South and South-West Asia Workshop on Advancing Accountability and WORKSHOP REPORT

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1 South and South-West Asia Workshop on Advancing Accountability and WORKSHOP REPORT 1. Background From, the ESCAP Social Development and Statistics Divisions convened the South and South-West Asia Workshop on Advancing Accountability and Strengthening Statistics for Gender Equality and Women s Empowerment (henceforth the Workshop ) in Bangkok, Thailand. The Workshop was convened to support member States in their implementation of two key commitments with respect to achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women. In November 2014, at a regional high-level inter-governmental meeting, ESCAP member States adopted the Asian and Pacific Ministerial Declaration on Advancing Gender Equality and Women s Empowerment. 1 Through the Ministerial Declaration, ESCAP member States committed to strengthening institutions, enhancing accountability, increasing financing, forging partnerships and strengthening regional cooperation as means of accelerating action on gender equality and women s empowerment. With respect to enhancing accountability, through the Ministerial Declaration, ESCAP member States pledged to: create and strengthen accountability systems; strengthen national statistical offices and systems to produce, analyse and disseminate reliable and comparable gender statistics and data disaggregated by sex, age, disability and other relevant categories, in a timely manner establish nationally appropriate, measurable targets and indicators, taking into consideration international and regional agreements on gender statistics; and develop and strengthen participatory and inclusive monitoring, evaluation and reporting on progress and results. Furthermore, the Ministerial Declaration requested the Executive Secretary of ESCAP, inter alia, to: provide ESCAP members and associate members with support in the implementation of the Ministerial Declaration at the regional and national levels; and facilitate regional cooperation and the sharing of best practices among member States in the implementation of the Platform for Action. 1 This Ministerial Declaration was adopted by ESCAP members and associate members at the Asian and Pacific Conference on Gender Equality and Women s Empowerment: Beijing+20 Review and subsequently as ESCAP Resolution 71/13 on the Implementation of the Asian and Pacific Ministerial Declaration on Advancing Gender Equality and Women s Empowerment, at the 71 st session of the Commission in May

2 In the area of data on women and girls, as expressed by member States through the Ministerial Declaration at the regional level, and in response to the call for the improvement of gender statistics and indicators at the global level, 2 the Committee on Statistics (at its fourth session in March 2015) endorsed a core set of gender indicators for Asia and the Pacific (or regional core set), as a guide for setting national priorities and focusing regional support for improving the production and dissemination of gender statistics. 3 The regional core set of gender indicators and the underlying statistics are intended to respond to the need for enhanced statistical information to address issues of high priority in promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women in the region. The regional core set represents a minimum suite of gender statistics that all countries in the Asia-Pacific region can aspire to produce and disseminate. The Committee on Statistics recognized the importance of strengthening user-producer dialogue, and noted that building capacity in gender statistics requires coordination among stakeholders, including national statistical offices, ministries, civil society, international organizations and other users of gender statistics Purpose of the Workshop The purpose of the Workshop was to support member States in strengthening their national accountability mechanisms through increased awareness and capacity in the collection, analysis, dissemination and advocacy of gender equality statistics and indicators. By bringing together representatives from national women s machineries and national statistical offices, the Workshop promoted collaboration and coordination in strategizing and acting for gender equality and women s empowerment at the national level, as well as the sharing of knowledge, ideas and experiences across member States in the sub-region. 3. Agenda In accordance with the purpose of the Workshop, the agenda was comprised of information and discussions sessions addressing (a) the Ministerial Declaration and associated indicators; (b) the core set of gender Indicators for Asia and the Pacific; and (c) the formulation and review of joint national action plans. The Workshop format comprised presentations, open floor discussions and group work. A copy of the Workshop agenda is provided in Annex A. 4. Participants The Workshop brought together senior government officials from the national women s machineries and national statistical offices of the member States of the ESCAP South and 2 A minimum set of gender indicators was developed by the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics (IAEG-GS) at the global level, which the Statistical Commission at its forty-fourth session, agreed to use as a guide for national production and international compilation of gender statistics. Refer E/CN.3/2015/21 for latest version of the minimum set of gender indicators. 3 Also referred to as the regional core set of gender indicators. See E/ESCAP/CST(4)/10 for the list of indicators. 4 See E/ESCAP/CST(4)/14 for the Report of the Committee on Statistics on its fourth session. 2

3 South-West Asia sub-region: namely, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The list of participants is provided in Annex B. 5. Workshop Discussion During the workshop, the participants discussed various issues pertaining to both the indicators measuring progress in implementation of the Ministerial Declaration and the regional core set. The participants identified needs and challenges to be considered and addressed in order to collect data pertaining to the two sets of indicators. In terms of collecting, analysing and disseminating data on the indicators, the participants identified the need for: government mandates that specifically reference and empower the national statistical offices and the national women s machineries; sensitisation of relevant government officials / policy-makers, in relation to both gender equality and statistics; stakeholder engagement, coordination and cooperation, which would include relevant government entities (NSOs, NWMs, line ministries, gender focal points etc.), civil society organisations, development partners (e.g. UN entities), the private sector, non-governmental organisations and, research institutions / academia; technical competencies (knowledge, skills) and resources (hardware, software, smart phones, GPS etc.); better dissemination and use of existing data at the national level; and sufficient financial resources, including through government budgets. The challenges that the workshop participants anticipated encountering with respect to the collection, analysis and dissemination of data on the indicators included insufficient: political commitment and national ownership, in relation to addressing gender equality, women s empowerment and/or statistics; lack of clarity in mandates of relevant entities (e.g. NSO, NWM); financial resources; human resources; technical competencies (among staff), including in relation to (i) understanding the difference between sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics; (ii) in evaluating the reliability and validity of data gathered, and (iii) in presenting data in a user-friendly manner; international statistical standards in specific thematic areas and lack of consistency between national and international standards; cooperation between the key stakeholders; clarity as to what each indicator measures; and consistency between data from NSO s and line ministries. Countries identified the top three priority areas (domains) for improving quality and availability of data for the regional core set and whether action in relation to each domain would involve consolidating successes, accelerating progress or addressing gaps. The most commonly identified domains were: IA Poverty; IB Participation in productive activities; IC Participation in 3

4 unremunerated productive work; V Human rights of women and girls; VI Environment and climate change, and IX Disaster risk reduction. Alongside identifying challenges, the participants also enumerated means of addressing them, including: advocating with government entities and decision-makers to support the collection, analysis and dissemination of data on the indicators, including through budgetary allocations; introducing and implementing clear mandates; engaging in global and regional-level discussions pertaining to international statistical standards in various thematic areas; strengthening the capacity of all relevant staff, including in relation to data collection, research, analysis and production of statistics in user-friendly formats; strengthening collaboration and coordination between stakeholders; increasing financing for gender statistics; ESCAP following-up with each of country as to their progress; and international entities, such as the UN, providing technical support as required. 6. Workshop Outputs The output of the Workshop was a series of joint national action plans; one per participating member State. The joint national action plans were structured to indicate overall goal, objectives, outputs, activities, stakeholders, assumptions, risks and timeframes. Generally, the joint national plans enumerated: a) actions for the collection, analysis and dissemination of data pertaining to the set of indicators for measuring implementation of the aforementioned Ministerial Declaration; and b) actions for the production and use of the regional core set of gender indicators, including national-level advocacy strategies for raising awareness on the regional core set across government sectors and agencies. More specifically, and in terms of outputs, the South and South-West Asia member States highlighted adoption of specific political mandates on gender statistics, advocacy for stronger gender budgets, stronger collaboration between relevant stakeholders; improved technical capacity of government staff; improved data quality and dissemination; and the generation of data on the indicators addressed in the Workshop. The range of proposed activities to realise the stated outputs included reporting to relevant stakeholders; mapping existing statistical processes, tools and data with the Ministerial Declaration indicators and regional core set; awareness-raising and advocacy; capacity building; engendering existing surveys or conducting special surveys for data gaps or missing data; disaggregating data by sex; and disseminating data. The identified risks to the achievement of the outputs and objectives reflected the challenges identified during the first day of the workshop: lack of political will, financial resources, human resources, genuine collaboration and cooperation, and facilitative bureaucratic processes. Following conclusion of the Workshop, ESCAP will continue to work with the member States to support the implementation of the national action plans, including the collation, analysis and dissemination of resulting data. Some areas that participants requested regional support include 4

5 technical advice on sector-specific data collection, especially on violence against women and women s unpaid work; good practice identification and documentation; as well as alignment of the above mentioned indicator sets to the SDGs. For continued collaboration on regional initiatives, it was also proposed that a network of NWM/NSOs be established from among the participants, which could also be expanded in the future to include experts/researchers. 5

6 Annex A South and South-West Asia Workshop on Advancing Accountability and United Nations Conference Centre Meeting Room A DAY 1: 7 October 2015 AGENDA Focus: Introduction to indicators for monitoring and assessing progress in implementation of the Asian and Pacific Ministerial Declaration for Advancing Gender Equality and Women s Empowerment and to the Core Set of Gender Indicators for Asia and the Pacific (or regional core set) Time Session Components 08:30 Registration 09:00 Welcome and Workshop Overview Welcome Director, Social Development Division Overview purpose and content of Workshop 09:30 Introductions Session 1: Indicators for measuring the Ministerial Declaration (MD) 10:00 A. Overview of the MD 10:30 Break 10:50 B. Overview of the MD Indicators 11:15 12:00 Lunch C. Key considerations in collecting data on the MD indicators Introduction of participants activity, getting to know one another Presentation by the Social Development Division (SDD) Q&A Presentation by the SDD Plenary discussion Group-based discussion 6

7 13:00 C. cont. Plenary discussion Session 2: Core Set of Gender Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 13:45 A. Overview of the Core Set of Gender Indicators for Asia and the Pacific and status of data availability Presentation by the Statistics Division Q&A 14:15 B. Review of the regional core set for data availability, related challenges and potential solutions Group-based discussions 15:10 Break 15:30 B. cont. Plenary discussion Review of Day 1 16:15 Summary of Day 1 discussions, linking the MD indicators and the Core Set of Gender Indicators for Asia and the Pacific Presentation by Social Development and Statistics Divisions 16:30 Closing of Day 1 7

8 DAY 2: 8 October 2015 Focus: Development of joint national action plans Time Session Components 09:00 Day 1 re-cap Participant reflections on Day 1 Session 3: Production and use of the indicators: Existing initiatives and future actions 09:20 Introduction to Day 2 and key components for reflection and consideration in the development of the joint national action plans. Presentation Part I Calibration of: 09:30 a) Existing national level plans, programmes, strategies, practices and data sources that could support the production/availability of data on the MD indicators and the Regional Core Set Discussion in country groups 10:30 Break 10:50 Part I cont. Taking stock and plenary discussion Part II - Reflection on: 11:30 a) Actions for the collection, analysis and dissemination of data pertaining to the MD indicators for measuring implementation of the Ministerial Declaration, and b) Actions for the production and use of the Core Set of Gender Indicators for Asia and the Pacific, including national-level advocacy strategies for raising awareness on the regional core set across government sectors and agencies. Discussion in country groups 12:00 Lunch Session 3: Production and use of the indicators: Existing initiatives and future actions cont. 13:00 Part II cont. Discussion in country groups cont. 14:40 Break 15:00 Consolidation of Parts I and II and drafting of the joint national action plans Discussion in country groups cont. 16:15 Reflection on Day 2 (and link to Day 3) 16:30 Closing of Day 2 Summary by Social Development and Statistics Divisions 8

9 DAY 3: 9 October 2015 Focus: Sharing and collective review of joint national action plans Next Steps Time Session Components Session 4: Joint national action plans 09:00 Bangladesh 09:30 Bhutan 10:00 India 10:30 Break Country presentations Feedback/Q&A 10:50 Iran Country presentations 11:20 Maldives Feedback/Q&A 11:50 Lunch Session 4: Joint national action plans cont. 13:00 Nepal 13:30 Pakistan 14:00 Sri Lanka 14:30 Break Session 5: Collective review and next steps 15:00 Collective reflection on the national action plans. Enumeration of key immediate actions (against timeframes) to be taken post-workshop 16:00 Closing of Workshop Country presentations Feedback/Q&A Facilitated discussion 9

10 Annex B WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS BANGLADESH Mr. Khalilur Rahman Kagozi, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Bangladesh Secretariat, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Tel.: (+88) , (+88) ; khalil.kagozi@gmail.com Ms. Shaleha Khatun, Deputy Director, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, E-27/A, Agargaon, Dhaka-1207, Patishankhyan Bhaban, Bangladesh; Tel.: ; shaleha.du@gmail.com Mr. Md. Abu Taleb, Project Director (Deputy Secretary), Daycare Programme for the Children of Lower and Middle Income Working Women, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Bangladesh Secretariat, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Tel.: (+88) , (+88) ; abu15261@gmail.com BHUTAN Mr. Sonam Penjor, Chief Program Officer, National Commission for Women and Children, Above Memorial Chorten, Thimphu, Bhutan; Tel.: ; spenjor@ncwc.gov.bt Mr. Tashi Dorjee, Chief, National Statistics Bureau, National Statistics Bureau, Post Box No. 338, Thimphu, Bhutan; Tel.: ; tashidoz@yahoo.com Ms. Tshering Choden, Data Analyst, National Statistics Bureau, Post Box No. 338 Thimphu, Bhutan; Tel.: ; tsheringcee@hotmail.com Ms. Tshewang Lhamo, Program Officer, National Commission for Women and Children, Above Memorial Chorten, Thimphu, Bhutan; Tel.: ; tlhamo@ncwc.gov.bt INDIA Ms. Richa Shanker, Director, Social Statistics Division, Central Statistics Office, West Block-8, Wing-6, R.K.Puram, New Delhi , India; Tel.: ; richas@nic.in 10

11 ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN Ms. Leila Falahti, Director General of International Affairs, Vice-Presidency for Women and Family Affairs, No. 162, Nejatollahi, Tehran, Republic of Iran; Tel.: ; Ms. Leila Ahmad Abadi Pour, Head of Planning Department, Vice presidency of Women and Family Affairs (DWF), No. 162, Nejatollahi, Tehran, Republic of Iran; Tel.: ; MALDIVES Ms. Fathimath Shafeega, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Law and Gender, Majeedhee Magu, Billoorijehige, Republic of Maldives; Tel.: ; Ms. Amir Aminath Rishmee, Assistant Director, Ministry of Law and Gender, Majeedhee Magu, Billoorijehige, Republic of Maldives; Tel.: ; Ms. Aminath Mushfiqa Ibrahim, Senior Statistical Officer, National Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Finance & Treasury, Ameenee Magu, Machangoalhi, Male, Maldives; Tel.: ; Ms. Fathimath Riyaza, Assistant Statistician, National Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Finance & Treasury, Ameenee Magu, Machangoalhi, Male, Maldives; Tel.: ; NEPAL Mr. Shankar Prasad Pathak, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, Singhadarbar, Kathmandu, Nepal; Tel.: ; Mr. Suresh Basnyat, Director, Central Bureau of Statistics, Thapatali, Kathmandu, Nepal; Tel.: ; Mr. Nebin Lal Shrestha, Deputy Director General, Central Bureau of Statistics, Thapatali, Kathmandu, Nepal; Tel.: ; Ms. Sabitra Neupane, Women Development Officer, Office of Women and Children, Solukhumbu, Nepal; Tel.: ; 11

12 PAKISTAN Ms. Rabia Awan, Director, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Plot no. 21, Mauve area G-9/1, Islamabad, Pakistan; Tel.: ; rabi73@hotmail.com Ms. Rizwana Siddique, Director (BPS-19), Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Statistics House, Mauve Area, G-9/1, Islamabad, Pakistan; Tel.: ; rizwana_siddique2004@yahoo.com Ms. Zehra Yasmin Zaidi, Director, Center of Gender and Policy Studies, H.1, St. 12, F-8/3, Islamabad, Pakistan; Tel.: ; yzaidi55@gmail.com SRI LANKA Ms. Swarna Sumanasekara, Chairperson, National Committee on Women; Ministry of Child Development and Women's Affairs, Stage 11, Sethsiripaya, Baththaramulla, Sri Lanka; Tel.: ; swarnasumanasekara@gmail.com Ms. Samantha Nilmini Amerasinghe, Public Relations Officer to Minister, Ministry of Women's Affairs, Colombo, Sri Lanka; Tel.: ; sammybalasuriya@gmail.com Ms. Agampodi Nimali De Silva, Statistician, Department of Census and Statistics, Colombo, Sri Lanka; Tel.: ; nimali97@yahoo.com Ms. Tilinee Seetha Thellambura Hettige, Statistician, Department of Census and Statistics, Colombo, Sri Lanka; Tel.: ; thilineegk66@gmail.com SECRETARIAT ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC (ESCAP) Ms. Laura Lopez Director, Social Development Division Ms. Cai Cai Chief, Gender Equality and Women s Empowerment Section, Social Development Division Mr. Yanhong Zhang Ms. Jacqueline Paul Mr. Aaron Beck Ms. Beverly Jones Chief, Population and Social Statistics Section, Statistic Division Social Affairs Officer, Social Development Division Statistician, Statistics Division Social Affairs Officer, Social Development Division 12

13 Mr.Teerapong Praphotjanaporn Ms. Sharita Serrao Statistician, Statistics Division Statistics Assistant, Statistics Division 13