African policymakers, gender experts and development actors are calling on countries and the region to invest and collaborate more to finance the production and use of gender data.The Director of African Centre for Statistics, Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Mr Oliver Chinganya, made the call in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said that such investment and collaboration would improve the lives of women and girls.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the senior public sector officials and civil society actors met recently during the Africa Gender Statistics Forum 2024 (AGSF24) in Gaborone, Botswana.
NAN also reports that about 40 African countries attended the forum, with a theme, “ Pooling Together for Gender Statistics: Financing the Numbers that Make Women and Girls Count’’.
“This year’s AGSF aimed at taking stock of Africa’s progress and gender perceptions in the Addis Ababa Declaration on Population and Development, otherwise called the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the 3rd Africa Programme on Gender Statistics.
“The financing gap for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) stands at 1.3 trillion dollars per year.
“Africa needs at least an additional 800 million dollars per year towards meeting the SDGs and at the current pace, gender equality will only be achieved in 2094,” Chinganya said.
Chingaya was represented by William Muhwava, Chief of the Demographic and Social Statistics Section of the commission.
The representative of the United Nation Women’s South Africa Multi-Country Office (SAMCO), Aleta Miller, said funding for gender data and statistics had fallen by nearly half compared to averages from 2019.
According to Miller, development assistance for gender equality has however continued to increase every year since 2015,
“Investing in the production and use of gender data and leveraging this for gender equality is thus the crucial shared goal of AGSF24,” Miller said.
Similarly, Ms Bridget John, Botswana’s Permanent Secretary for Youth, Sports, and Culture, said AGSF was one of the most significant annual meetings of producers and users of gender statistics in Africa.
According to her, it provides an invaluable platform for raising the bar on how the region makes available and uses the data that can be applied for evidence-based policy and decision-making.
She said this included gender-responsive budgeting to improve the lives of African women and girls.
“This is a valuable opportunity to strengthen regional collaboration, share best practices, and strategise on how best to raise and pooling resources for the production and use of gender data.
“Sharing expertise and fostering cross-pollination of ideas through this cross-disciplinary forum will ensure that we gain the new practical knowledge necessary to move forward this agenda,” John said.
For Nathalie Gahunga, African Development Bank’s (AfDB) Gender and Women Empowerment Division, gender data and statistics are crucial to effectively catering.
Gahunga, represented by Koffi Kouakou, AfDB Principal Gender Statistician-Economist and the statistics was critical for the diverse realities of women and men, boys and girls in Africa’s development.
“Without a gender-specific approach to statistics, the planning and implementation of policies, programmes and projects will not sufficiently take into account the difference in the status of men and women,”Gahunga said.
The sixth AGSF is jointly hosted by Statistics Botswana, the African Union Commission (AUC), the AfDB, PARIS21, the Southern African Development Cooperation (SADC) and UN Women under the auspices of the ECA.(NAN)
