MDG Net Consolidated Reply
eDiscussion: Gender and MDGs
31 July 2003
Prepared by Kalyani Menon-Sen, Elham Seyedsayamdost and Isabella Watershoot

Original Query
Kalyani Menon-Sen , UNDP India

Key Points:

This discussion sought inputs towards developing a strategy for effective mainstreaming of gender issues into the MDG reports. Questions that were dealt with in particular included:


Launch Message in Full:

Invitation to discussion by Jan Vandemoortele (UNDP Poverty Practice Leader):

Dear Network Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the launch of our second MDG Net sponsored 'expert moderated' eDiscussion on Gender and MDGs. Our discussion will be cross posted with the Gender Equality Network (GenderNet) and will extend for three weeks to 2 July.

With this discussion we aim to examine existing MDG reports through a gender lens and discuss how best to integrate the findings of our review into the next 60 or so upcoming reports. As you know, all MDG targets and indicators are expected to be disaggregated by sex while MDG3 is dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women.

The quality of reporting on gender disparities depends on availability of data but it is also contingent on the importance attached to the issue of gender equality across development work. Through this discussion we hope to improve the gender reporting in the MDGRs and use the recommendations based on a few reports to develop some guiding tools for future MDGRs.

Our "Guest Expert Moderator" is Kalyani Menon-Sen, a gender expert with over twenty years of experience in activism, training and research on issues of women's rights and gender. She has worked closely with  UNDP India, where, as Gender Advisor, she was involved in developing and supporting the implementation of a gender mainstreaming strategy that addressed both programmatic and organisational gender issues. She is the co-author (with A.K.Shiv Kumar) of "Women in India: How Free? How Equal?" a report published by the UN System in India which has been widely disseminated and quoted. Currently, she is Gender Advisor to the Human Development Resource Centre in India, and is involved in projects on gender budgeting and the gender dimensions of macro-economic policies. Kalyani is a member of the international team that undertook the recent review, commissioned by the UNDP Evaluation Office, of the MDG Reporting process in eight countries.

Please find her message below and the mentioned MDGR review and related PowerPoint presentation attached. We encourage you to join us in this discussion and hope that it is relevant and useful to your good work on MDGs, especially in the production of MDG reports.

Best regards,
Jan
 

DISCUSSION ON GENDER AND MDGs: LAUNCH MESSAGE

Welcome to this discussion on Gender and the MDGs, which will be cross-posted on GenderNet and on MDGNet for the next three weeks.

Although they are barely three years old, the MDGs have emerged as a global fulcrum for affirming a universally agreed core set of global development goals and assessing barriers to their achievement, as well as a tool for holding governments accountable for their commitments on key issues.

There is a clear correspondence between the MDGs and other global instruments related to gender equality, such as the Beijing Platform for Action and CEDAW. Gender equality has been highlighted as a central concern in the Millennium Declaration and is specifically mandated as Goal 3 - ?Promote gender equality and empowerment of women?. Gender equality underpins all the other goals - without gender equality, progress in any other sector would not be sustainable. The reverse is also equally true ? achievement of Goal 3 depends on progress made on each of the other goals. Even if one were to view the issue from a purely instrumental perspective, attempting to
achieve the MDGs without promoting gender equality will both raise the costs and decrease the likelihood of achieving the other goals.

MDG Reports and the reporting process offer an opportunity to create greater public visibility and awareness of gender issues, and advocate for action to promote gender equality. Effective mainstreaming of gender issues into MDG Reports can be expected to have significant long-term impacts on the overall environment for action on gender issues within the country as well as on the policy framework and resources available for women?s empowerment.

However, a recent review of a selection of published MDG Reports  indicates that the situation with regard to gender mainstreaming is still patchy. Gender concerns and perspectives not mainstreamed adequately across goals in the majority of reports. References to women and gender continue to be ?ghettoised? under Goals 3 and 5 (maternal mortality). Disaggregated data are seldom provided except under Goals 2 and 3, where they are a specific requirement. In most reports, women continue to be cast as mothers and victims rather than agents of development. Attempts to ?step out of the box? and place discussions on issues such as poverty and HIV/AIDS in the larger context of gender equality and women?s rights and freedoms, are infrequent exceptions.

The review also threw up some instances of effective mainstreaming - such as the presentation of disaggregated data across goals and indicators in the Lithuania report, the incorporation of gender issues into discussions under five of the eight goals in the Armenia report and the gendered analysis of poverty in the Bolivia report ? which hold valuable lessons for other MDGR teams.

This discussion seeks your inputs towards developing a strategy for effective mainstreaming of gender issues into the MDG reports. In particular, we invite responses to the following questions:

I will monitor this discussion and try to help where I can. I will also provide you with a summary of the main points at the end of our discussion.
I look for forward to hearing from you.

Kalyani Menon-Sen

Responses were received, with many thanks, from:
(* message not posted on MDG Net)

1.    Aida Robbana, UNDP Tunisia
2.    Lina Hamadeh-Banerjee, UNDP/CDG
3.    Aida Robbana, UNDP Tunisia
4.    Amina Tirana, UNDP/BRSP
5.    Simon Ellis, UNESCO
6.    Rosina Wiltshire, UNDP Barbados
7.    Turhan Saleh, UNDP/BRSP
8.    Simon Ellis, UNESCO
9.    Jan Vandemoortele, UNDP/BDP
10.  Don Nanjira, UN/DDC
11.  Kalyani Menon-Sen, UNDP India
12.  Vinetta Robinson, UNDP Ethiopia
13.  Hande Keklik, UNIFEM
14.  Aster Zaoude, UNDP/BDP
15.  Kalyani Menon-Sen, UNDP India
16.  Hande Keklik, UNIFEM
17.  Coumba Mar Gadio, UNDP Senegal
18.  Meg Wirth, UN Millennium Project
19.  Dono Abdurazakova, UNDP Bratislava
20.  Robert Johnston, UN Statistics Division
21.  Dasa Silovic, UNDP BDP
22.  Nalini Burn, Mali
23.  Kalyani Menon-Sen, UNDP India
24.  Aster Zaoude, UNDP/BDP
25.  Kalyani Menon-Sen, UNDP India
26.  Aster Zaoude, UNDP/BDP
27.  Lorraine Corner, UNIFEM Thailand
28.  Ceri Hayes, UNIFEM UK
29.  Leslie Wright, Conference of NGOs
30.  Daisy Kuzinya, UNV Tanzania
31.  Bharati Silawal, UNDP Nepal
32.  Haidy Ear-Dupuy, World Vision International*
33.  Ghaith Fariz, UNDP Lebanon

Summary of Responses:

GENDER AND MDGs: CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Participants in the e-discussion identified several challenges for the successful integration of gender perspectives into the MDGRs.

The e-discussion also generated several suggestions and recommendations for strengthening the integration of gender perspectives and concerns into the MDGRs. The summary below highlights these, as well as some useful ideas emerging from the gender review of MDGRs and interactions with country teams.

Framework

Content Indicators and data Reporting process Training


Examples of GOOD PRACTICES cited in the responses:

Barbados
To overcome existing barriers in mainstreaming gender in MDGRs, which seemingly originates from a lack of adequate reporting mechanisms integrated into the corporate framework, MDG Reporting on Gender issues often results in pro-actively including gender topics and stirring up data. While in the Caribbean MDGs are largely perceived as a donor agenda, the Barbados Country Office will focus On trying to build up the gender perspective from the beginning of the process.

Senegal
Despite the active participation of women?s organizations and CSOs in the consultative process, gender mainstreaming in the MDGRs is hampered. The strategy the CO has opted for is the one of collecting a complete set of gender-sensitive indicators for each Goal and related targets, which has been used for advocacy purposes.

Tunisia
Rural, urban and regional disparities are greater barriers to the achievement of the MDGs than gender inequality. It was suggested to the CO to express with charts the structural linkages between these disparities and gender data. Additionally, it was suggested that the report could highlight progress and advances on gender equality and simultaneously discuss disparities.

Nepal
Interestingly, Nepal has grabbed the opportunity of the MDGRs to develop a UN Common Database comprising of 97 indicators covering all goals. A national campaign on gender and MDGs is shown as being a vehicle to create public awareness and build commitment to achieving the targets.

Cambodia
Besides an extensive analysis of gender issues for goal 1 and 2, goal 2 is completely disaggregated by sex. Additional indicators have been added to Goal 5, 6 and 7 where women?s access to land is of primary and strategic importance in the Cambodian context. With regard to Goal 3, the scope of the Goal has been expanded and includes indicators on women?s wage labour for the agriculture, industry and services sectors, as well as indicators on women?s participation in decision-making in various aspects of governance at the local, provincial and national levels. An indicator to track violence against women will also be included. The exercise laying the foundations for the report, which is in its draft form, has involved the inputs of gender experts, Government as well as effective collaboration from UNDP, UNIFEM, the AfDB and the WB.

Weekly summaries by Kalyani Menon-Sen:
Week 1 - Summary
Week 2 - Summary
Week 3 - Summary
 

Attachments:


Related Resources:

MDGs and Gender related Statements and Articles by the Secretary General:

UNDP Gender Policy Note
The present practice note attempts to demystify gender mainstreaming by providing straightforward suggestions on how to focus attention on gender. It covers effective entry points for advancing gender equality; the relationship between gender and the six practice areas; resources for gender mainstreaming; and the responsibility of senior management and all staff members. To download the document, visit http://www.undp.org/gender/policy.htm

UNDP Gender Mainstreaming in Practice: A Handbook
This handbook is designed for policy makers who are not experts in gender issues, but who nonetheless are charged with the day-to-day responsibility of gender mainstreaming. To be accessed at http://www.undp.org/gender/docs/RBEC_GM_manual.pdf

UNDP?s Gender Mainstreaming Initiatives available at http://www.undp.org/gender/docs/Undp.pdf
UNDP Gender Mainstreaming Tools available at http://www.undp.org/gender/tools.htm

Monitoring the MDGs through a Gender Lense in South Asia - Anuradha Seth, UNDP/SURF Kathmandu (24-26 March 2003)
This paper was presented to the MDG Forum in South Africa at the Experts Meeting on Engendering PRSPs and MDGs. It is available in PDF at http://www.undp.org/surf-kathmandu/thematic/poverty/mdg/gender%20MDG-sa.pdf and in Word at http://www.undp.org/surf-kathmandu/thematic/poverty/mdg/gender%20MDG-sa.doc

The Millennium Development Goals: Gender related indicators in the Arab States - Ghaith Fariz, UNDP/SURF Beirut
Using relevant MDG indicators, the paper demonstrates that despite tangible improvements in the gender equality status in the Arab States, there are still major issues that need to be addressed. Available at http://portal.undp.org/server/nis/4649027220095997?hiddenRequest=true

UNDP Gender Beat ? Quarterly review of projects and activities around the world: http://www.undp.org/gender/genderbeat.htm

For UNDG Gender resources at DevLink, see http://www.undg.org/?P=108
For gender related Technical Issues, see http://www.undg.org/index.cfm?P=362
For training materials and workshops, see http://www.undg.org/index.cfm?P=116

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
This is a gender statistics website that aims to bring together both gender statistics and policies. The main focus is on the production, dissemination and use of gender related data. In addition to statistics, this site elaborates on some of the main gender issues relevant to the UNECE region, and provides examples of policies and other initiatives within that context. These statistics are available at http://www.unece.org/stats/gender/web/welcome1.htm

Progress of the World's Women: Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals
www.unifem.org
There has been progress in achieving gender equality and women's empowerment around the world - but the pace is too slow in many regions. Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest levels of achievement, primarily because of a devastating combination of national poverty, conflict and the effects of HIV/AIDS. These are among the findings of Progress of the World's Women 2002, the groundbreaking report on women's empowerment produced by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). This biennial report is the only one of its kind to track the world's commitment to gender equality.
LAC Initiative to be found on page 57 table 13

Lessons Learned from the Pacific Mainstreaming Projects - http://www.unifempacific.com/lessons.html
The UNIFEM Pacific Mainstreaming Project, which started in 1990, had as its principal objectives to initiate a gender sensitive approach in national policies, programmes and projects, to prioritise women's concerns in the process of national development in four Pacific Island countries, and in the course of the project, to institutionalise and strengthen the Mainstreaming of gender concerns in all levels of development planning processes. The project targeted government planners in the central planning office, sectoral agencies, and women leaders in the government women's office and non-government organisations in the four pilot countries.

Background Paper of the Task Force on Education and Gender Equality: Achieving Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women ?  Millennium Project, 18 April 2003
The purpose of this paper is to review progress countries have made in reaching goal 3 and to suggest recommendations to accelerate progress. Available at http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/documents/tf03genapr18.pdf

Mainstreaming Gender to Achieve the MDGs  - On 26 June 2003, the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) and the NGO Section, DESA, co-hosted an open round table dialogue on "Mainstreaming Gender to Achieve the MDGs". June Zeitlin, Executive Director of the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) was the lead discussant. The summary record is available at http://www.wfuna.org/site/MDGMeeting5.htm

UNESCO Gender Mainstreaming Implementation Framework ? 28 April 2003
http://www.unesco.org/women/UGMIFV8.pdf
This strategy for 2003-2007 gives unprecedented value and visibility to gender mainstreaming as the most effective approach to meet the urgent needs of women in order to achieve gender equality. It offers baseline definitions of key concepts, proposes guiding principles for action and spells out the lines of responsibility to mainstream gender throughout its programmes. The Compendium of UNESCO?s Gender Mainstreaming Resources contains a full range of gender-mainstreaming tools and is available at http://www.unesco.org/women

WHO Resources for Gender Mainstreaming - To view WHO's resources on mainstreaming gender go to http://www.who.int/gender/mainstreaming/resources/en/
Highlights on this page include:

Gender Equality and the MDGs: World Bank - http://www.undp.org/gender/docs/Gender&MDG_World%20Bank.pdf
This paper attempts to show the strong linkages between gender equliaty and all the MDGs, showing that gender equality offers a win-win approch for policy makers and planner in their search for achieving the MDGs and to show though examples how gender equality can be integrated into MDG policies anbd einterventions.

Gender Information Exchange - a fast route to gender mainstreaming resources from donor agencies
http://www.genie.ids.ac.uk/

Mainstreaming in Poverty Eradication and the Millennium Development Goals - Naila Kabeer, March 2003
This book provides evidence as to why promoting gender equality is essential for halving world poverty and realising all eight MDGs. Gender inequality contributes to poverty. A shift to ensure women have increased access to resources will have a significant effect on household welfare. At the same time, poverty contributes to gender inequality, and tackling poverty may also reduce gender inequality. However, economic growth alone will not bring such equality, as gender inequality is caused by patriarchal regimes as well as scarcity. In the short run, there may be a trade-off between gender equality and economic growth, with women's cheap labour fuelling growth. However, long run, sustainable and pro-poor growth goes together with increasing gender equality. This publication can be ordered from r.jones-parry@commonwealth.int

How Can Gender Equality Advocates Use the UN's Millennium Declaration to Achieve Concrete Advances for Women? - Alternatives for Women in Development, 22 April 2003
Interview with June Zeitlin, Executive Director of the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), a U.S. NGO. In her interview, Ms. Zeitlin talks about the UN's new focus on the goals set out in the Millenium Declaration signed at the UN's Millenium Summit in 2000, arguing that the Millenium Declaration can be used as an effective tool for advocacy on gender equality. For the full interview go to http://www.awid.org/article.pl?sid=02/04/23/0250249&mode=thread

Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action available at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/confer/beijing/reports/plateng.htm

Conventions that promote gender equality and empower women:


Best wishes,
Elham Seyedsayamdost, MDG Net Facilitator

Responses in Full:

Aida Robbana, UNDP Tunisia:
Dear Jan,  Dear Kalyani, dear colleagues,

Participating in the ediscussion on Gender and MDGs, we would like to share with you the availability of gender-specific statistics in Tunisia and raise the issue/concern of ours on the importance of gender-focused analysis in each country.

In the UNDP office of Tunisia we are in the process of conducting our first MDGR. We have collected all the available statistics disaggregated at multiple levels, (i.e. Female/Male, Urban/Rural, age group and North-East/North-West/South-East/South West/Grand-capital etc.) and an independent consultant is currently compiling and analysing the data. Please find below a list of the MDG indicators to be used for the Tunisian MDGR, which are disaggregated, amongst other, by sex. The list is both in English and French, as the original source of our indicators is French.

However, and regardless the quite sufficient availability of gender specific statistics for a gender oriented MDGR, we are a bit concerned about its prospective ultimate consulting role. The reason for that is that in the country of Tunisia the issue of gender disparities has been well advanced in the majority of social life domains, where disparities between the urban and rural population or between the grand areas of the country still persist and may be exacerbating. Thus, conducting a gender-oriented MDGR may be evident and welcome in the country, but may not challenge the real constraints of progress towards the MDGs and the substantive weaknesses of national policies so far, which should be addressed sooner or later. In an effort to elaborate further the above and following the interim way of including all possible data segregations per goal in the MDGR, we are afraid that its length may exceed the 25-30 pages and, thereafter, lead to a long, tiring, ambiguous report that may be interpreted and used by national decision makers at their convenience.

We would appreciate any comment response on the above issue, as we would like the national consultant to proceed having the maximum possible guidelines/advices.

List of available indicators disaggregated by sex:

Goal 1: Réduire l'extrême Pauvreté et la Faim (Eradicate extreme Poverty and Hunger)
- Prevalence of underweight in children (Enfants qui souffrent d'insuffisance pondérale)
Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education (Assurer l'éducation primaire pour tous)
- Literacy rate of 15 to 24 years ol (Taux d'alphabétisation (15-24 ans)
- Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach grade 5 (Taux de survie en 5éme année EB)
- Net enrollment ratio in primary education (Taux net de scolarisation 1er cycle EB (6-12ans)
Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and empower women (Promouvoir l'égalité des sexes et l'autonomisation des femmes)
- Net enrollment ratio in secondary education of 13 to 19 years (Taux net de scolarisation 2ème cycle EB & secondaire)
- Enrollment ration in tertiary education of 20 to 24 years (Taux de scolarisation Enseignement Supérieur (20-24 ans)
- Women woring in the Government (Femmes travaillant dans le gouvernement)
- Proportion of working women occupied in Agriculture (Femmes travaillant en tant que Exploitantes Agricoles)
Goal 4: Reduce Child mortality (Réduire la mortalité infantile)
- Under five mortality rate (Taux de mortalité - de 5 ans)
- Infant mortality rate (Taux de mortalité infantile)
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (Combattre le VIH/SIDA, le paludisme et d'autres maladies)
- Contraceptive prevalence rate (Taux de prévalence contraceptives)
- Proportion of youth of 17 to 24 years aware of contraception (Connaissance Contraceptive des jeunes (14-24 ans))

Best Regards,
Aida Robbana
Advisor for Studies and Coordination
Tel. 216-1-71 564 215
Fax. 216-1-71 560 094
UNDP Tunis

Samir Bouzekri
Gender focal point
Tel. 216-1-71 564 215
Fax. 216-1-71 560 094
UNDP Tunis

Lina Hamadeh-Banerjee, UNDP/CDG:
Dear Aida,

I am so glad that your posted your query on the knowledge network. Having gone through your set of indicators I would suggest that you expand them to suit the local Tunisian needs where you may feel there may be some disaparities that may not be apparent given the level of development in Tunisia.

Some suggestions that I have to capture some of these dispartities that you may want to build on are the following-

1. Poverty
Does Tunisia track statistics on income disaggregated by sex and marital status?  If it does it would be interesting to analyze gender and marital status disaggregated income disparities between regions and also along the urban/rural divide. It is more likely that in poorer areas women's income is below that of men. Opportunities for
employment in rural areas tend to be less than in urban settings where women are tend to be employed in the informal sector and services both of which generally provide less security (no pension or other benefits).  I would also suggest that in addition to your analysis of women's employment in government that women's income from employment in the informal sector and services is examined in relation to men.

2. Contraceptive prevalence
Contraceptive prevalence is important not only for family planning but also as a preventive measure for HIV/AIDS infections. I would therefore suggest that you examine the use of condoms visa vis other contraceptives that normally target women.

3. Sex ratio indicator
You indicators did not mention checking the sex ratio which in itself is an indicator.  While traditionally more female than male infants are born there are increasingly alarming trends of reversal of this phenomenon in some countries where female fetuses targeted abortions go unchecked.  Unfortunately the infant mortality rates do not measure these cases.  Does Tunisia have good records on abortions?  You may want to look at that and see if there is a link to reduction in female's ratio to males in the population.

4. Literacy and school attendance
Most developing countries have education-employment crisis.  The traditional way of looking at gender disparities in terms of literacy, school attendance and drop out rates is not sufficient. They need to be expanded to examine participation in post secondary education since employment requirements often need skilled labour force trained either academically in universities or technical colleges or equivalent.  With Tunisia having a brain drain and migration patterns for males (at times accompanied by families) access of women to higher education may provide the country with opportunities to have women fill the gaps created in certain employment areas.

Hope you find this useful.

Lina
Lina Hamadeh-Banerjee
Senior Adviser, Capacity Development
Capacity Development Group
Bureau for Development Policy
UNDP
One United Nations Plaza, Room FF 622
New York, NY 10017
Tel. (212) 906 6593
Fax. (212) 906 5896
E-mail-lina.hamadeh-banerjee@undp.org
visit our website - http://capacity.undp.org

Aida Robbana, UNDP Tunisia:
Dear Lina, thank you so much for your worth contribution.
I'll be sharing these informations with the MDGR staff. I agree that the free zone (for Tunisia, Europe) will make employees -and especially women -more vulnerable.
best regards,
Aida

Amina Tirana, UNDP/BRSP:
Dear Aida:

Your questions and concerns are good ones, and we hope that these few observations and suggestions may help.


We hope this is helpful,

Turhan Saleh, Director & Amina Tirana, Senior Policy Specialist
MDGs Unit
BRSP

Simon Ellis, UNESCO:
I would like to add a few words on education indicators.

We have just had a leading specialist Prof Nelly Stromquist review all aspects of our gender statistics in all UNESCO areas of operation. It is too early to assess all her findings, but one thing she mentions is the need for gender sensitive financial indicators to make sure that incentives to address gender disparities are operating in the right way.

For education we have many indicators about participation, what we lack is measures of educational outcome. The World Bank is proposing an indicator of 'primary completion' but it is important top point out that the data they are using is largely UNESCO data and only represents enrolment rather than education outcomes. Nevertheless at national, as opposed to the international level, it is comparatively easy to assess education outcomes by gender. This gives very clear policy relevant data on whether gender disparities have an impact on relative education achievement.

simon ellis
Head of Education Survey and EFA Observatory
UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Rosina Wiltshire, UNDP Barbados:
Dear Colleagues,

The Barbados country team grappled with mainstreaming gender into the MDG process at several levels including 1) the MDG framework for data collection 2) data availability in countries of coverage 3) advocacy and consultations with partners 4) limited systems and human capacity within governments 5) development of the report 6)High level and technical meeting agenda setting and resource persons.

The first challenge faced was a gap in the DGO corporate framework, that otherwise in several respects provided an excellent base. This meant attempting to adjust a framework that had only a limited degree of flexibility. The consequence was that each step along the route involved a process of adding and stirring gender. Had gender been integral to the framework the analysis and gaps would emerge naturally from the data collection to the report and monitoring. We were able to make provision for some disaggregation of data, but this fell far short of what we all knew was needed to provide a solid base for policy analysis and monitoring. We were forced to be less ambitious in mainstreaming the indicators. Secondly, consultations with the statistical offices in the ten OECS countries covered by the Barbaods office further revealed a real gap in the data available. This dialogue however, provided an opportunity for advocacy, alliance building, capacity development and potential shifts in how data are managed in these countries. It is clear that the data actually exists in raw form, but apart from education and health statistics there has been no strong demand for disaggregated statistics in the range of areas encompassed by the MDGs. In addition, the MDGs are only slowly permeating the policy agenda. While acknowledged as relevant, they are still regarded by many of our ten governments as a UN and donor agenda.Given limited human resources in these small island states the adjustments necessary to collect systematically and coherently all the streams of data from the relevant ministries will continue to pose enormous challenges. The most important lesson learned for gender mainstreaming,however, is that we must build gender in from the very start if we are to maximize impact and outcomes.
Rosina

Turhan Saleh, UNDP/BRSP:
Simon, thanks for the information.  While working with UNICEF in Africa a few years back, I had come across efforts by the IIEP on measurement of learning outcomes through reasonably rapid and cost-effective surveys.  Where do things stand today?

Simon Ellis, UNESCO:
Turhan

I think you are referring to the SACMEQ project which is run by IIEP on behalf of southern African countries They are just about to publish a second round of test results. SACMEQ is now run by a consortium office based in Harare.

Contacts are

1) Saul Marimba. Director of SACMEQ, UNESCO Regional Office, 8 Kenilworth Rd, Harare, Zimbabwe email: UHHAR@unesco.org.

2) Ken Ross, IIEP, 7-9 Rue Eugène Delacroix 75116 Paris, France 100143.37compuserve.com (this may be an old address. I think k.ross@iiep.unesco.org should work too).

The surveys are certainly a good way for countries (largely Anglophone Africa) to obtain internationally comparable results of achievement at Grade 6. They do require significant government commitment of time and resources, but are cheaper than for example OECD methods. The team take good care to ensure the work is tailored towards national policy requirements.

simon ellis
UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Jan Vandemoortele, UNDP/BDP:
Dear Aida:

Thanks for raising your concern about possibly over-loading the MDGR with too many messages. The main purpose of a MDGR is two-fold: public information and social mobilisation. We must stay focused on these objectives. As with public speaking, the golden rule is: "less is more" because the public can only absorb and retain a limited number of messages. Thus, there are difficult choices to be made in preparing a MDGR. The easy solution is to squeeze too much into a MDGR, but that makes the MDGR largely ineffective; merely turning it another technical and analytical UN report - of which we produce already too many. The only way to handle this conflict is by highlighting a select few of the many dimensions of gender discrimination.

Gender discrimination does not occur indiscriminately, but is often mediated through a multitude of channels (e.g. age, ethnicity, education, socio-economic status, and rural/urban location). Gender discrimination is frequently associated with several factors; it seldom takes place in a vacuum as a one-dimensional phenomenon. Gender, for instance, is more of a liability to a poor girl than to her non-poor counterpart (see attached slide on gender gaps in school attendance); to a rural girl than to an urban one; etc. The challenge is to highlight the most important dimension of gender discrimination in Tunisia and to illustrate it at a hand of a clear and concise example or diagram. The work of the consultant, which may be too detailed and analytically difficult to fit in a MDGR, could be published separately for a more specialised audience.

Best, Jan

Don Nanjira, UN/DDC:
Dear Colleagues,

The information provided by Dr. R. Wiltshire on the situation in Barbados is most useful. Thanks for it.

It would  also be helpful to know whether the challenges facing Barbados are similar to chose confronting the other Island States and Territories of the Caribbean. Such information would be of particular value to us, especially at this juncture as we  prepare for the  Barbados + 10 Review and Appraisal of the Implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action for the  Sustainable Development of the Small Island Developing States ( SIDS).

This issue is bound to crop up both at the Summer Session of ECOSOC ( Geneva, 30 June - 25 July, 2003 ), during which period  also, a Task Force of the High-level  Committee on Programmes ( HLCP ) of the Chief Executives Board of the UN System ( CEB ), will be discussing  the question of Comprehensive Review of the Implementation of the Millennium Declaration, as well as at the 58th Regular Session of the UN General Assembly ( New York, 12 September - December, 2002 ).

it would be worthwhile to look at these linkages from the national, sub-regional, regional and global perspectives and  analysis, and  see how they can be networked  and mutually supported for  implementation purposes.
D.D.C. Don Nanjira.

Kalyani Menon-Sen, UNDP India:
Summary of Week 1
Our e-discussion on Gender and MDGs has been running for a week now. Our thanks to all those who have joined in so far, for their thoughtful and insightful comments, suggestions and queries on the issue of mainstreaming gender equality concerns into national MDG Reports. The highlights of these interventions are summarised below.

The lesson for gender advocates is clear ? the process of report preparation is no less important than the product. A good MDG report, even one where gender issues are strongly and clearly articulated across goals, is not by itself a guarantee of progress towards gender equality ? its messages can be translated into action only if it is endorsed and used by a broad range of actors, from women?s movements to policy makers.

Experience in other contexts suggests that one of the most effective strategies for mainstreaming gender into the MDGRs is ensuring the direct involvement of grassroots women?s organisations and gender equality advocates in the reporting process. Such a strategy facilitates the integration of women?s concerns and gender perspectives across goals. At the same time, it strengthens the possibility that the report will be used by these groups to demand accountability from national governments, and will become a springboard for collective action to meet commitments and achieve targets.

In the second week of this e-discussion, we invite respondents to share experiences and successful strategies for facilitating the involvement of women?s organisations and gender equality advocates in the MDGR process, and for enabling them to participate actively in the preparation and dissemination of the MDGR.

We are sure that Country Offices have valuable lessons and insights to share in this regard. We look forward to your contributions, which we hope will provide us with concrete examples of good practice which can be integrated into our report of the gender review of MDGRs, the latest draft of which is attached to this message. We look forward to your comments and suggestions on this draft, and to your continued participation in this discussion in the coming week.

KALYANI

Vinetta Robinson, UNDP Ethiopia:
Colleagues,

I agree with Jan's suggestions on this matter.  We need to keep the MDGRs simple and focussed and for the reasons they were originally  designed. If we begin to emphasise gender or any of the other Goals or targets then we would be undermining the principle that all Goals are equally important.  There is also the possibility of opening the floodgates for other equally important cross-cutting issues (HIV, environment etc) to be given special attentiion in MDGRs.  Instead, each MDGR must reflect the particular circumstance of the country, giving emphasis, if need be, to challenges and or opportunities which are peculiar to it.

The above notwithstanding, the extensive research into many of the targets and indicators, which, for instance, we in Ethiopia are undertaking in parallel with the MDGR, is exceedingly importnt in helping to guide future policy, especially in influencing preparation and or revision of PRSPs and also reource allocation by donors.

Regards.  Vinetta

Hande Keklik, UNIFEM:
Dear Colleagues,

I would like to highlight an initiative from LAC in this week's discussion related with "successful strategies for facilitating the involvement of women?s organisations and gender equality advocates". I would also like to inform you about UNIFEM's recent report Progress of the World's Women in which you can find info about the LAC experience.

1 - LAC initiative : (page 57, table 13 in above mentioned report)

Women organizations in many LAC countries have been working to construct measures of how far their governments have fulfilled the commitments. Technical support form FLASCO (Facultad LatinAmericana de Ciencias Sociales) and financial support from UNIFEM. THey built and index named  "Index of Fulfilled Commitment"(ICC-spanish abbr.).

Thematic areas are: Citizen participation and access to power
                               Economic autonomy and employment
                               Women's health and reproductive rights

Specific variable within the thematic areas and  also the thematic areas   have been selected after intensive discussions with women groups in each country. Basically, women are the architects of the index. Teresa Valdez from FLASCO led the project. CHile, Ecuador, Paraguay , Uruguay reports are ready in Spanish only. Following country reports are underway: Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico , Panama, Venezuela .

This initiative tells us about the capacity of grassroots women's organizations. May be some of these NGOs could be linked with MDGR processes.

2- UNIFEM's Progress of the World's Women-
You may have heard about or seen UNIFEM's  report Progress of the World's Women 2002 -vol. 2. which is on MDG goal 3. I would like to brief you about the report. You can find the electronic copy (PDF file)at UNIFEM's site www.unifem.org.

The main goal of this report is to lay out cross-country data and examine changes over time  on MDG goal 3 indicators as much as global databases permit us. We also bring in additional statistical information such as informal sector, gender poverty ratios as well as information on few innovative work in the regions. Index of fulfilled Commitments from LAC region is one of them.

You can find key findings for each indicator group as well as the following overall recommendations which would provide a clearer picture of actual achievement:

1- For girls' enrollment rate in school:
    Monitor the actual level of girls' enrollment in addition to gender disparities.
    Track completion rates as well as enrollment rates.

2- For literacy:
    Track the actual level of literacy, as well as the gender disparity.

3- For women' s economic equality and empowerment, develop additional indicators:
    Track women's participation in informal wage work.
    Develop a decent work indicator.
    Create a target to end a gender disparity in wages.
    Measure the extend to which women are paid a living wage

Integration of gender in to MDG goals is an extensive effort. This effort can be quite ambiguous and not complete if class, race, ethnicity, age, rural/urban differences are not taken into account. Success of this integration is indeed a huge shift in development paradigm. Extensive cooperation/partnerships, inside and outside UN system, is needed.

Hope this is helpful.  Look forward to sharing ideas and information for equality and justice.

All the best,
Hande Keklik

Aster Zaoude, UNDP/BDP:
Colleagues,

It is important that we start with what is already available to us on gender in the MDGs. There is not only MDG3 dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women but all other MDGs/targets and indicators must be disaggregated by sex.  Indeed other disparities rural/urban, class, ethnicity are equally important  and as you know, gender inequalities run across all these divisions. There will be no floodgates to open since the two issues that are mentioned HIV and environment are fully part of
the MDGs and not cross cutting like gender. I am not sure why disaggregated data is not considered critical to the MDGRs.

We should also be clear that gender is NOT an addition to any original design of the MDGs which is feared to complicate or divert our focus. I am sure you have all read the SG's statement on the centrality of gender equality to all the MDGs.  The issue is not to add but to make sure that all the data is disaggregated and all the indicators (however limited they may be ) for Goal 3 are clearly utilized in MDGRs because action needs to be taken to bridge gender gaps and address inequalities based on gender
discrimination.

The objective of the gender review is to emphasize gender but not over and above other goals.  It is important that UNDP as the score keeper of the MDGs and thr advocate for their achievement makes sure that gender disparities are well integrated in the data and analysis, however simple and focussed MDGRs may be. Kalyani's review paper is very clear on the objective and as you can see from a first glance, even when the data is available, many MDGRs are not including sex disaggregated data or gender analysis that would be necessary for the design of gender responsive policies, action and investments.  I am not sure UNDP can be the lead agency on the MDGs and not be the lead agency on Goal 3 and gender equality as an integral part of the MDGs.  There is much more to be done internally and we hope to take the UNDP gender practice
note seriously, it is everyone's job to mainstream gender.

Aster

Kalyani Menon-Sen, UNDP India:
Dear All,

The issue here is not emphasizing one Goal ? whether gender, environment or HIV/AIDS ? at the expense of the others, but making sure that the MDGR presents a focused yet balanced view of the development challenges facing the country.  Since gender inequality remains a central challenge in most if not all countries where MDGRs are being prepared, and constitutes a significant barrier to the achievement of other development goals, gender is one element that we cannot afford to leave out of the MDGR.

Ultimately, MDGRs are only as good as the actions they generate. I agree that the goal of the reporting process ? spurring policy dialogue, broad-based mobilization and convergent action on development challenges - should guide the form and content of the report. I also agree with everyone who is saying that a report with pages and pages of exhaustive analyses on multiple issues will be hard to read and impossible to use (quite apart from ending up as a clone of the HDR!). At the same time, I want to point out that a report where the messages are so simplified that they end up being simplistic, will also not be of much use in influencing policy or mobilising community action, no matter how short and crisp and well-produced it is.

Statements on the need to address the issue of gender inequality and commitments to action for equality have been a feature of practically every major document of the last decade, including the Millennium Declaration. In this sense, the floodgates have long been open for gender mainstreaming. The question we should be asking is why the flood has not happened. Could it be because acceptance of the status quo on gender continues to be deeply ingrained in our collective vision of development?

KALYANI

Hande Keklik, UNIFEM:
Dear All,

Many of you may already have heard about or seen UNIFEM's report Progress of the World's Women 2002 -vol. 2. which is on MDG goal 3. I would like to brief you about the report. You can find the electronic copy (PDF file)at UNIFEM's site www.unifem.org.

The main goal of this report is to lay out cross-country data and examine changes over time  on MDG goal 3 indicators as much as global databases permit us. We also bring in additional statistical information such as informal sector, gender poverty ratios as well as information on few innovative work in the regions. Index of fulfilled Commitments from LAC region is one of them.

You can find key findings for each indicator group as well as the following overall recommendations which would provide a clearer picture of actual achievement:

1- For girls' enrollment rate in school:

    Monitor the actual level of girls' enrollment in addition to gender disparities.
    Track completion rates as well as enrollment rates.

2- For literacy:

    Track the actual level of literacy, as well as the gender disparity.

3- For women' s economic equality and empowerment, develop additional indicators:

    Track women's participation in informal wage work.
    Develop a decent work indicator.
    Create a target to end a gender disparity in wages.
    Measure the extend to which women are paid a living wage

Integration of gender (class, race, ethnicity, age, region )  across all MDG goals is an extensive effort (indeed it is transforming the development paradigm) that needs extensive cooperation/partnerships inside and outside UN system.

Hope this is helpful.  Look forward to sharing ideas and information for  equality and justice.
 

All the best,

Hande Keklik
UNIFEM , NY

Coumba Mar Gadio, UNDP Senegal:
Dear colleagues,

Just to share with you that most of the MDG reports from West Africa are similar with others that have been studied with respect to gender mainstreaming. Efforts to  mainstream gender are very still very weak.

Recently, we had the opportunity to work with  Senegal on its 2003 report and we realize that  despite effective  participation of CSOs and  women?s organizations in the process, serious challenges still remain to engendering MDGs. Some of the main challenges faced by the country are 1) a lack of sex disaggregated data on all areas covered by MDGs ( except for education and health in some extent) and 2) a lack of awareness by all actors about the need to mainstream gender in all MDGs and 3) unsifficient gender expertise among the committee and actors involved in the process.

One of the strategies we have developed at the local level with the UN network of gender advisors is to elaborate a document with a whole set of gender sensitive indicators for each MDG that we think are relevant for our region. Such document is being used a lot for advocacy and  capacity building and seem to be having an effect on the process. For example, within the framework of the preparation of the second MDG report of Senegal, a national forum was organized recently and  presentation of those indicators was made followed by rich discussions on how to make them work in the case of Senegal. As a result, the final recommendations of the national meeting adopted two major gender related decisions  aimed at developing mechanisms in the short term for the production of gender disaggregated data  to be improved  and also to recommend  the use of the proposed gender sensitive indicators to measure progress. Another important issue that came out of the discussion is the need to enhance capacities  and methodological tools for alignement between MDGs and PRSP processes  and for gender to be taken  into account effectively.A proposed ongoing strategy
is to prepare a training manual  and tools for the region(Translated into key local languages) for the actors involved in the preparation of the report. We would appreciate sharing any thing that has been developed in that sense; I am attaching a copy of the draft of indicators that we are still refining to be shared with you. Your comments are more than welcome. Thanks and best regards.

Coumba.

Meg Wirth, UN Millennium Project:
Dear members of MDG-net:

I am writing on behalf of the coordinating team for Task Force 4 of the UN Millennium Project (the Task Force charged with making recommendations for reaching the child health and maternal health MDGs).  We have been following the online discussion about gender mainstreaming in the MDGs with great interest.  As part of this discussion, we would like to raise a set of questions about the issue of reproductive health as it relates to the MDGs.

To many, it seems that reproductive health was entirely 'left out' of the MDGs and that this omission, due in large part to obvious political influences, ought to be rectified. To others, apparently, this is of lesser concern given that indicator 19 covers condom use rate of the contraceptive prevalence rate and HIV/AIDS, maternal health, etc. have a high profile in the MDGs.  We're interested in your perspective from the UNDP country office, but also in the differing perspectives of groups consulted within country and the debates that may be occurring on the subject.   In our final report, we want to be informed to the greatest extent possible by the country-level experiences with the MDGs.  As the preparation of the MDGRs often involves consultation with NGOs and other groups, we hope that through this network (and others means) we can include these voices in our recommendations.  As a first query, we wonder to what extent reproductive health issues have been raised during the preparations for the MDGRs?

Second, are there cases of countries which have added reproductive health indicators?  Finally, how is implementation of the Cairo agenda being impacted by the MDGs, MDGRs, PRSPs, etc.?

We look forward to hearing your input on this topic--either in relation to the questions posed above or other perspectives on reproductive health in the MDGs.

Meg Wirth, MPA
Consultant to Task Force 4
Child Health and Maternal Health
UN Millennium Project

Dono Abdurazakova, UNDP Bratislava:
Dear Kalyani et al,

With respect to on-going discussion on Gender and the MDGs, I wanted to share with you some experiences of the Regional economic governance programme operated from UNDP Support Centre in Bratislava and covering Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS. One of the biggest challenges in this region has been proving the MDGs? relevance, including Goal #3, as high literacy rates, and once universal access to employment, generous social welfare and health services throughout the region (although
eroded in the process of transition) hide discrimination based on sex, and create illusions   of ?equality? being once and forever solved.

The objective of the Regional programme is to help countries in the region to achieve MDGs. With this in mind, the regional programme undertook specific measures to address the issue of relevance of MDGs? indicators at the series of several workshops held in the first half of the 2003 at sub-regional and regional levels. Gender has been treated as an integrated part of the workshops? overall agenda. In the issue of MDGs? relevance, disaggregation is a key. This concerns gender, ethnicity, age, and other classification categories mentioned earlier in Jan?s message. Thus, disaggregation is a tool which gives opportunity to investigate each problem in order to identify underlying causes and to understand inter-relations among different issues. To bring change and address problem, it is crucial to understand the hidden links, the underlying causes of problems. With respect to Goal #3, it was critical to demonstrate that one indicator makes sense only when analyzed in conjunction with other indicators. Example: in South Eastern European countries, the reverse gender gap is observed among students at high education institutions, when the number of boys is lower than that of girls. This may happen because boys leave schools earlier for employment. BUT: higher enrolment rates of girls doesn?t mean that girls are more empowered than boys, and gender equality is achieved. Gender disparities in education should be compared and analyzed with other indicators related to gender equality, such as representation in decision-making, where we can see that, in fact, more educated women are far less represented in top decision-making positions (indicator: percentage of seats in national parliaments) or there are differences in wages. This may be a sign of gender discrimination in the society and unequal distribution of unpaid care that support the families (in fact, that women spent more time on it than men do). It would be important to reveal such discrepancies in order to guide policy. This proves that it
is particularly important to focus on attendance and completion rates in education, as well as indicators that would try to capture quality of education. In addition to percentage of women in parliaments, it is also important to capture women in other branches of power at top decision-making levels, as well as to seek for more not expensive and easier obtainable indicators.

All these and other arguments used in discussion where supported and facilitated by UNDP?s previous work in the region, as over the last decade, UNDP has been working with the national statistical offices to collect and utilize gender statistics. Substantial contribution came from the on-going project supported by UNDP RBEC Regional support centre and executed by UNECE on creating standard set of human development indicators for social monitoring that includes the MDGs (with gender being mainstreamed across all policy sectors). The set was tested at sub-regional workshops with representatives of national statistical offices from South Eastern European countries, and the CIS and later, with similar NHDR workshops for UNDP staff and national partners who are actual users of statistics. On top of that, within the framework of this project, a website has been created with gender statistics which is now open for public. The website had access to UNECE gender statistics database: www.unece.org/

This is all work in progress but I am keen to learn cases and practices from other parts of the world.

Regards,

Dono Abdurazakova, Gender Adviser
UNDP RBEC Regional Support Centre

Robert Johnston, UN Statistics Division:
I would say that we should consider indicators by gender critical to the MDG indicators. This was our premise in preparing the "Road Map" with the original list of indicators in the annex (A/56/326, available at http://millenniumindicators.un.org under Key Documents). At the international level we have not worked on this as much as we should so far. The current complete list really needs a good analysis on how gender should be taken account of, target by target, so that we can standardize the coverage. We can put that on the international agenda for later this year. Meanwhile all of us will have to proceed in a more ad hoc way, with good inputs from MDG-NET.

Dasa Silovic, UNDP BDP:
Dear Colleagues,

I would like to subscribe to the discussion on the purpose of MDGs and MDG reports - they are a political and monitoring mechanism and should not be turned into a hybrid between an MDGR and an HDR. These both have different functions. MDGRs should, however, act as a starter pistol and lightening rod to inform broader policy debates and action, including HDRs.

The political potential that MDGs offer in terms of promotion of gender equality, especially in the current backlash situation, should be exploited more. Issues of gender equality, gender balance in education, child and maternal health, etc. are not invented in the nineties or in 2000. They have been on the UN agenda since its inception, are the cornerstones of the human rights framework and the work on statistics disaggregated by sex was one of the CSW priorities when it was formed. Actually, the fact that we are raising these issues today, in quite rudimentary form, only emphasises the slow progress we have made since and the need for political will and action to achieve these basic objectives by 2015. The MD and MDGs should serve as the new impetus for the implementation both of CEDAW and Beijing.  The latter, and member state reports on their implementation, can be used as baselines for tracking progress and sources of data. In turn MDGRs  can be useful when we again start reviewing progress on gender equality to mark Beijing+10.

We have a great opportunity to use gender equality to demonstrate the synergetic relationship between the goals and demonstrate the potency of gender mainstreaming. Gender is a cross-cutting issue, but also a connecting tissue between the different goals. Disaggregation by sex is necessary across goals, but can be most powerful primarily in conjunction with other categories of disaggregation. For instance, when looking at poverty, data should highlight social exclusion and vulnerable groups like ethnic minorities. Data on women belonging to ethnic minorities generally depicts a threefold discrimination: they are discriminated against as all other women in the society, as members of the ethnic minority and as women within the ethnic minority. Moreover, the disaggregation by ethnic group/women can be consequentially tracked across other goals. The same could be said of the urban/rural disaggregation. Such a disaggregation could further inform policy and poverty reduction strategies. Lack of data, especially disaggregated data, is as rampant for indigenous peoples or rural population, as it is for women.

Gender equality speaks of women and men in society. Emerging data on some issues and in some countries is pointing to areas in which boys and men are more disadvantaged and find themselves in the vulnerable group category. It will be useful to document these trends.

Finally, it is not enough to include women?s organizations in the debates and preparation of MDGRs. We should go beyond by engaging other civil society groups and institutions in looking at gender equality when preparing the MDGs. Women?s groups, or women and gender equality advocates alone cannot do this job.

Regards to all, Dasa

Nalini Burn, Mali:
It is interesting. I posted what appears below in the Query: the role of CSOs in monitoring MDG progress. Half deliberately. In the vein of seeing what happens. And so far, there have been responses on what I wrote about on CSOs from some people, but no comment on gender from them and none from those who communicate on the Gender and MDGs. Do not want to jump to conclusions about an issue I raised about thematic divisions, but would like to get some reflection on this.

Regards to all, Nalini Burn.

I am not working at UNDP but have over many years been working with UNDP on various programmes at various levels in a number of countries, particularly francophone West Africa, but also Mongolia. I'm connecting in your discussions with both the roles of CSOs and the position of gender, particularly.

-Concerning the involvement Of CSOs, we may need to reflect more on how the sometimes fraught relationships between government and NGOs are often linked to government perceptions of how donor-induced NGO interventions are, as well as genuine conflicts of values and interests about development agendas and processes, particularly over the PRSPs. The issue is how can we, from an institutional and political mapping of various actors in specific contexts, find the space to bring about such dialogue and be more inclusive?

So, to link up with Shawnee's points about localizing. Where, with whom, for whom and by whom and embedded in what, how and by whom?

It seems to me that inevitably one has to start from one?s vantage point, and recognize upfront the opportunities and challenges of one?s position. Which is let's face it, to initiate - top-down- an exercise, to bring about an inclusive ground-up approach to development to reach time-bound impact targets.

- In this regard, we may need to think about how well-equipped institutionally UNDP is as facilitator-scorekeeper of the national journey to achieve the impacts.

For instance, organisationally, the inter-agency thematic groups, of which gender is one!- tend to reproduce sectoral and thematic- not cross-cutting cultures and practices.

It would be good to hear from you how the MDGR process is knitting together these groups, and to draw out the synergies and the coherence across the goals.

- Which makes me come to the more policy and programmatic areas and the discussion on gender. Is gender just another cross-cutting issue, as Aster and others have picked up?

If UNDP has been promoting people-centered development from a long time, then in my mind, it is about impacts on men, women, girls and boys, wherever they are and in whatever situation they happen to be in?  In other words, regarding location, health, education, employment, income, religion, ethnic identity and so on.

Gender statistics is not just about the disaggregation of, or more accurately the non-aggregation of raw- data on both sexes. It is about non- aggregation across the other variables. If, in the Tunisian case, regional disparities and polarities are more severe than gender inequalities, how does gender interact with the shape of regional disparities? Is the shape of inequality, the pattern of obstacles, opportunities and constraints the same within these regions for men and women? What is hidden in the structures and processes making for these regional disparities, that may not jump out at us at first and appear neutral, and which we may need to uncover?

Whatever the issue or reach of intervention, if it is about people, then it is about gender. So what? And What then? If one wants to do something about it, it counts. Because gender is about differences and relations between men and women which affect not just (gender) equality but other objectives. Not just the end-results but the getting there also.

If MDGRs are not about just about reporting results but making it happen, then that basic understanding about gender has to permeate the understanding of the baseline and the milestones all the way along the road to the target: all along the chain of results, from inputs, process to outcomes.

-Which brings me to the embeddedness of the MDG process in this results-chain and its links with the PRSP processes.

IF impact reporting( MDGs) is poorly articulated with the efforts to make the planned links as to report on how inputs link with output, through PRSP- led and coalesced, programme and performance budgeting;

IF it is not connected to the -sectoral and central ministries' -imperative of getting financial resources,

THEN the information may not be meaningful and relevant for those who produce and manipulate it.

The tendency otherwise will be to focus institutional ?state- resources and energies in grappling with performance indicators (at most linking service delivery, use with budget data). And indeed lock state actors more into the Bretton Woods- driven PRSP( ex-SAP) agenda as perceived by NGOs.

- The missing link is the translation of products to outcome and impacts, which is acknowledged to be difficult, cross-cutting as much as it is desirable. And it is these which resonate politically

- This is where the MDGR reporting process can make a difference. If the focus and energies  are placed there. As well as the organizational learning.

Some of the experiences I have been involved in provide some pathways to make the missing links and I'm sure you all have similar settings and initiatives. They range from mainstreaming gender in PRSPs, to mainstreaming rural energy services( a missing and enabling goal) for poverty and inequality reduction into mainstream energy programmes and into PRSP processes, to gender budgeting.

In most of the cases the target  groups are senior programme and budget managers, who have the levers on programming, planning and budgeting and data production and use.

The lessons are that

1 gender concepts, tools and methodologies resonate as practical, relevant and cross-cutting. It encourages them to look at ways of retro-fitting and reviewing the data produced. The state of national statistical offices is the same in many of these countries, but PRSP-led initiatives to provide poverty monitoring systems, move more to evidence-backed policy open up opportunities.

2. learning how to apply a results-based approach is a challenge and a concern that state practitioners really want to come to grips with. A gender perspective can facilitate that and makes it stimulating and engaging for them.

3 Multi-sectoral coordination seems to be more effectively addressed at deconcentration and decentralization levels - shifting to a territorial rather than sectoral approach- This is the terrain for localizing.

4 Performance budgeting as well as fiscal decentralization and external service delivery are opening up partnerships with NGOs and the private sector. It is also opening up linkages between political institutions and administrative ones, through the budget process.

5 At least, in some countries of Francophone West Africa, as in Latin Africa, Asia, experiences with participatory budgeting and local decentralized  government, means that the State-NGO interface is not about just cabbages only- service delivery-  but involves  making local political decisions about how resources are spent and to what purpose and for whom. Local development committees and so on.

6 The issue is for whom and by whom? Local- male mostly- elites or wider inclusion? Such process and governance issues are critical and are often articulated by the state actors mentioned .

This opens up a space for working with a range of CSOs, and hopefully avoid being caught not in a dichotomy between ?conflictual? macro-level policy dialogue with NGOs versus ?neutral?local level service delivery  by NGOs.  And also with more accountable institutions such as parliaments, at national and local levels.

The message is, if one can embed MDGs and localize them in these processes, then the reporting can become a critical link in the chain of reporting for PRSP review processes and reporting for parliament- as in the budget processes. It would strengthen the  democratic governance by another neglected institution as far as MDGs are concerned- parliaments. UNDP leverage as facilitator score-keeper might be strengthened.

Regards to all, Nalini Burn

Kalyani Menon-Sen, UNDP India:
Summary of Week 2
Once again, we thank all those who have intervened in the discussion over the last week. Contributors have built a strong case for engendering the MDGRs, highlighted some practical problems and critical issues, and shared innovative strategies for gender mainstreaming in MDGRs.

Responses to the specific question on involvement of women's groups in the MDG reporting process are summarized below.

In addition to the above responses, several contributors picked up on issues emerging from the discussion in the first week. It has repeatedly been emphasised in discussions on gender and the MDGs, including this one, that the MDG reporting process presents the opportunity of transcending sectoral constraints and bringing gender issues to the centre of the development agenda.

In the concluding week of this discussion, we invite your reactions to the following questions.

Has it been possible for gender advocates to capitalise on the MDGR process in this way?

In functional terms, what has been the value addition of the MDGs to ongoing work on gender?

Has there been in-house consultation and collaboration across sectors during the MDG process, for instance between Gender Focal Points and MDG Focal Points? What are the lessons from these?

We would also like to remind everyone to send in suggestions and recommendations on practical strategies to strengthen gender mainstreaming in the MDGRs, for inclusion in the report of the gender review of MDGRs.

Aster Zaoude, UNDP/BDP:
It would be very useful to share country experiences on effective advocacy.  Getting the MDGRs right  in most critical in terms of simplicity of format, language and focus with key facts and figures, disaggregated by sex, urban/rural, ethnicity.... However, the power of the data is in its capacity to mobilize public opinion and engage the largest possible public in real debates on public policies and choices that will be necessary in order to reach the MDGs. Otherwise, MDGRs will be yet another report for the consumption of a limited audience.

I hope we can include in this extended discussion on 'gender and MDGs' some country experiences on effective advocacy (not necessarily specific to gender and MDGs but overall in MDGR related activities).  The reason for simplifying the MDGRs and focussing on key goals/targets/indicators is to engage in national diaologue on where a country stands with respect to the MDGs and what should be done to reach realistic and relevant targets.  The recent assessment conducted by a team lead by Shiva Kumar (with Kalyani Menon Sen, Shahrbanou and others) on behalf of the UNDP Evaluation Office is quite revealing.

Issues of ownership, capacity and outreach were reviewed and several recommendations were made by the team including on the critical gender gaps in reporting.  Ultimately, the value of the MDGRs is in the powerful messages they carry and in their potential to mobilize common people around common issues. How much does the larger public know about the MDGs, understands the 'jargon free' reports, the gender gaps and how much dialogue is there on what the country should and can do to move forward on the MDGs?

This may help further simplify core messages on gender gaps and coin the challenges to reach gender equality and the empowerment of women, in simple and ready to use language.

Kalyani Menon-Sen, UNDP India:
You're absolutely right, Nalini - the intersection of CSOs, gender and the MDGs is critical and often under-discussed. Especially important was your analysis of barriers to CSO involvement, and the specific case of women's organisations.

I think this reinforces your point, that it is difficult to handle the contradiction between the sector-specific approach to programming, and larger cross-sectoral concerns. It is true that we can be victims of the 'stuck in the lift' syndrome - you keep going up and down, but can't escape sideways! I can vouch for the frustration and helplessness this
can generate - and I'm sure that others who have responsibility for cross-cutting issues, such as environment and HIV/AIDS, can bear me out.

Theoretically, of course, the MDGs and the MDGR process provide an ideal platform to bring cross-cutting issues to the forefront of attention. In practice though, at least in the countries I know about, the people who are tasked with coordinating the MDG reporting process do not always have the necessary expertise and so do not feel confident in dealing with cross-cutting issues. Moreover, they have too much on their plates (building government ownership, facilitating CSO involvement, enabling access to data, mediating consensus on form and presentation, ensuring adherence to guidelines and so on) to be able to also focus sufficiently sharply on content.

Some countries have dealt with this by commissioning specific inputs on cross-cutting issues from expert consultants. Nevertheless, the basic issue of in-house capacity to advocate on cross-cutting issues remains as a major constraint, as has also been highlighted in the eport of the evaluation of the MDGR process carried out by UNDP's Evaluation Office.

It seems logical at one level for the Gender Focal Point and the MDG Focal Point to work closely together to ensure gender mainstreaming in MDGs. I look forward to hearing from members of both the Gender and the MDG networks if this has happened anywhere. If it has, all of us can learn from the experience. If not, it's still worth analyzing why it hasn't happened.

Also, please stay on board with the gender discussion - we will be picking up on these issues there as well.

Aster Zaoude, UNDP/BDP:
Let me add to your legitimate concerns. almost all the reviews that have been done of similar processes where gender was to be cross-cutting i.e. PRSP, NHDRs and now MDGRs show the same difficulties.  Capacities are not always available at the country level; competing priorities and restricted formats do not allow for gender to emerge as a critical dimension; and there is no incentive or screening process to make sure that gender is indeed integrated to highlight critical gaps/progress. As much as Goal 3 provides a great opportunity to focus on 'gender equality and the empowerment of women' it has been somewhat a 'parking lot' for all other gender dimensions of the MDGs. Through this discussion, we should be able to identify strategic entry points for positive steps to mainstream gendeer effectively into MDG training for example where practical tools are shared on how to mainstream gender in all the MDGs. It should be made explicit in corporate policies and practices so that the entire MDG team at the country level is engaged in identifying gender issues/gender gaps/data and analysis disaggregated by sex and action points.

Where do we all start and what are the opportunities for making sure that this cross cutting concern is fully integrate, understood and 'taken seriously' as a 'win for all'. The gender focal point and the MDG focal points alone cannot be made accountable for mainstreaming gender across the MDGs.

The UN inter-agency task force on MDGs and gender is working closely with the World Bank and the OECD/DAC gender network to promote gender equality as a key dimension for the achievement of the MDGs.  This work should not remain in the margins or simply review the MDGRs and acknowledge failure to mainstream gender. It is intended to provide the advocacy and operational tools for all efforts around the Millemnium Campaign, the Millemnium Project and the tracking of MDGRs build national capacities to address gender equality across all the MDGs in concrete and positive ways.

Best regards
Aster Zaoude

Lorraine Corner, UNIFEM Thailand:
UNIFEM experience in engendering the second MDG Report in Cambodia

As the UNIFEM Regional Economic Advisor for Asia-Pacific and Arab States based in Bangkok, I would like to share with the discussion list UNIFEM's experience in executing a UNDP-funded SPPD project to engender the second MDG Country Report for Cambodia.

This has been a remarkably successful project in several respects:

What factors have contributed to the apparent success of the project? Challenges:  Of course, the Country Report is still in process, the combined Gender Assessment is now in its umpteenth revision, and the UNIFEM Policy Advocacy Briefs are also in draft only.  Much work has yet to be done to bring all these very promising strands together to produce a discernible impact on gender equality in Cambodia.  Other challenges included: Lorraine

Ceri Hayes, UNIFEM UK:
Dear All
I am a postgraduate student in the U.K and I am conducting research, in collaboration with UNIFEM, into the relationship between women?s human rights and the MDGs. In particular, I am focusing on CEDAW and examining how a human rights-based approach to the MDGs might add something that is not provided by a simple gender equality discourse. Broadly-speaking, it seems to me that there is a clear correlation between the MDGs and other gender equality instruments such as CEDAW and the Beijing
Platform for Action. The MDGs have the potential to unite efforts to reduce poverty and realise women?s human rights as originally envisaged in the Millennium Declaration. And yet, I have noticed that while there has been a lot of discussion (in this forum and elsewhere) about gendering the MDGs, there has been very little mention of bringing a rights analysis to bear on the process of recentralising women?s human rights. A recent gender scan of 13 MDGRs (UNDP, May 2003), for example, reveals that while most reports reflect a rights-based perspective  in discussions on goal 3, the approach to women under other goals continues to be instrumental rather than rights-based.
Also of interest is the fact that issues such as violence against women such as FGM and child marriage are described in the reports as ?harmful traditions,? rather than as violations of women?s human rights. Obviously, the identification of the underlying causes of gender inequality is useful, regardless of whether it is couched in the language of rights, if it is then used to inform and shape policies. But it seems there are also strong arguments out there to strengthen the case for using existing human rights standards to reinforce all of the MDGs and their implementation, such as: the potential to empower the poor and the provision of a normative framework for the formulation of poverty reduction strategies, that builds on existing anti-poverty strategies, but which can add legitimacy to the call for making poverty reduction the principal goal of policy-making by introducing an international legal obligation. The human rights principles of equality, non-discrimination and participation, in particular, have implications
for any anti-poverty strategy targeting the condition of poor women (and, of course, other marginalised groups) by emphasising as they do the need to see women?s equality and empowerment as not just  desirable outcomes, but as fundamental human rights that should be realised for their own sake, thus avoiding the possible scenario whereby we move towards the goals, but nevertheless violate women's human rights. (The OHCHR Draft Guidelines on a Human Rights to Poverty Reduction Strategies further illustrate the added value provided by this approach.)  I have been following the on-going discussion on Gender and the MDGs with great interest and would be very interested to hear your views/comments on any aspects of the MDG-gender-rights triangle. I am particularly keen to learn of efforts being undertaken at the country level to bring a women?s human rights perspective to the fore in the MDGR process, for instance, by incorporating measures which help a country move forward on its CEDAW obligations into the MDG implementation process or vice-versa, i.e incorporating steps taken towards meeting the MDGs into CEDAW reporting obligations.
Regards,
Ceri Hayes

Leslie Wright, Conference of NGOs:
Dear Ceri,

Your comments interested me, as have the ones on CSO involvement.  I would suggest that you contact Bani Dugal, who can be reached at bdugal@bic.org.  Bani is the new chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, past chair of the NGO Committee on UNIFEM, and an attorney.  She heads up the UN office of the Bahai'i here in New York, and formerly headed up the Bahai'i office for the advancement of women (not to be confused with the UN office of a similar name).

I was the former chair of the committee, but I think Bani would be a good person to connect with.  In addition, I would expect that some of the UN colleagues on this list would have more to contribute directly.

CSOs are very interested in the MDGs, but at this time we have been involved only periferally.  I have been planning a conference at ECLAC for NGOs in the region, but have run into funding issues and may have to postpone it until the funds are in place for this meeting.  I can only say that NGOs are interested in participating with governments and the UN in that region, and I have been greatly encouraged about their response to this meeting.

Best of luck, and I look forward to hearing your results,
Leslie Wright

Daisy Kuzinya, UNV Tanzania:
Dear Ceri,
My name is daisy a UNV gender Specialist working in Tanzania.Yeah I think rightfully so the FGM should be referred to as a cultural practice rather than a human rights violation for that is what it is--calling that way would enable the powers that be to find appropriate ways of dealing with the fundamental reasons of why it is taking place anyway.  Culture is more powerful than politics or so I have observed and if it was called anything else the issue would be dealt with differently. I hope am clear.  Many thanks.

Bharati Silawal, UNDP Nepal:
Definitely the MDG Reports and the reporting processes offers a strategic opportunity to not only advocate for the urgency of advocating for overcoming gender gaps but also to galvanize state and public action for the same since this is about State accountability to its citizens. The MDGs provide a clear road map for monitoring progress in each of the 7 Goals with 11 targets and 48 indicators, and what is now needed is a structured path to reach these goals at three levels ? global, national and sub-national levels. For mainstreaming gender what interests me most is monitoring progress at the sub-national levels and even going below that, as aggregates at the national and global level very often do not reflect the obtaining ground realities. Therefore, in order to create a better world for all addressing gender gaps in each of the goals becomes
pertinent, particularly for UNDP, on multiple fronts. First, as the score keeper of the MDGs; second; as a global development agency; third, as an agency with world-wide knowledge based networks; fourth? as a trusted partner of the governments and civil society; and, fifth, because UNDP has the potential for setting the development agenda through creation of synergy and co-ordinated efforts of development interventions of  development partners.

Given this backdrop, the MDGs provide a tangible mechanism for ensuring that gender issues are not only highlighted throughout the Report as a cross-cutting issue that underpins human development but also that the Report provides space for measuring qualitative progress in reducing gender disparity owing to the fact that gender equality can by no means be achieved through education alone. That is why it becomes imperative to bear in mind that although gender equality is the focus of Goal Number 3 ? it is a good entry point for overcoming gender gaps in education but not adequate enough for empowerment of women by eliminating the whole array of inequality and discrimination that is perpetuated as a result of the norms and values of a ubiquitous patriarchal system. Given this reality, it is needless to say that sex disaggregated data and gender sensitive indicators are the yardsticks for reaching the MDGs. This is also critical for costing of the achieving of the MDGs and categorisation of countries for requiring support or not and of those that are likely to reach the goals particularly for developing countries.

In this context, the process of developing the MDG Report in Nepal was instrumental in the evolvement of a common UN data base. Altogether 7 Sub-groups were established under the headings of Reproductive Health (UNFPA & UNICEF); Child Health and Welfare (UNICEF, WFP & WHO); Education (UNICEF, ILO & WFP); Environment and Natural Resources Management (UNDP& FAO); Gender (UNDP, FAO, UNFPA & UNICEF); Nutrition and Food Security (WFP, FAO, & UNICEF); and Employment (ILO). The 540 indicators being utilised by the different UN agencies were eventually distilled to 97 indicators.

This data base now known as Nepal Info is monitored jointly by the UN System, which will eliminate duplication of efforts and inconsistent definitions. Such a convergence is expected to improve co-ordination and cost effectiveness by reviewing the relevance and reliability of the indicators while using comparative advantages of each agencies for monitoring indicators and fostering capacity building, team building and information exchange at the working level. At the same time, the Report includes policy recommendations for overcoming challenges under each goal for achieving the MDGs.

A rapid gender analysis of the Nepal MDG Report reveals that under Goal 3, the challenges are stated explicitly. They are:
?Reducing income poverty.
?Community management of schools
?Improving enrolment retention and completion of girl students in primary education.
?Conducive physical environment in schools
?Reducing household burden of girls
?Enforcing existing laws on legal age of marriage
?Incentives to parents of girl students
?Structural and policy reforms for women in decision-making
?Changing discriminatory cultural practices against women and children.

The Focus on the other Goals of the Report are as follows:
Goal 1- Poverty: Low castes ? Dalits
           Hunger:  Poor and children
Goal 2 ?Education: Poor and Dalits
Goal 4 ?Child Mortality: services and nutrition
Goal 5 ?Maternal Health: services and human resources
Goal 6- HIV/AIDS, Malaria & Other Diseases High risk behaviours, sensitisation and services
Goal 7 ?Environment: Reducing rural poverty; legislation and local ownership
           Safe Drinking Water: Policy, access and pro-activeness of local government

Since decentralisation is an efficient vehicle for poverty alleviation the UNCT in Nepal  has decided to focus on 3 MDG Goals within UNDAF:
Goal 1 ? Poverty & Women- UNDP & WFP -Vulnerability Assessment and Mapping.
Goal 2 & 3 ? Education -UNDP & UNICEF - Peace building initiatives in 6 districts by youths to define how they will achieve the MDG goals.
Goal 6 ? HIV/AIDS.

Recommendations:
That all of the above have critical gender dimensions needs no reiteration. MDGs are an imperative development agenda especially in conflict situations as it is a known fact that conflict situations render women and girls more than vulnerable to trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. Whether at home, in flight or in camps as displaced persons or the various roles as a result of conflict situations - women headed household, widow, or a combatant that eventually devolves upon them, they all tend to exacerbate gender disparities or further perpetuate gender stereotypes. The poverty, fear and uncertainty of what awaits tomorrow and conditions inherent to armed
conflict reverse the progress achieved in the area of women?s rights as all codes of conduct are put on hold and defeating becomes the norm, warring parties do not hesitate to use women as weapons to avenge, humiliate and subdue the enemy. Therefore, in a country like Nepal where there are stark gender disparities the MDGs provide yet another opportunity for highlighting the need for locating gender issues high on the development agenda. Goal 3 particularly focuses on gender equality and empowerment of women using education as entry point. However, it may not be adequate for transforming unequal structures, processes, participation in decision-making and power relationships between men and women. Thus, the following efforts would contribute towards achievinggender equality while not losing sight of the MDGs:

?Advocacy for gendered approach as in the name of mainstreaming gender the issue more than often gets diluted.
?Networking for exchange of information and building solidarity on gender issues from the local to the national level for gender-sensitive policies, plans, programmes, and budget allocations.
?Gender Analysis of MDGs so that the strategies, activities and budget allocations adopted for achieving the MDGs include a thorough understanding and assessment of gender disparities and challenges.
?Campaign on Gender & MDGs so that the gender dimensions of all Goals and Targets are taken into account
?Gender Tracking of Outcome of the MDGs through development of gender sensitive indicators and benchmarks will provide a structured and systematic guideline for overcoming gender gaps.
?A Gender Specialist should be a Member of the MDG Task Force to keep track of gender related issues.
?Pilot Initiatives employing innovative strategies and partnerships for empowering women living in poverty, deprived of educational opportunities and thus vulnerable to violence, trafficking, HIV/AIDs need to be undertaken to demonstrate theefficacy and impact of

Kalyani Menon-Sen, UNDP India:
Summary of Week 3

Thanks once again to everyone who participated in this discussion, and made it a lively and enriching experience for all the members of GenderNet and MDGNet.  Postings in this final week included some outstanding best practice examples, and a renewed focus on some basic principles of gender mainstreaming.

Haidy Ear-Dupuy, World Vision International:
I don't know if your consultant is just going to look at the data and disaggregate it from the global data.  I suggest that the person step back and look at the MDGs in general and ask whether or not it was set up as the ultimate goals that we must achieve at all costs or are they markers for us all to shoot for and that any progress at all would be considered positive.

Additionally, the MDGs are very one dimensional.  They only see the femal sex as a child or a mother.  There is an absent of the female represented as an entire being with equal respect and that empowerment must start with the recognition of all aspect of gender.  There is a lack of economic opportunites in the MDGs.  Education and health are both very noble goals but without access to the market and employments, we would have healthy and educated people with not many places to go.  Though I am sure the consultant will discuss this in his report, I thought it might serves as a reminder to point it out again.

Haidy Ear-Dupuy

Ghaith Fariz, UNDP Lebanon:
Dear Colleagues...

I would like to share with you a notepaper which I prepared entitled "The Millennium Development Goals: Gender related indicators in the Arab States" (paper available at http://portal.undp.org/server/nis/4649027220095997?hiddenRequest=true).  Using relevant MDG indicators, the paper demonstrates that despite tangible improvements in the gender equality status in the Arab States, there are still major issues that need to be addressed...

Best regards,

Ghaith H. Fariz
Poverty Eradication Strategies Specialist / Advisor
Sub regional Resource Facility for Arab States (SURF-AS)/BDP
United Nations Development Program (UNDP)


 
 

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