Women's socio-economic empowerment: where are the data gaps?

This blog, written by Wikigender Coordinator Estelle Loiseau, give the highlights of the Wikigender online discussion on "Data Gaps on Gender Equality", which in its first week focused on the socio-economic empowerment of women.* 

Wow, this is impressive - 48 comments in the first week of the discussion! This not only shows high interest, but also gives an idea of the importance of the topic. Last week we heard from you on where has progress been made in the area of data on gender equality since the establishment of the MDGs in 2000, as well as where the gaps are and where improvements can be made. So, where do we stand?

We can say that participants agreed that there has been progress, notably in the area of sex-disaggregated and gender-sensitive data (but with important limitations) and also in terms of the quality, analysis and dissemination of gender statistics. However, more efforts are needed in several areas, for example regarding the data collection at country level and in certain specific sectors like agriculture or aquaculture and fisheries. Also, a number of new areas of research and priority areas were brought to the fore. Let's take a look in detail...

Data issues mentioned

• Comparability of data at EU level, within OECD countries and beyond, within and across regions
• Common standards, harmonised data and definitions
• Coverage in terms of countries, type of policy and time trends (e.g. for indicators on policies that promote women's socio-economic empowerment)
• Lack of continuity between surveys 
• Data gaps in access to finance and land, and data gaps in agriculture, among others
• Capacity building of National Statistics Offices
• Many surveys are not gender-sensitive, e.g. in agriculture
• Data demand/use needs to be enhanced

"When it comes to data on entrepreneurship, it seems that data collection is greatly impaired by problems of definitions. There are no agreed definitions of what 'entrepreneurship' means, although it is regarded as a driver for social inclusion, empowerment and growth."                                                                                                  - Anne Laure Humbert

New areas of research and suggestions

• Time-use: to better understand women's participation in the labour market and the balance of family and work responsibilities
• Unpaid work: to make sure that women's contribution in the area of care is accounted for in the economic measures
• Social norms: to better understand the power imbalances at household level, which have an impact on women's empowerment at society level
• Fiscal policy: to better recognise women's contribution to the economy, one could disaggregate taxpayers' data by sex
• Technology: to develop a measurement framework to evaluate empowerment within technology initiatives where women are central players (e.g. in sectors such as clean cooking)

"ECLAC (...) has been key in moving forward with time use surveys and in that sense achieving comparability inasmuch as possible. This is creating the possibility to use these surveys to construct satellite accounts that can serve for policy design, but also micro simulation and other uses."                                                                                 - Elizabeth Villagomez

Priority areas

• Earning gaps, including from self employment
• Unpaid work
• Informal work, especially with a focus on poor women
• Systematic inclusion of age and sex in data collection, including old age

"We need more countries to collect data on informal employment (...), including on specific categories of informal workers such as domestic workers, home-based workers, street vendors and waste pickers and we need data on the earnings of the self employed."                                                                                                                     - Joann Vanek, WIEGO

To improve data quality, availability and coverage, participants emphasised: South-South cooperation and support from donors and international agencies; more political will for gender equality (e.g. Africa); strong advocacy for new research areas and priority areas; continued capacity building at country level; systematic inclusion of data at country level in global reports; national action plans; and more.

Many examples of initiatives and programmes were mentioned, including: PARIS21's data revolution; HBSC's data collection work on the health and well-being of adolescents; a measurement framework for monitoring equality and human rights in Great Britain by the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission; the OECD Gender Data Portal; Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index; and many more! 

The discussion during week 1 was particularly rich and interactive. This summary does not provide a full picture of the various mini-discussions which took place at several levels on some of the above-mentioned areas. Click here to read the full thread of comments and engage further!

This second week (3-9 February), we turn the focus on data gaps in the area of violence against women. See the questions asked for week 2 and join in the conversation!

*The discussion is brought to you by Wikigender, the UN Foundation, Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC), the EU-LAC Foundation, European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), ECLAC and PARIS21 - and in collaboration with Wikiprogress and Wikichild.

Online Discussion: Data Gaps on Gender Equality

Wikigender is running a new online discussion in partnership with the UN Foundation, Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC), the EU-LAC Foundation, European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), ECLAC and PARIS21 – while collaborating with Wikiprogress and Wikichild regarding:

Data Gaps on Gender Equality

Open from 27 January-14 February

We would like to engage participants in a discussion about where the data gaps exist concerning gender equality. With this discussion, we hope to pioneer initiatives that generate new data and new methodological approaches and to examine complex areas of gender equality, including unpaid care, time use and social norms. The discussion will also address the “data revolution” and gender statistics, lessons learned since the adoption of the MDGs in 2000, and proposals for priority targets for the post-2015 development agenda.

Each week of the discussion, there will be a different theme open for comments and dialogue:

Week 1: The socio-economic empowerment of women

Week 2: Violence against women

Week 3: Civic and political participation of women

The outcomes and main findings of the discussion will be summarised in a final report and presented at a side event at the 58^th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women held in New York in March 2014. The side event will be organised by the OECD Development Centre, Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

We invite you to find out more about the online discussion and questions for each theme by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1dnPEkI

You may begin participating in the discussion on 27 January, 2014. To post a comment, simply go to the “Contribute!” section of the discussion page. We count on your participation and hope that you will disseminate this information widely to your contacts! Feel free to use the following links to send an invitation to your contacts in Spanish or French also. On Twitter, we use the hashtags #gender and #datagaps

See you very soon on www.wikigender.org to discuss this issue!

Estelle Loiseau

Wikigender Co-ordinator

Abstinence doesn’t do the trick

This blog, written by Wikichild co-ordinator Melinda Deleuze, discusses the negative impact that adolescent pregnancies can have on the child, the mother and all of society. It is a contribution to the last day of the Wikiprogress spotlight on the Wikigender Network.

When I was 16 years old, I had one week of sex education required by my American high school. However, my state’s curriculum revolved around abstinence as the preferred means of birth control, along with fear as the method to encourage restraint until marriage. In my class, at least one girl, aged 15, already had an abortion before taking the course, and one boy, also aged 15, was a father. The course provided too little, too late. YES, abstinence has a 100% success rate. YES, it is the best way to avoid catching a sexually transmitted infection. NO, I’m not surprised that the US ranks second to last among the rich countries for number of teen births: 36 per 1,000 births among 15-19 year old girls (read more in this blog). 

Rich countries vs. the US in teen births (per 1,000 15-19 years old)

*Legend: In the lefthand graph, the UNICEF 

colors  represent the first, second and third 

Data from UNICEF's 11th Report Card and KIDS COUNT Data Book. 

tiers of countries' ranking. In the graph on the right, the colors match states with the country tiers. In this case,  the darkest blue indicates the 21 states which have a higher rate of teen births than the lowest ranking country (i.e. Bulgaria).

This year’s UN World Population Day focused on adolescent pregnancies, a persistent occurrence in both developing and developed countries. Around 16 million adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 give birth each year, according to the WHO. While there may be varying opinions on this issue, the fact is that adolescent pregnancies gravely affect the teen mother, the child and the rest of society (i.e. you and me). Despite misleading perceptions, these consequences can occur among married and unmarried adolescents in developed and developing countries for both intended and unintended pregnancies.

 How does it affect the well-being of the child?

The immediate health of children born to adolescent mothers is at risk, and the younger the mother, the higher the risk. This WHO Report states that “in low- and middle-income countries, stillbirths and death in the first week and first month of life are 50% higher among babies born to mothers younger than 20 years than those born to mothers aged 20–29 years.” Also, babies born to adolescent mothers are more likely to be pre-term, have a lower birth weight and have asphyxia, which all increase the baby’s chance of death or future health problems. Substance abuse during pregnancy is higher among adolescent girls, which contributes to a higher percentage of low birth-weight babies and infant mortality, along with other health issues.

How does it affect the well-being of the young mother?

First of all, the health of young mothers is severely compromised, as pregnant teenagers face double the risk of dying from pregnancy-related complications relative to women in their 20s.* This UNFA report summary states that “across developing countries, complications from pregnancy and unsafe abortion are the leading cause of death for girls aged 15-19.” The younger the mother, the more she is at risk of maternal complications, death and disability, including obstetric fistula. Up to 65% of women with obstetric fistula developed this during adolescence, says this WHO Report. Additionally, adolescent pregnancies are at higher risk for sexually transmitted diseases. Younger girls are less likely to practice safe sex and make up 64% of all new infections among young people worldwide, states this UNFPA factsheet.

Additionally, adolescent pregnancy contends with secondary education. In developed countries, motherhood during adolescent years increases girls’ chances of dropping out of school. In the United States, teen mothers are 10% less likely to obtain a high school diploma, as shown in this UNFPA report summary. Whereas in developing countries, the longer girls remain in school, the less likely they are to become pregnant in their teens. In Timor-Leste, for example, total fertility rates vary from 6 to1 ratio births per woman with no education to only 2 to 9 ratio births for women with secondary schooling or above, as indicated in this Women Deliver background paper. Delaying childbearing also increases chances of obtaining a higher income and better careers, among with other aspects of well-being, such as mental and psychological.

How does it affect the overall well-being of society?

Adolescent pregnancies concern us all as they negatively impact the development of a society. This UNFPA report summary states that “investing in family planning helps reduce poverty, improve health, promote gender equality, enable adolescents to finish their schooling and increase labour force participation.” In the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for this year’s World Population Day, he stated that “when we devote attention and resources to the education, health and well-being of adolescent girls, they will become an even greater force for positive change in society that will have an impact for generations to come.”

I’m grateful that the World Population Day addressed adolescent pregrancy. While we often talk about maternal and infant mortality rates, as well as low birth-weight babies, we overlook at times this major proponent. I hope that there can be more open conversations with teens in order to overcome some of the obstacles to preventing teen pregnancies. And believe me, teaching abstinence just doesn't do the trick.

Melinda Deleuze

* Gennari, Pamela, J. 2013. “Adolescent Pregnancy in Developing Countries.” International Journal of Childbirth Education 28:57

Let’s Talk about Child Well-being

Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), Wikigender and Wikichild invite you to participate in this online discussion.

“HOW SHOULD CHILD WELL-BEING BE MEASURED IN VIEW OF FUTURE DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORKS?”

Open from Wednesday 19 June until Tuesday 2 July 2013.

The discussion will be officially launched at the HBSC 30th Anniversary Meeting and aims to spark discussion on the most effective means of measuring child well-being and how these measures should be applied to upcoming development frameworks.

This discussion seeks to explore a variety of questions including:

1. What is the actual state of child well-being today?
2. What are the most important domains of well-being – specifically for children?
3. What policies have had the most impact on children in the past? 
4. Should there be a child development goal in the Post 2015 framework?

We would like to hear your views, lessons learned and best practices or policies on measuring child well-being.

Background

Measuring child well-being has traditionally rested on economic measures such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP); however, it is now widely accepted that the well-being of the nation is influenced by a broad range of factors including economic performance, quality of life, the state of the environment, sustainability, equality, as well as individual well-being.

Over the last decade, organisations around the world have been developing new indicators of progress that look beyond GDP and economic growth when measuring child well-being.

The well-being of children is high on the agenda for policy makers and this online consultation, hosted by Wikichild, seeks to engage discussion on the most effective means of measuring child well-being and how these measures should be applied to upcoming development frameworks such as the Post-2015 agenda.

You can post a comment in a few clicks by going to the “Contribute!” section of the online discussion page. Here is the shortened link to the discussion page: http://bit.ly/19ECjl  and the hashtag for Twitter is #childwellbeing .

To find out more about the questions asked and how to participate, please click here.

Make sure your voice heard!

Robbie Lawrence,

Wikichild Coordinator