can reveal differences in poverty between women and men or male-headed and female-headed households

Service providers in government agencies, private institutions and community bodies.

• Identifying critical gender related problems so as to allocate services--e. g., high adolescent fertility rates—helps plan for those services—such as education, access to contraception, pre-natal and post-natal care

Advocacy groups concerned with gender issues and progress towards gender equality

• Use statistics to illustrate problems in society and to advocate against them, e.g., gender-based violence, low proportion of women in leadership positions, or low level of credits granted to women

The general public and the media Can you think of an example?

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Why are gender statistics needed?

Gender statistics are crucial for:

1. promoting understanding of the actual situation of women and men in society;

2. advancing gender analysis and research;3. monitoring progress toward gender equality and full and equal

enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental rights of women and girls;

4. developing and monitoring policies and programs oriented towards increased investment in human capital and labour force;

5. supporting gender mainstreaming in development and poverty reduction policies; and

6. developing and monitoring policies on reduction of violence against women.

Examples in each of these six areas follow next

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Examples of how gender statistics are used

1. Promoting understanding of the actual situation of women and men in society

• By informing the public and the media, gender statistics raise consciousness of gender issues, encourage public debate and promote change in society. They may be used to promote a new gender balance in the distribution of roles within the family, at the workplace, or in decision-making positions.

• By targeting a large audience, gender statistics can assist in reducing gender stereotypes and misrepresentation of the roles of women and men and their contribution to society.

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2. Advancing gender analysis and research

• Gender statistics enable researchers and analysts to:- assess gender gaps in all areas of life;- examine inter-linkages between cultural, social and economic

factors underpinning gender inequality, and these change over time; and

- evaluate the implications of unequal access of women and men to social and economic opportunities.

• Vietnam’s statistics were used in a 2011 World Bank report to analyse and evaluate gender issues associated with poverty and wellbeing, employment and livelihoods, and political participation. The report concluded that Vietnam had made remarkable progress on gender equality in these areas but important gender differences still existed.

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3. Monitoring progress towards gender equality and full and equal enjoyment of all human rights

“Gender equality refers to the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys.” (UN Women website)

• Gender statistics in the form of indicators can be used to monitor progress towards gender equality goals, by showing, for example, how the situation of women is changing relative to men, or to women in other countries.

• Three gender indicators are used to monitor the United Nations Millennium Development Goal 3 on gender equality and women’s empowerment: 1) Gender parity index for gross enrolment ratio in primary, secondary and tertiary

education;

2) Proportion of employees in non-agricultural employment who are women; and

3) Proportion of seats held by women in single or lower houses of national parliaments.

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3. Monitoring progress towards gender equality and full and equal enjoyment of all human rights (continued)

• The Vietnamese Government, recognising the importance of gender statistics, launched Vietnam’s National Gender Indicator System in 2011. The System is based on 105 individual indicators covering 11 areas of socio-economic life. These indicators are:- designed for use in monitoring and evaluating developments in the

gender situation, advancement of women, and gender equality in various fields of socio-economic life in Vietnam; and

- intended to meet needs for gender statistics of the Vietnamese Government as well as other organisations and individuals.

• How familiar are you with the List of Indicators in the National Gender Indicators System?

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4. Developing and monitoring policies and programs oriented towards increased investment in human capital and labour force

• Gender statistics can show whether women and men have unequal access to education, health or economic resources. This information can be used to orient policies towards improving opportunities of the disadvantaged sex and achieving more effective use of human resources.

• Gender statistics can help understand the causes of gender inequality in access to all types of resources. This is very important because policies to address inequality tend to be more effective when targeting factors that perpetuate inequalities.

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5. Supporting gender mainstreaming in development and poverty reduction policies

• Gender statistics have informed studies showing that attention to gender perspectives and gender equality can bring efficiency gains, including increases in productivity, national output, and human capital of the next generation.

• For example, the World Bank’s 2012 World Development Report indicated that:

- removing barriers discriminating against women working in certain sectors or occupations could lift labour productivity by up to 25% in some countries;

- more educated women with greater control over household resources have spending patterns that benefit their children’s current and future situation;

- empowering women in economic, political and social activities can change policy choices and make institutions more representative and responsive to their needs.

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5. Supporting gender mainstreaming in development and poverty reduction policies (continued)

• Use of gender statistics can provide a more comprehensive understanding of the gender dimensions of poverty, which in turn, can significantly change priorities in policy and program interventions:

- the statistics can shed light on the multiple dimensions of poverty and inequality, e.g. gender-related inequality in resources, time poverty, or vulnerability to external shocks;

- Understanding the gendered nature of poverty can significantly improve both the equity and efficiency of poverty reduction strategies.

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6. To develop and monitor policies on reducing violence against women

• Violence against women hinders achievement of gender equality and development goals. Statistics can reveal violence’s extent and impact, which can lead to better focused and more efficient preventative efforts and interventions.

• Vietnam’s National Study on Domestic Violence against Women provided information that was considered essential to:- change community perceptions and challenge commonly held myths about

domestic violence in Vietnam;- more effectively formulate policies and design and implement programs to

prevent and address domestic violence; and- support and monitor implementation of domestic violence legislation.

• Are you familiar with the Violence Against Women Study?

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Why ‘mainstream’ a gender perspective in statistics production?

– Mainstreaming is needed to obtain reliable gender statistics that adequately reflect differences and inequalities in the situation of women and men in all areas of life.

– It may lead to more efficient coverage of gender issues and better coordination of data collection in producing gender statistics.

– It avoids the pitfalls of producing gender statistics as an ‘add-on’ field. Add-on statistics

• are often marginalised, • fail to reach a wide range of users including policy makers in domains other than

gender equality, and • their production may be more dependent on irregular resources.

Mainstreaming a gender perspective in statistics means that gender issues and gender-based biases are taken into account systematically in the

production of all official statistics and at all stages of data production.

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How are gender statistics produced?

The production of gender statistics concerns the entire national statistical system because:

• it covers data from different sources and statistical fields;

• it involves planning, data collection, data analysis and dissemination; and

• it is not limited to the compilation of sex-disaggregated statistics from various fields and their dissemination in gender-focussed publications or other products.

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A strategy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in statistics:Key features

1. The strategy should be based on:

• strong collaboration between data users and producers;

• strong internal coordination, both within the national statistical office and within the national statistical system; and

• data-sharing agreements between the national statistical office and other agencies of the national statistical system or other producers of data, such as line ministries, administrative offices, researchers, international agencies.

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A strategy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in statistics:Key features (continued)

2. Data on relevant gender issues should be regularly collected, analysed and disseminated by the national statistical system as part of all data production.

• Gender statistics should document women’s and men’s participation in and contributions to all social and economic areas, and reflect underlying causes and consequences of gender inequality.

• Coverage of gender issues in the statistics and the adequacy of the statistics should be regularly reviewed.

• Such reviews may show that: new types of data need to be collected; existing collections need to be expanded to fill data gaps; or data already collected need to be better disseminated.

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3. Gender- sensitive concepts and methods should be used in data collection in all statistical fields.

• For reliable comparisons between women and men, gender statistics need to correctly measure women’s and men’s participation and contribution to society.

• Concepts and methods should be reviewed and improved where necessary to ensure they support the production of data showing meaningful differences. This review should include statistical units, collection content, terminology, coding and classification systems, training, and other measurement practices.

• New concepts and methods may be needed for the production of gender statistics in some areas where conventional approaches are often inadequate (e.g. measuring time use or domestic violence).

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4. Presentation and dissemination of gender statistics should reach all potential target groups.

• Gender statistics and results of data-based gender analysis should be presented in a way that informs gender issues and should be disseminated to a wide range of users (Session 4).

• Dissemination of gender statistics should not be limited to gender-focused reports and databases but be part of all regular statistical products’ dissemination (Session 5).

• Providing a gender dimension to statistics in regular statistical products increases the accessibility of gender statistics and their chances of being taken into account in a wide range of policies and programs, not just those to reduce gender inequality.

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5. Mainstreaming should be recognized as part of improving the quality of data produced by the national statistical system.

Gender mainstreaming has implications for four components of statistical data quality:

• Relevance. Users should define the issues addressed by gender statistics (Session 3).

• Accuracy. Avoid gender-related bias in data collection.

• Accessibility of data. Make gender-related statistical information accessible to a wide range of audiences (Session 5).

• Clarity. Present gender statistics in formats that are easily understood by a wide audience and include information on data quality (Session 4).

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To what extent has the objective of gender mainstreaming been achieved in national statistical systems?

• A Global Review of Gender Statistics Programmes was conducted in 2012 at the request of the UNSC.- 126 countries, including 24 ESCAP countries, participated in the review.

Vietnam was one of the participating ESCAP countries.

• The review found, among other things, that there was global recognition of the importance of gender statistics, and some tasks and some areas are well-covered.

• But it also concluded that progress still needs to be made to:- fully achieve the general objective of mainstreaming gender;- cover the whole scope of gender statistics in terms of areas and

methodologies (emerging issues); and- adequately and fully use existing statistical sources.

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Regional assessment of extent to which objective of gender mainstreaming been achieved

Source: UNSD presentation on Global Gender Statistics Programme at the UNSD Workshop on Improving the Integration of a Gender Perspective into Official Statistics, held in Japan in April 2013.

Extent to which objective of gender mainstreaming has been achieved

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

ESCWA ECE ESCAP ECA

Fully achieved Partially achieved Not met No overall objective stated

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ESCAP region: Regularity of production of gender statistics

Source: UNSD presentation on Global Gender Statistics Programme at the UNSD Workshop on Improving the Integration of a Gender Perspective into Official Statistics, held in Japan in April 2013.

ESCAP - production of gender statistics, regularity

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Labour ForceUnemployment

MortalityEducation and Training

PovertyMorbidity

Unpaid workDisability

Access to health servicesSexual and reproductive

Adolescent fertilityAgriculture

EntrepreneurshipPower and decision

Child marriageViolence against women

ICTAccess to clean water

Access to sanitationInformal employment

Satelite AccountsMedia

Regularly produced Produced on irregular basis Not produced

gender statistics training workshops: vietnam session 1 overview of users, uses and production of...

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