General
A National Advisory Panel on the African Gender Development Index (AGDI) in The Gambia was on Wednesday, 9th November 2011 launched at a ceremony held at the Paradise Suites Hotel in Kololi.This index is a tool that maps the extent of gender inequality in Africa and allows policy makers to access their own performance in ending women's marginalisation.
Officially launching the Index on behalf of the vice president and the minister of Women's Affairs Dr Aja Isatou Njie Saidy, the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, Honourable Fatou Mbye described the launching as a major milestone in the national effort to mainstream gender into national development processes; that the launching of the Panel came at the best time, since regardless of the numerous developments, policy makers and planners face difficulty in assessing the actual extent of gender inequality in the nation.
She however noted that one of the reasons for this constraint is the inadequate reporting on gender issues and the limited gender disaggregated data that is presented in most of these reports, noting that they are still using 2003 National Census data which certainly does not reflect recent gender realities in many cases.
Therefore, unless we train a core of experts who are both statisticians and gender specialists accessing gender related data will continue to remain an insurmountable challenge," she observed.
According to her, in an attempt to assist in addressing this challenge, government is addressing the data paucity constraints, in order to fulfill its obligation to follow up the translation of the Beijing Platform for Action commitments and MDG targets into concrete, rapidly attainable and sustainable achievements.
The deputy speaker went on to state that the initiatives related to maximizing the availability of gender disaggregated data related to key development index, AGDI was developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa with the aim to assist African countries develop uniform monitoring indicators and mechanisms that will allow policy makers and planners to assess their performance in implementing policies and programmes, aimed at improving women's status.
According to her, the AGDI study is aimed at collecting gender disaggregated data on more than 40 different indicators; and she further reminded the National Advisory Panel of their role to ensure that the data being gathered is effective, reliable and valid.
"Despite the gender equality achievements registered over the years, we still have a long way to go, consequently, there is a need to intensify our efforts and ensure continuity of these achievements, in the face of the growing threat of the global economic crises," Honourable Mbye further asserted, whilst noting that the commitment and contributions of the advisory panel will go a long way in ensuring the production of reliable, timely and meaningful data that could be used for development planning and for ensuring that the country is as accurate as it is up-to-date in all its reporting obligations.
Ralphina Philott-Almeida, an AGDI consultant outlined the characteristics of the Index stating that the African Women's Progress Score-board (AWPS) is a complimentary to the Gender Status Index (GSI) modality as it focuses on qualitative indicators and empirical data in order to endow the purely quantitative or numerical data of Gender Status Index with analytical or evaluative insights and context.
According to her, it fills or bridges the gaps between the GSI quantitative indicators about both men and women and the qualitative indicators that are related to the personal decision-making and wellbeing of women.
She further explained that the structure is divided into four horizontal indicators, featuring Social Power or Capacities; Economic Power or Opportunities and Political Power or Agency.