Presented by : Souleymane ABDALLAH Economic Affairs Officer, ACGS

United Nations United Nations Economic Commission for AfricaEconomic Commission for Africa

Presented by: Souleymane ABDALLAH Economic Affairs Officer,

ACGS

The African Gender and The African Gender and Development Index Development Index

(AGDI)(AGDI)

GLOBAL FORUM ON GENDER STATISTICS

Accra, Ghana 26-28 January 2009

A framework to A framework to measure gender measure gender equality in Africaequality in Africa

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Presentation’s OutlineBackground

What is the AGDI? The Gender Status IndexThe African Women Progress

ScoreboardCross-analysis

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BackgroundECA’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 SPECIFICGENDER AND DEVELOPMENT INDEX

(AGDI)

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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)

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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.

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What Is the GSI?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’.

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GSI Architecture

GSI Economic Power Block

Political Power Block

Social Power Block

Education

Health

Income

Time-Use or Employment

Access to resources

Public sector

Civil Society

Enrolment

Drop out

Literacy Secondary Dropout

Primary Dropout

Management

Means of production

Ownership of plots or land

Access to credit

Freedom to dispose own income

…..

…..

…..

…..

Blocks (3)

Components (7)

Sub-Components (12)

Indicators (42)

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Social Block

Social Power Block

Education

Health

Enrolment

Dropout

Literacy

Child Health

Life expectancy

New HIV infections

Time spent out of work

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Social Block (Cont’d)

Education

Enrolment

Dropout

Literacy

Primary Enrolment rate

Secondary Enrolment rate

Tertiary Enrolment rate

Primary Dropout ratio

Secondary Dropout ratio

Ability to read and write

Primary school completed

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Social Block (Cont’d)

Health

Child Health

Life expectancy

New HIV infections

Time spent out of

work

Stunting under 3

Underweight under 3

Mortality under 5

Life expectancy at birth

New HIV infections

Time spent out of work

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Economic Block

Economic Power Block

Income


Access to resources

Means of production

Employment

Time-Use

Income

Wages

Management

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Economic Block (Cont’d)

Income

Income

Wages

Wages in Agriculture

Wages in civil service

Wages in formal sector

Wages in informal sector

Income from informal enterprise

Income from small agricultural household

enterprise

Income from remittances and inter-household transfers

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Employment

Time-Use

Time spent in non-market activities or as unpaid

family worker in market activities

Time spent in market economic activities

Time spent in domestic, care and volunteer

activities

Share of paid employees, own-account workers and

employers in total employment

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Access to resources

Means of production

Management

Ownership of rural/urban plots or land

Access to credit

Freedom to dispose own income

Administrative, scientific and technical staff

Employers

High civil servants (Class A)

Members of professional syndicates

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Political Block

Political Power Block

Public sector

Civil Society

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Political Block (Cont’d)

Public sector

Cabinet Ministers

Higher courts judges

Members of local councils

Higher positions in civil service

Members of Parliament Members of Parliament

Cabinet Ministers

Higher courts judges

Members of local councils

Higher positions in civil service

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Political Block (Cont’d)

Civil Society

Sr. positions political parties

Sr. positions Trade unions

Sr. positions Employer’s associations

Sr. positions Professional syndicates

Heads or managers of NGOs

Heads of community-based associations or unions

Sr. positions political parties

Sr. positions Trade unions

Sr. positions Employer’s associations

Sr. positions Professional syndicates

Heads or managers of NGOs

Heads of community-based associations or unions

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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.

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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

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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.

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Exceptions (Deprivation 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 compute male result versus female result.

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.

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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.

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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).

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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

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Vertical Axis 1. Ratification2. Reporting3. Law4. Policy Commitment5. Development of a Plan6. Targets7. Institutional Mechanism8. Budget9. Human resources (Training)10. Research 11. Involvement of civil society12. Monitoring and evaluation13. Information and dissemination

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AWPS FORMAT

Block Ratification

Reporting Law …

Women’s Rights

Social Score

Economic

Political

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Scoring AWPSSimple 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.

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Cross-analysis

Block Gender Status IndexAfrican Women Progress Scoreboard

Social Secondary dropout ratio = 0.507

Girls drop out Law=0, Policy=0, Plan=0

Economic Ownership of plot/land = 0.843

Equal access to land law=2, Policy=2

Political Members of local councils = 0.328

Support women in decision making Law=2, Policy=1, Plan=0

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THANK YOU FOR THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!YOUR ATTENTION!

Please visit www.uneca.org/acgd to download the AGDI booklet

Presented by : Souleymane ABDALLAH Economic Affairs Officer, ACGS

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