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SPC - Secretariat of the Pacific Community - Press Release
New Gender Statistics Framework to Aid Informed Decision Making
Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Noumea, New Caledonia, Thursday, 27 November 2008—A new process that aims to improve the availability of statistics that show the relative situation of men and women in the region is being introduced in Micronesia.
The new statistical framework, which has been developed by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and endorsed by ministries of women and heads of national statistics offices across the Pacific, also aims to improve monitoring and evaluation of progress toward gender equality.
Representatives from national statistics, gender and planning offices from five northern Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs)* attending a two-week workshop organised by SPC (18–28 November) are using the framework to see how it can help them to improve the way they compile, analyse and use statistics on gender.
SPC Gender Equality Adviser Téa Braun says that if governments do not have the right information, they cannot make good decisions, including political and policy decisions. The workshop will help sensitise planners to the importance of taking gender into account in national planning and decision-making frameworks.
‘Statistics provide decision-makers with critical information on a range of topics from public health to politics, areas in which women’s and men’s needs and experiences are frequently very different,’ Ms Braun explains. ‘If you’re not gathering information with these gender differences in mind, you’re not seeing the full picture.’
The delegates at the workshop are working together to strengthen the national capacity to produce and analyse gender statistics, explains SPC consultant Kim Robertson. ‘Countries can adapt the framework to suit their situations and decide on how they’re going to use it.’
Ms Robertson says that in addition to capacity building, the workshop, which is being held in Majuro in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, will give participants the opportunity to look at gaps and identify priorities. ‘We want to find out where we are, where we’re going and what needs to be done.’
Some examples of how the framework might be used include: to undertake a national analysis of the situation of women and men, to review national development policies and plans of action, and to inform political and budgetary decision-making.
Most PICTs already have a significant amount of survey information that could be analysed more closely using gender sensitive indicators.
‘The main problems are that national statistics offices (NSOs) don’t have the resources to do a detailed analysis of gender from the existing statistics and women’s affairs ministries and government divisions don’t have the capacity,’ Ms Robertson says. ‘We are focusing on improving the exchange of information between NSOs and national women’s focal points to enable better dissemination of gender based statistics as the basis for informed decision-making and evidence-based advocacy programmes.’
Government ministries and divisions in charge of women’s affairs and various organisations in the Pacific have been asking for support for gender statistics since before the fourth world conference on women in Beijing in 1995. SPC provided technical advice and support in the lead up to the Beijing conference and has continued to do so. However, the current training is of a more strategic nature, aiming to establish the mechanisms at the national level to improve the collection and use of gender statistics.
Following the Majuro workshop, SPC aims to provide further in-depth technical assistance to the participating countries at the national level. ‘Two weeks is not a long enough period for the whole process, which is more of a long-term commitment to gender statistics involving training and technical assistance and linking with other activities such as reviews of national plans of action,’ Ms Robertson says.
The training, which is being carried out by SPC’s Human Development and Statistics and Demography Programmes, is the initial phase of the implementation of a gender indicators programme in the region. Workshops are also being planned for the Polynesian and Melanesian regions and the francophone territories in 2009.
*The five countries are: Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Nauru and Palau.
For more information please contact Tione Chinula, SPC Human Development Programme Advocacy and Communications Officer, tel: +687 26 01 57 or e-mail tionec@spc.int or Téa Braun, SPC Gender Equality Adviser, Human Development Programme, tel: +687 26 01 91 or e-mail teab@spc.int.
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