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The African Union Commission (AUC) Women, Gender, and Youth Directorate, in collaboration with the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP), UN Women, and other key stakeholders, convened a two-day regional workshop in Nairobi, Kenya. The workshop discussed an Agenda for Gender Data Generation, Translation, and Use for Africa. Bringing together various stakeholders with a strategic and programmatic focus on gender equality and gender data across Africa, the workshop reviewed and validated the proposed Agenda outlining priorities for optimising the demand for generation, translation, and consideration of gender data in decision-making for development policies, investments, and programming in Africa.
Delivering his opening remarks, Dr Eliya Zulu, AFIDEP’s Executive Director, reiterated the need to close the gender gap to achieve the goals and aspirations of Agenda 2063. He emphasised the need to leverage quality data to improve planning and budgeting processes. Similarly, Ms Isabella Schmidt, UN Women ESARO’s Regional Gender Statistics Specialist, noted that the proposed Agenda provides an opportunity to achieve desired continental development and gender equality goals. She also stressed that continental collaboration and integration, as well as the inclusion of alternative data sources in the gender data eco-system both from a production and use perspective, are key to the success of the implementation of the Agenda.
The Agenda for Gender Data Generation, Translation, and Use for Africa seeks to align with existing Africa Union (AU) frameworks and tools such as Agenda 2063, the AU Strategy for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) and the AU Gender and Youth Observatory advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment efforts on the continent. In her remarks, Ms. Prudence Ngwenya, the Director of the Women, Gender and Youth Directorate, emphasised that aligning this Agenda to existing tools and frameworks ensures that interventions are evidence-based, targeted, and transformative.
Representing Ms Ann Wangombe, the Principal Secretary at the State Department for Gender and Affirmative Action in the Kenya Ministry of Gender, Culture, the Arts and Heritage, Dr Josephine Obonyo, the Secretary Gender, highlighted the importance of gender data “for accountability, resource allocation, advocacy and awareness, improving access to healthcare, enhancing girls’ education, promoting women’s economic empowerment and also generally for ensuring that we have comprehensive data that helps us to address overall gender inequalities.”
The regional workshop pointed out the critical need for easily accessible quality and adequate gender data to address slow progress on achieving Agenda 2063 and SDGs and persistent gender disparities. It underscored the importance of fostering a broader network of stakeholders at continental, sub-regional, and national levels working to enhance gender data generation, translation, and use. Subsequent consultations with key stakeholders will be organised to strengthen the proposed Agenda and discuss broader issues on gender data generation, translation, and use in decision-making.
AFIDEP’s partnership with the African Union Commission is very central, because a lot of what needs to happen in Africa for it to move forward is good regional integration and South-South partnership, especially for such an Agenda.