Botswana hosts sixth Africa gender statistics forum
Otlarongwa Kgweetsi | Wednesday July 17, 2024 16:41
This year’s theme is informed by the International Women’s Day 2024 call: Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress. In her welcome address, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sports, and Culture, Bridget John, highlighted the importance of the forum in addressing gender disparities through evidence-based planning. She stated that Botswana’s commitment to ensuring that data and reports are disaggregated by gender, underscoring the need for policies, plans, and interventions that are sensitive to gender differentials. “This is a valuable opportunity to strengthen regional collaborations, share best practices, and strategise on how best to raise and pooling resources for the production and use of gender data,” she added. Botswana recently concluded its 2022 Population and Housing Census, focusing on bringing out the gender dimension in data analysis to maintain its relevance for users. This initiative, along with household surveys that disaggregate data by sex and gender, demonstrates Botswana’s dedication to comprehensive and inclusive statistical reporting.
“The financing gap for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) stands at $1.3 trillion per year. Africa needs at least an additional $800 million per year towards meeting the SDGs. At the current pace, gender equality will only be achieved in 2094,” said William Muhwava, chief of the demographic and social statistics section. For his part, principal secretary state department for ICT and digital economy, Nairobi, Kenya, John Tanui, highlighted that the forum aims to share the latest innovations and best practices related to gender statistics and engage in crucial policy dialogues. It also aims to enhance resource efficiency by sharing best practices and developing common strategies to rationalise and harmonise the use of gender statistics across Africa. “Sharing expertise and fostering cross-pollination of ideas through this cross-disciplinary, the forum will ensure that we gain the new practical knowledge necessary to move forward this agenda,” he said.
Participants noted the high costs associated with data collection and analysis, which often hamper real-time data availability. It (forum) seeks to address these challenges by fostering partnerships with organisations such as the UN Women to support fundraising initiatives and ensure adequate resources for gender data collection. “While development assistance for gender equality has increased every year since 2015, funding for gender data and statistics has fallen by nearly half compared to averages from 2019. Investing in the production and use of gender data and leveraging this for gender equality is thus the crucial shared goal of AGSF24,” said Aleta Miller, Representative for UN Women’s South Africa Multi Country Office (SAMCO).