AGDI

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The African Gender and Development Index (AGDI)
A framework to measure gender equality in Africa
GLOBAL FORUM ON GENDER STATISTICS Accra, Ghana
26-28 January 2009
Presented by Souleymane ABDALLAH
Economic Affairs Officer, ACGS
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Presentations Outline

• Background
• What is the AGDI?
• The Gender Status Index
• The African Women Progress Scoreboard
• Cross-analysis

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Background

• ECAs 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
• ECAs response AN AFRICAN SPECIFIC
• GENDER 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 Womens 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
  womens 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?

• 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
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Social Block
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Social Block (Contd)
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Social Block (Contd)
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Economic Block
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Economic Block (Contd)
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Economic Block (Contd)
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Economic Block (Contd)
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Political Block
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Political Block (Contd)
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Political Block (Contd)
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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 (Contd)

• 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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Computation of the GSI (Contd)

• 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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Computation of the GSI (Contd)

• 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

• Womens rights CEDAW and its optional protocol,
  the Protocol to the African Charter of Human and
  Peoples Rights on Womens Rights.
• Social Power BPfA, Violence against women
  (domestic, sexual, rape, traffic),African Charter
  on the rights of child, ICPD PoA5 (STIs,
  HIV/AIDS, maternal mortality, contraception),
  2001 Abuja declaration on HIV/AIDS, education
  (girls drop out, education on womens rights).

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AWPS Focus (Contd)

• 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 womens quota and
  affirmative action, Policy to support womens in
  decision making positions within
  parliament/ministries, Gender mainstreaming in
  all departments

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Vertical Axis

• 1. Ratification
• 2. Reporting
• 3. Law
• 4. Policy Commitment
• 5. Development of a Plan
• 6. Targets
• 7. Institutional Mechanism
• 8. Budget
• 9. Human resources (Training)
• 10. Research
• 11. Involvement of civil society
• 12. Monitoring and evaluation
• 13. Information and dissemination

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AWPS FORMAT
Block Ratification Reporting Law
Womens Rights
Social Score
Economic
Political
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Scoring AWPS

• Simple 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 Index African Women Progress Scoreboard
Social Secondary dropout ratio 0.507 Girls drop out Law0, Policy0, Plan0
Economic Ownership of plot/land 0.843 Equal access to land law2, Policy2
Political Members of local councils 0.328 Support women in decision making Law2, Policy1, Plan0
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
Please visit www.uneca.org/acgd to download the
AGDI booklet