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Report of the first session of the Committee on Gender and Social Development

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Report of the first session of the Committee on Gender and Social Development

Report of the first session of the Committee on Gender and Social Development
Photo credit: CUTS Nairobi

Report prepared for the Ninth Joint AUC-ECA Annual Meetings of the AU Conference of Ministers of the Economy and Finance and ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, taking place from 31 March to 4 April 2016 under the theme: “Towards an Integrated and Coherent Approach to Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation of Agenda 2063 and the SDGs”

Introduction

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), through its Social Development Policy Division, convened the first session of the Committee on Gender and Social Development in Addis Ababa on 17 and 18 December 2015, under the theme: “Sustainable Development Goals in Africa: Enhancing gender-responsive and social development policies”.

The Committee was formed through a merger of the Committee on Women in Development and the Committee on Human and Social Development. It is a statutory body of experts and policymakers, entrusted with providing guidance and advice to the Social Development Policy Division through the review of activities implemented during the current biennium (2014-2015), and strategic vision and direction for the next biennium (2016-2017).

The aim of the first session was to review progress on gender and social development in Africa, and identify achievements, challenges, and implementation gaps to ensure the desired impacts. In particular, the Committee provided guidance and expert opinion on the Division’s priorities and activities, and made recommendations for strengthening ECA programmes to ensure that the needs of member States and regional economic communities were better served. Conclusions and recommendations were adopted at the end of the two-day session.

The meeting was attended by representatives from the following member States: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The following United Nations bodies and specialized agencies were also represented: the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).

Presentation of the report on the development of national satellite accounts of household production

Presenting the report on the development of national satellite accounts of household production, Mr. Gonzague Rosalie, Economic Affairs Officer at the African Centre for Gender, said that the exclusion from official national accounts of most services produced by households for their own consumption led to an understatement of the importance role played in the national economy by those working in the household sector, in particular women.

It was therefore important to compile satellite accounts of household production that imputed monetary values to services produced by households for their own account, in order to supplement the core national accounts and obtain a broader measure of national welfare. To that end, the report proposed a framework for constructing such satellite accounts of household production and discussed the policy implications of those accounts.

In the ensuing discussion, participants underscored the importance and relevance of time-use surveys and satellite accounts of household production for recognizing and valuing domestic work in general, and the work of women in particular. They commended ECA on placing its focus on such an important area of work and urged the Commission to continue its work in that area in support of efforts by member States to design, plan, implement and evaluate policies which took cognizance of the difference between the statuses of men and women, and the differing effects of policies on them.

The representatives of Guinea and Uganda specifically requested assistance from ECA in undertaking time-use surveys.

The Committee made a number of recommendations in relation to the satellite accounts of household production, as set out below:

(a) Ministries of member States with responsibility for gender and women’s affairs should take the lead in advocating the application of time-use surveys and satellite accounts of household production;

(b) Member States should:

(i) Undertake regular time-use surveys based on sound methodology to collect nationally representative, quality time-use data. The objectives of the surveys should reflect the national priorities of each country;

(ii) Make use of time-use data in national publications and formulate and evaluate policies;

(iii) Use data from time-use surveys and other information sources to compile satellite accounts of household production. To that end, critical importance attached to the engagement and ownership of accounts by member States;

(c) Non-governmental organizations should strengthen their advocacy of regular time-use surveys and satellite accounts of household production, and of time-use data to inform policymaking in African countries;

(d) ECA should:

(i) Ensure that time-use studies and satellite accounts of household production constituted an important focus of its work programme for the 2016-2017 biennium;

(ii) Assist member States in undertaking time-use studies and compiling satellite accounts of household production, and disseminate the results of the surveys by providing financing and technical assistance. That support should be aligned with the policymaking processes and structures of the countries concerned;

(iii) Promote the sharing of information and best practices among African countries to facilitate the conduct of timeuse studies and the analysis of time-use data for the compilation of satellite accounts of household production;

(iv) Assist member States in using the results obtained from time-use studies and satellite accounts of household production to design, plan, implement and evaluate policies that took cognizance of the difference between the statuses of women and men;

(v) Undertake studies that considered and measured women’s contribution to the economy beyond the household level.

Presentation of the report on the African social development index

In his presentation of the report on the African social development index, Mr. Saurabh Sinha, Chief, Employment and Social Protection Section, said that the index had been developed in response to a request from member States for a tool to track progress in tackling exclusion and promoting more inclusive and equitable policies. The tool was a product of wide and iterative consultations with member States and other stakeholders. It offered a particular advantage in that it followed a life-cycle approach in measuring the impact of social policies on human exclusion in six key dimensions of wellbeing: survival, health, education, employment, productive income and quality of life.

He explained that the index was intuitive and simple to use in planning effective social policies that took due account of Africa’s social development context. The index’s overarching goal was to enhance Africa’s capacity to develop policy options that would help to build more inclusive and equitable societies. The index had been rolled out to 44 member States and had also been presented to the African Union Commission and the regional economic communities, and had been introduced at a number of meetings involving civil society, United Nations agencies and representatives of the academic sector.

In the ensuing discussion, participants acknowledged the usefulness of the African social development index and commended ECA on having introduced it and made it available to member States. They noted with satisfaction that the tool was highly relevant to Africa’s development and planning frameworks. One participant noted that the tool could be very useful in social budgeting and auditing.

Participants wondered how the tool could be extended to other member States, in particular those which did not participate in the subregional training workshops. They also wanted to know how it could be extended to other sector ministries, such as those responsible for education, health, gender and social development, besides those of finance and planning. The presenter informed the Committee that training courses could be organized upon official request for member States that were not covered.

It was pointed out that the definition of exclusion was framed within the social transformation agenda, which placed a high premium on leaving no one behind. The index used national data provided by member States. As a result, its values could not, and should not, be compared across countries since national data used different methodologies, rendering comparisons across countries very difficult. It was for that reason that, unlike other indices, the African social development index did not rank countries. The major challenge arising in the application of the African social development index was often the lack of reliable data, particularly at the subnational levels.

One participant informed the Committee that her country was currently implementing social protection programmes for vulnerable groups and that the African social development index would be a very useful tool in improving the targeting of beneficiaries.

Recognizing the relevance of the African social development index to Africa’s development, the Committee made a number of key recommendations to ECA:

(a) The African social development index tool and training should be extended to all countries that were not covered in the initial capacitybuilding workshops across the region;

(b) ECA should go beyond ministries of finance and national planning in rolling out the African social development index and include ministries responsible for gender, education and health, among others;

(c) The data used in the computation of the African social development index should be further disaggregated, in particular in the rural areas, in order to capture the disparities between women and men, and girls and boys;

(d) The African social development index should be linked to national planning frameworks and, in particular, to social budgets and auditing using disaggregated data.

The representative of South Sudan requested ECA to support that country in conducting an assessment of human exclusion, with the aim of improving the targeting of beneficiaries of social protection programmes. It was decided that, since South Sudan was a special case, consideration would be given to its request for the conduct of an African social development index study.

Presentation of the report on urbanization

Presenting the report on urbanization, Ms. Edlam Yemeru, Chief, Urbanization Section, said that ECA had been providing technical assistance to member States on urbanization from the early 1960s but the issue had since faded from the regional agenda. In 2012, the repositioning of ECA in line with the transformative agenda of the continent had re-established its work on urbanization and a separate section on that issue had been created. In 2013 and 2014, ECA had engaged in consultations and discussions with different stakeholders to help define its urbanization programme, from which the urbanization strategy had been developed.

She observed that urbanization was a far-reaching trend with enormous implications for Africa’s growth and transformation. Only 100 years previously, 8 per cent of Africa’s population had been urban but, today, 40 per cent was urban. In the past five years – 2005-2010 – Africa’s urban growth rates had been 1.7 per cent higher than the global average and, by 2035, more than 50 per cent of the continent’s population would be living in urban areas. In 52 African countries, urban populations were growing faster than rural populations and, by 2050, Africa’s urban population would triple to 1.23 billion. For that reason, efforts were needed to harness the urbanization process for Africa’s transformation and development.

Urbanization and structural transformation were strongly linked, as there were economic and social advantages intrinsic in urbanization. For example, 60 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) was generated in 600 urban areas but Africa had yet to harness the full potential of urbanization. Urbanization had previously been delinked from economic growth and development and it was therefore important now to mainstream it into national development planning.

She further noted that, to support member States in harnessing urbanization, ECA work in line with Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was premised on the following: urbanization was a driving force behind inclusive social and economic growth; there were close interlinkages between urbanization and industrialization; urbanization and agricultural transformation were complementary processes; urbanization was the backbone of regional trade and integration; and urbanization presented an opportunity for efforts to tackle environmental and climate change challenges.

In conclusion, she said that implementation of the urbanization strategy and ECA work on urbanization would be effected through evidence-based policy research and knowledge creation; data and monitoring; capacitybuilding and technical assistance; and partnerships.

Presentation on the African gender and development index

In her presentation, Ms. Ngone Diop, Senior Gender Advisor, African Centre for Gender, said that the African gender and development index had been developed by ECA in 2004 to provide member States with a comprehensive tool to assess their progress in implementing their regional and global gender equality and women’s empowerment commitments. The index had been piloted in 12 African countries and the findings had been published by ECA in 2009, its first African women’s report.

Following the pilot study, the index had been refined and studies for the index had been extended to a further 14 countries. The current third phase of the African gender and development index process was being carried out in 13 countries, namely, Gabon, Guinea, Liberia, Morocco, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa (for technical assistance only), Swaziland and Zimbabwe. To date, a total of 39 countries had participated in studies for the index.

She explained that the index was an Africa-specific resource based on national statistics and informed by Africa’s social, cultural, economic and political landscape. It was a composite index made up of two mutually reinforcing components: the gender status index, a quantitative measure of gender issues, which measured gender equality gaps by assessing whether women and men had the same opportunities to earn income, and the same access to and control over resources and opportunities to obtain education and live healthy lives; and the African women’s progress scoreboard, which captured qualitative issues relating to the performance of the gender policies of African countries and progress in implementing regional and international commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Unlike many such indices, the African gender and development index was not linked to countries’ GDP. Instead, it measured gender equality, women’s well-being and empowerment in all the social, economic and political spheres. Attention was also given to the voices and agency of women, in other words, to their ability to make choices leading to desired outcomes, free of retribution and discrimination.

The results of the scorecard had been used by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission at the June 2015 session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in rewarding countries that had made progress towards gender equality.

She informed the Committee that the African Centre for Gender was collaborating with the African Union Commission to produce the gender equality scorecards and also with the African Development Bank to harmonize the two indices on gender equality developed by the two institutions. Countries were encouraged to use the African gender and development index in developing national plans and indicators for the implementation of both Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The basic rationale for the African gender and development index process was to assist Governments in streamlining and aligning their national development frameworks and visions with regional commitments under the broader framework of gender concerns.

Presentation on the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa: opening inroads for enhancing gender and social development policies

In her presentation, Ms. Manuh said that the focus of the presentation was on two critical frameworks, Agenda 2063 of the African Union and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the General Assembly in September 2015. Both frameworks played a critical role in mobilizing consensus for development, although the responsibility for their implementation lay with member States.

Both frameworks emphasized inclusive equitable economic growth, gender equality, empowering vulnerable groups, ending malnutrition and enabling sustainable urbanization. They complemented each other on such issues as gender equality, social development and related actions at the national, regional economic community and continental levels.

She highlighted key priorities in the areas of gender and social development in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as they related to the work of the Division and the implications for gender and social development policies and strategies on the continent. The areas where member States needed support in implementing the Agenda were outlined. She stressed that member States needed to take lead in the systematic follow-up and review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and give due consideration to gender and social development in their planning.

In the ensuing discussion, participants stressed that the mainstreaming of gender perspectives and women’s issues into policies, strategies and budgets should be the responsibility of sectoral ministries. Ministries responsible for gender and women’s affairs should support the sectoral ministries in their mainstreaming efforts through capacity-development interventions based on their needs, the development of guidelines and the provision of appropriate mechanisms and forums for knowledge-sharing and coordination. Egypt, Ethiopia and Rwanda were highlighted as good practices in that regard.

Other issues related to gender equality and the empowerment of women discussed by the Committee were the need to promote regular interface between ministries responsible for gender and women’s affairs and ministries responsible for finance and development planning; the need to capacitate national gender machineries on a regular basis to counter high attrition rates; the need for more effective e-discussions, including through the ECA e-network for national gender machineries for information-sharing and advocacy; and the need for member States to share knowledge and good practices.

Participants highlighted the fragmented nature of social protection systems on the continent and called for more integrated approaches to social protection. In addition, they highlighted the need for a single registry of civil registration and vital statistics to support integrated social protection systems.

The Committee recommended that member States should nominate focal points for the e-network for national gender machineries for information-sharing and advocacy that were at a high enough level to engage effectively in e-discussions; and that there should be more and better engagement with ministries of finance and economic planning, to ensure that gender issues and women’s concerns were well integrated in national budgets and development planning.

It also recommended that ECA, for its part, should support member States by:

(a) Ensuring that the Chair of the Bureau of the Committee on Gender and Social Development attended and reported back on the outcomes of the first session of the Committee to the Conference of Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, scheduled for March-April 2016;

(b) Undertaking a mapping exercise to ascertain the capacity-development needs of national gender agencies, and to identify good practices in gender mainstreaming;

(c) Providing technical and advisory support to develop gender-responsive budgets;

(d) Reinvigorating the e-network for national gender machineries for information-sharing and advocacy, to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and best practices and more effective e-discussions on topical issues on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls;

(e) Undertaking a study of existing social protection regimes to identify good practices and assist in developing integrated national social protection systems.

General recommendations

The Committee made the following general recommendations:

(a) Global commitments and frameworks need to be contextualized, taking into account national development priorities in Africa, and ECA should support member States in domesticating both Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to ensure the effective implementation and monitoring of gender and social development commitments;

(b) ECA should strengthen the cross-fertilization and synergy of the various components of its work on gender and social development;

(c) ECA should continue to strengthen its current good collaboration with the African Union Commission in supporting member States in the area of gender and social development in the context of Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;

(d) ECA should endeavour to support more countries in their efforts to accelerate gender equality, women’s empowerment and social development, and mobilize resources towards that end;

(e) Disabled persons are an important population group in Africa and their specific needs should be taken into account in ECA work and future deliberations of the Committee;

(f) ECA should consider the important role of social entrepreneurship and innovation inspired by good practices in Africa and beyond in respect of the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment;

(g) The cultural factors underpinning the violation of women’s human rights should be taken into account in future research by ECA on human rights;

(h) Member States should respond to requests from ECA for information in a timely manner;

(i) Adequate time should be provided for detailed discussion of key agenda items during future meetings of the Committee.

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