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1. INTRODUCTION
The Philippines is a signatory to the 1979
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women. It is also committed
to the implementation of the 1985 Nairobi Forward-Looking
Strategies for the Advancement of Women, the
1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence
against Women and the Beijing Declaration and
Platform for Action adopted during the Fourth
World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China
in 1995.
In recognition of the role of women in nation-building,
several policies/laws/mechanisms have been institutionalized
in the Philippines. This includes the following:
1.1 Art. II, Sec. 14 of the 1987 Philippine
Constitution provides:
"The state recognizes the role of women in
nation-building, and shall ensure the fundamental
equality before the law of women and men."
1.2 In the Philippines, there are three government
agencies that deal specifically with women's
issues. These are the following:
- National Commission on the
Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW) - It is the
recognized national machinery on women and
is an advisory body to the President and the
cabinet in formulating policies and programs
on women and development;
- Bureau of Women and Young
Workers of the Department of Labor and Employment
- It formulates policies and promulgates orders,
rules and regulations implementing the provisions
of the Labor Code affecting working women
and minors;
- Bureau of Women's Welfare
of the Department of Social Welfare and Development
- It promotes women's welfare with specific
attention to the prevention or eradication
of exploitation of women in any form such
as, but not limited to prostitution and illegal
recruitment, as well as the promotion of skills
for employment.
1.3 The Family Code of the Philippines (1987)
has provisions that protect the equality of
women and men in the family such as the provision
that husband and wife should have joint management
of conjugal properties.
1.4 The Medium-Term Philippine Development
Plan (MTPDP, 1987-1992) stipulates that gender
and development shall be effectively integrated
across sectors at the national and subnational
planning processes.
1.5 A companion plan to the MTPDP, the Philippine
Development Plan for Women (PDPW), 1989-1992
addresses the need to institute appropriate
policies, strategies, programs/projects and
mechanisms to ensure that women are effectively
mobilized in the development process. Executive
Order 348, issued on February 17, 1989 directs
all government agencies to implement the programs
and projects outlined in the PDPW.
1.6 Republic Act No. 6725, enacted on May
12, 1989, prohibits discrimination against women
in employment, promotion and training opportunities.
1.7 Republic Act 7192, known as the "Women
in Development and Nation-Building Act" enacted
on February 12, 1992 is a legislative milestone
in the pursuit of equality among women and men
in development and nation building. Section
4 of this Act directs the National Economic
and Development Authority (NEDA) to ensure,
with the assistance of NCRFW, that all agencies
which affect the participation of women in national
development collect sex-disaggregated data and
include such data in their program/project papers,
proposals or strategies. As a follow-through
to RA 7192, starting in 1995, Section 27 of
the General Appropriations Act of the Republic
of the Philippines states that all departments,
bureaus, offices and agencies shall set aside
an amount to be used for gender-responsive projects.
In 1996, the minimum amount to be set aside
was set at 5% of an agency's total appropriation.
1.8 Executive Order No. 273, signed on September
8, 1995 approved and adopted the Philippine
Plan for Gender-Responsive Development, (PPGD)
1995-2025. The PPGD is a 30-year perspective
framework for pursuing full equality and development
for women and men in accordance with RA 7192
and the 1987 Constitution as well as the main
vehicle for implementing in the Philippines
the Beijing Platform for Action.
1.9 Executive Order No. 348 which adopted
the PDPW in 1989 also mandates the creation
of Gender and Development (GAD) focal points
within an agency, a sector or a locality. The
focal points are tasked to catalyze, coordinate,
provide direction to, and serve as technical
adviser on gender and development efforts.
1.10 Republic Act No. 8353, or the Anti-Rape
Law enacted on September 30, 1997 expands the
definition of the crime of rape and reclassifies
it as a crime against person instead of a crime
against chastity.
2. RECENT STATISTICAL
DEVELOPMENTS
In order to monitor the implementation of
the various strategies to promote women's rights,
the need for timely and accurate statistics
on women and men as identified in the Nairobi
strategies has been appreciated and addressed
by the Philippine Statistical System (PSS).
The PSS is a decentralized statistical system
with the National Statistical Coordination Board
(NSCB) as its highest policy-making and coordinating
body. Some of the specific efforts that have
been implemented in the recent past are the
following:
2.1 Approval of the Philippine Statistical
Development Program (PSDP), 1993-1998. In support
of RA 7192, the PSDP, 1993-1998 translates the
mission of the PSS into programs and activities
to produce gender-based statistics for key sectors
such as education, health, employment, agriculture,
etc. The availability of a comprehensive set
of gender-responsive information in these sectors
will provide a sound basis for formulating plans
and programs aimed at improving the status of
women as well as monitoring the impact of such
plans and programs.
2.2 The publication in 1992 by the National
Statistics Office (NSO) of "Statistics on the
Filipino Women", a compilation of indicators
comparing the status of women in relation to
men. This has not been updated, though.
2.3 In 1993, a joint project of the Statistical
Research and Training Center (SRTC) and the
NCRFW entitled "Development of Gender-Based
Indicator System, Data Assessment and Improvement
Plan," was undertaken that produced a framework
of indicators that can be used to assess the
implementation of the PDPW.
2.4 Also in 1993, the Asian Development Bank
provided Technical Assistance to the NCRFW which
produced several statistical outputs: publications
such as Filipino Women: Issues and Trends, Filipino
Women Migrants: A Statistical Factbook, Trends
in Women's Employment in the Regions 1991-1994,
and Filipino Women: Facts and Figures (a set
of 6 Factsheets focusing on women's status in
different fields, such as population, families
and households, employment, public life, education
and health) and a database on women housed at
the NCRFW. This database is being updated in
collaboration with the NSO but at present, it
serves mainly the data needs of the NCRFW.
2.5 In November 1993, together with India,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, the
Philippines through the NSCB participated in
the UN ESCAP Project on "Improving Statistics
on Gender Issues" funded by the United Nations
Fund for Women. The project aimed to improve
the availability of statistics on and sensitivity
to gender issues in national statistical systems.
Its short-term objectives were: to identify
statistics and indicators needed to measure
the achievement of national goals relating to
gender issues; to compile and disseminate internationally
comparable statistics on women and men and present
them in a popular statistical booklet; to identify
the deficiencies in the existing statistics
on priority gender issues and recommend national
plans of action to address those deficiencies;
to foster user-producer dialogue and interaction
for the improvement of statistics on gender
issues; and to produce a publication containing
statistics on the situation of women relative
to men in Asia.
In the Philippines, the project was implemented
by the NSCB with guidance from a National Steering
Committee (NSC) chaired by the NSCB Secretary
General and vice-chaired by the Deputy Administrator
of the NSO. To ensure that the Project was given
high level support and cooperation, the NSC
was composed of key officials/heads of major
agencies such as the NCRFW, the NEDA, the country's
planning agency; and three women non-governmental
organizations. The Committee provided direction,
advice and guidance to the National Working
Group (NWG) in the planning, coordination and
implementation of the project. The NWG was headed
by the NSCB and composed of technical representatives
from the member agencies of the NSC. The NWG
was backstopped by a project staff composed
of sector specialists and secretariat staff
from the NSCB.
A major output of the project is the list
of priority gender concerns identified through
consultative workshops participated by representatives
from various data user-producer groups. The
concerns were divided into three major groups:
economic concerns (economic participation; work;
agriculture; and environment), social concerns
(housing; education; health and nutrition; social
welfare and community development; and women
in media, arts and culture) and special concerns
(population and families; women and migration;
violence against women; peace and human rights;
and women in public life). For each of these
concerns, major issues were identified and to
evaluate the various concerns and issues, a
list of 199 indicators was drawn up. In prioritizing
the indicators included in the list, the following
criteria were used: measurability, appropriateness,
comprehensiveness, relevance, sensitivity, impact-orientation
and availability of data. This process produced
119 high priority indicators and 80 medium to
low priority. In addition, an assessment of
the existing data support to the indicators
was made classifying the indicators into eight
groups as provided by the ESCAP Statistics Division:
those with data available in the desired frequency
and disaggregation (37 or 18.6%); those with
available sex-disaggregated-data in the basic
document but not tabulated (29 or 14.6%); those
where data are available but not in the required
disaggregation, other than by sex (61 or 30.7%);
those where available data use concepts/definitions
other than those required (4 or 2.0%); those
where available data are not timely or not as
frequent as required (12 or 6.0%); those where
available data have doubtful accuracy (3 or
1.5%); those where data are not available in
any form (35 or 17.6%) and those with other
data limitation problems (18 or 9.0%).
The project contributed to the overall development
of gender statistics in the Philippines by producing
a user-friendly national booklet on the situation
of women and men and a national action plan
for filling data gaps. Apart from these outputs,
the process of fostering user-producer interaction
was also highlighted in the implementation of
the project through a series of user-producer
workshops. The project's main output, the publication
entitled "Women and Men in the Philippines:
A Statistical Handbook was released in two (2)
versions: English and Filipino. It was disseminated
to the media, researchers, policy makers, planners
and program managers. The Statistical Handbook
provided information on women related to such
areas as violence, migration and peace which
have not been given focus in traditional statistical
publications such as the Philippine Statistical
Yearbook (PSY) but which are critical to improving
the status of women. Unlike the other Philippine
publications on gender statistics, this publication
is programmed for updating every two years by
the Social Sectors Division of the NSCB with
the first update scheduled to come out before
the end of the year.
2.6 The Philippines, through a country expert
from the NCRFW also participated in the ESCAP
project on improving statistics on women funded
by the Government of the Netherlands which produced
in 1995 the publication, Women in the Philippines,
A Country Profile.
2.7 On October 12, 1994, the NSCB Executive
Board passed NSCB Resolution No. 8-94 enjoining
the different agencies of government to promote
gender concerns in the generation of statistics.
2.8 On February 3, 1997, the NSCB Executive
Board issued NSCB Memorandum Order No. 1-97
creating an interagency Task Force to generate
statistics on Violence Against Women and Children
(VAWC). The objectives of the Task Force are
as follows:
- Formulate a framework
on the development of statistics on VAWC;
- Review concepts/definitions,
issues and problems related to the generation
of statistics on VAWC;
- Review related studies
on VAWC; and
- Develop and recommend
a methodology for generating the needed statistics.
2.9 On September 4, 1997, a Memorandum From
the President of the Philippines was issued
directing the Department of Budget and Management,
the NSCB and the NCRFW to determine the amount
needed to be allocated to the NSCB in 1998 to
fund sex-disaggregation of data at the provincial
level to allow for the computation of a gender-related
human development index.
Results of the above initiatives have undoubtedly
raised the general awareness in the Philippines
on the importance and use of gender statistics,
and identified concrete issues and problems
that require more in-depth investigations. These
include specific areas needed for assessment
of social and economic progress, such as the
following: measurement of the work of women
and men and their contribution to the economy;
data collection on violence against women and
children; and refinement of an existing Gender
and Development Indicator System (GAD-IS) to
make it as an up-to-date and reliable database
support to the PPGD.
3. SOME CURRENT STATISTICAL
DEVELOPMENTS
In addition to what has been achieved in the
past to improve the generation of gender statistics
in the Philippines, the NSCB, in collaboration
with the NCRFW and other agencies, is currently
undertaking the following statistical projects
with funding assistance from the Canadian International
Development Agency - NCRFW Institutional Strengthening
Project Phase II :
3.1 Refinement of the
Existing GAD-IS.
The ESCAP project revealed that out of 199
indicators, only 19% are supported by data in
the desired frequency and disaggregation. In
addition, the monitoring and implementation
of the PPGD requires a more updated, more complete
and more reliable GAD-IS.. Refinement of the
existing GAD-IS includes the identification
of the core gender indicators needed to monitor
the PPGD both at the national and subnational
levels. The revised GAD-IS is envisioned to
be a comprehensive data system support to gender
and development issues, programs and policies.
It shall encompass the three major concerns
on gender and development that were earlier
identified in the ESCAP project: economic, social
and special concerns. It shall consist of a
well-defined GAD data framework and an updated
database at the NCRFW. It shall serve as a basis
for identifying gender statistics that need
to be integrated into the Philippine Statistical
System.
The refinement and improvement of the GAD-IS
depends on two basic factors: first, the selection
of the required gender indicators for the monitoring
and implementation of the PPGD and second, the
capability of the concerned government agencies
to generate the required gender indicators.
On the first, the accumulated experience of
the PSS and the NCRFW in the production of gender
statistics over the years can provide the technical
expertise required to formulate the selection
and compilation methodology for the indicators.
On the second, with the continuing effort to
mainstream gender concerns in economic and social
development programs, various government agencies
have incorporated gender and development content
on their programs and projects and regularly
submit reports to the NCRFW per the Implementing
Rules and Regulations of RA 7192. In addition,
in accordance with the Joint Department of Budget
and Management-NEDA Circular No. 1-96 dated
08 March 1996 which implements Section 27 of
the General Provisions of the CY 1996 General
Appropriations Act, all departments, bureaus,
offices and agencies of the national government
are required to submit semestral reports on
their GAD-Responsive Projects, particularly
on their compliance with the 5% allocation to
gender-responsive projects and utilization thereof.
The agency compliance reports submitted however,
have not been sufficient to measure progress
on women's concerns. Hence, although there is
a growing and expanding support for gender responsive
programs, deficiencies in providing the required
gender indicators by various government agencies
stem from the lack of necessary skills and knowledge
on gender data collection, estimation methodology
and basic statistical analysis, not to mention
existing limitations on budget and resources.
This underscores the need to improve the capability
of concerned agencies to provide on a regular
basis the data required by the GAD-IS.
Statistical data assessment shall be conducted
to determine the availability, reliability,
timeliness and source of the data support to
the core indicators and procedures will be drawn
up on how to fill in data gaps. Under the refined
indicator system, the estimation methodology
for each indicator shall be formulated and the
most appropriate source agency and method of
data collection for each data item shall be
identified.
Recognizing the current limitations of various
government agencies in generating sex-disaggregated
data, a training manual shall be developed which
will serve as a guide in the collection, tabulation,
estimation and analysis of the GAD indicators.
Statistical training will be conducted in collaboration
with the SRTC for the concerned national government
agencies and priority regions to ensure the
provision of necessary skills in the generation
of the GAD indicators.
To institutionalize the collection, generation
and processing of sex-disaggregated data, efforts
to enhance the gender-responsiveness of the
PSDP shall be explored and implemented. Appropriate
guidelines and mechanisms shall be developed
and disseminated to ensure that sectoral plans
and programs in the PSDP will address sectoral
gender issues. Measures shall be undertaken
to implement and effect gender-based statistical
activities of concerned agencies at the national
and sub-national levels. The project shall also
work towards the inclusion of the core indicators
in the system of designated statistics of the
PSS. Since NSCB has the mandate to monitor the
implementation of the PSDP and to lobby for
budgetary support, concerned agencies will be
urged to invoke Section 27 of the General Appropriations
Act to ensure funding of activities to improve
the generation of gender statistics needed for
the GAD-IS.
The results and output of present initiatives
relative to the establishment of a gender-based
indicator system shall be disseminated as widely
as possible to serve as inputs for the formulation
and implementation of gender responsive programs
and projects among line agencies and local governments.
3.2 Development of a Methodology
to Generate Statistics on Violence Against Women
and Children (VAWC)
The lack of hard statistics on the extent
of the problem of violence against women and
children makes it difficult to establish baseline
data which could raise the level of awareness
among government agencies and the public on
the seriousness of the problem.
However, generating accurate statistics on
domestic violence remains problematic in the
Philippines as in other countries. Society in
general, and families in particular, consider
domestic problems and difficulties as private
affairs and they are not likely to report these
events. Also, the stigma attached to domestic
violence discourages victims and their families
from reporting these incidents to authorities.
This study shall integrate and consolidate
reported cases of VAWC coming from various law
enforcement, social welfare and other agencies
of the government. To arrive at uniform concepts
and definitions, inter-agency consultations
will be conducted to produce a glossary of terms
on VAWC.
Recognizing that existing records can present
a very limited picture of VAWC, the study shall
also formulate and test various methodologies
for generating information through surveys.
This is admittedly, a challenge to statistical
systems because of the nature of the information
being collected. However, in order to effectively
guide policy planning and lawmaking, the extent
of the problem on VAWC should be estimated using
a reliable and tested methodology and efforts
in this direction should by all means be exerted.
Current works undertaken are the following:
(1) review of related researches and studies;
(2) consolidation of administrative-based VAWC
statistics collected; (3) review of the draft
VAWC Glossary of Terms in Statistics; and (4)
workshop preparation for administrative-based
VAWC Statistics and Glossary of Terms.
3.3 Conduct of a Pilot
Time -Use Survey in the Philippines Towards
the Development of a Framework for Measuring
Women's and Men's Contribution in the Economy.
Measuring women's work is one of the data
gaps that the government seeks to address. If
women's unpaid work in subsistence agriculture,
housework and family care were fully counted
in the labor force statistics, their participation
in the labor force may prove to be equal to
or even greater than men's. And if their unpaid
housework and family care were counted in the
System of National Accounts (SNA), measures
of gross national outputs would increase. Without
accurate and adequate information about what
women really do and how much they produce, the
government cannot formulate effective internal
economic policies that include women.
Previous attempts have been made in several
countries to quantify/impute monetary value
on the work done by women at home. These attempts
found out that with minor modification or improvement,
a time-use survey would be an excellent vehicle
to support the data requirement of measuring
women's household activities using various valuation
methods such as the opportunity cost or the
market valuation methods. The objectives of
the Conduct of a Pilot Time-Use Survey in the
Philippines Towards the Development of a Framework
for Measuring Women's and Men's Contribution
in the Economy project are as follow;
- Develop a framework for
measuring women's and men's contribution to
the economy
- Develop a methodology
for conducting a national time use survey
through the initial conduct of a pilot time
use survey; and
- Formulate estimation procedures
and standards for the valuation of time use
for unremunerated work by women and men. The
unremunerated work valuation will include
those that are not covered by the SNA.
Current activities undertaken by the Project
Staff are the following: (1) orientation on
the SNA production boundary; (2) review of related
studies on the valuation of housework and time
use survey; (3) preparation of sampling design
and questionnaire; (4) discussion on the conceptual
framework to be developed; and (5) preparation
of workshop on the framework for measuring women's
and men's contribution to the economy.
In addition, pursuant to the directive from
the President of the Philippines to produce
sex-disaggregated data for the computation of
a gender-related human development index, the
NSCB has conceptualized a project towards the
generation of a provincial level Gender Development
Index which measures the achievement of each
province on various areas affecting women such
as health and longevity, education and income;
and a provincial level Gender Empowerment Measure
which measures the extent of women's participation
in political, professional and civic organizations.
The SRTC is also undertaking a project on the
Development of a Training Program for Gender
Responsive Local Development Planning while
the NCRFW and the NSO are discussing a project
on Capacity Building Program for Statisticians
for Gender Sensitivity and Gender Responsive
Planning.
4. ISSUES AND CONCERNS
ON THE QUALITY OF GENDER STATISTICS
The quality of official statistics can be
assessed by looking at the following dimensions:
- ACCURACY/RELIABILITY/CONSISTENCY/VALIDITY
- ADEQUACY/RELEVANCE
- TIMELINESS/ACCESSIBILITY/COST
- INTEGRITY/OBJECTIVITY/INDEPENDENCE
- COMPARABILITY
The issue of accuracy/reliability/consistency/validity
is faced by statistical offices for all types
of statistics. In the case of gender statistics,
specific concerns are the unclear concepts and
definitions for some gender-based statistics,
e.g., housework, household head, domestic violence,
women and children in difficult circumstances,
victims of illegal recruitment, etc. Where the
data source is not the national statistics office
but NGO's or even academic researchers, the
assessment of the reliability of the statistics
could be a problem if the methodology for its
generation is not made available. In the ESCAP
project, for instance, the issue arose on whether
to include statistics from the private sector
in the statistical handbook to be published
by the NSCB, the highest policy-making body
on statistical matters with the mandate to designate
official statistics. It was decided that sharing
the information accompanied by the proper qualifying
statements was more beneficial to users than
the concern to publish only what is official.
In general, the adequacy of statistics on
gender concerns is a problem for most countries.
Women groups almost always call for the measurement
of the women's contribution to the economy,
the quantification of housework, the extent
of discrimination in many areas of concern,
the participation of women in governance compared
to that of men, the victimization of women,
access of women to credit, etc. During the initial
workshop conducted by the NSCB for the ESCAP
project, a number of participants from the women
groups had long wish lists which failed to appreciate
the resource constraints faced by the statistical
offices.
In cases where gender statistics are available,
the question of the timeliness and accessibility
as well as the cost of the information should
always be a concern of the statistical offices.
The PSS is currently involved in a number of
programs that address these aspects of data
quality. Some of these are the establishment
of the National Statistical Information Center
with its various services on information dissemination,
the formulation of a Government Statistics Accessibility
Program which will be a collaborative effort
among many agencies of government as well as
the private sector, the generation of Public
Use Files, statistical dissemination through
electronic media/the Internet, etc.
The integrity/objectivity/independence of
gender statistics has been addressed in the
PSS partly by the agreement reached by the NCRFW
and the statistical offices that these statistics
should as a matter of principle be generated
by the statistical offices. While a database
of gender statistics is being maintained at
the NCRFW, the updating is done with the close
collaboration of the NSO to avoid questions
on the integrity of the database.
Comparability whether within the country or
across countries is important to enhance the
usefulness of the statistics. In this regard,
one of the NSCB's functions is the formulation
of standards and classification systems that
enriches the comparability of statistics generated
by different agencies of government and of official
Philippine statistics with statistics from other
countries.
5. FUTURE DIRECTIONS
TOWARDS THE IMPROVEMENT OF GENDER STATISTICS
IN THE PSS
With the limited financial and manpower resources
of most statistical offices especially those
in the developing countries, it is imperative
that statistical programs addressing specific
concerns be carefully designed. In the area
of improving gender statistics in the Philippines,
the following strategies shall be pursued:
Improve the utilization
of existing data within the PSS.
In some agencies, data on gender concerns
are already available but they either remain
unprocessed or remain untapped by data users.
Examples of these are the land ownership data
in the Land Registration Authority, morbidity
data in the Department of Health, data from
censuses and surveys such as the Censuses of
Population and Agriculture and the Family Income
and Expenditures Survey. Part of this strategy
is better utilization of administrative-based
data which generally are underutilized due to
lack of information on the part of data users.
Also falling under this strategy is the conduct
of more effective dissemination of available
information.
Prioritize the conduct
of statistical activities/generation of statistics.
With several existing data gaps on gender
concerns, with the inherent methodological difficulties
associated with some of them, with varying demands
from different groups and with the limited resources
of statistical offices, the prioritization of
the programs to be undertaken is very important.
It is also important to institutionalize the
generation of statistics on gender concerns
within the official statistical system. In the
Philippines, this shall be done through the
NSCB, with its mandate to designate statistics
to be generated by the various agencies of government.
Develop appropriate methodologies.
This includes the clarification of concepts,
the use of standard classification systems,
the formulation of valid measures, the use of
appropriate approaches to generate indicators,
etc. This strategy is particularly important
in the area of gender statistics, where gray
areas and conceptual difficulties remain such
as in the quantification of housework, measurement
of economic contribution, generating reliable
statistics on various concerns such as violence
against women, participation of women, access
to resources, etc. It may call for the conduct
of new surveys to address data gaps or a modification
of existing survey/administrative forms to incorporate
data needs on gender concerns.
Strengthen the networking
among users, providers and producers of data
on gender concerns.
One lesson learned from the ESCAP project
is the benefit gained from the conduct of users-producers
workshops. The users get to appreciate better
not only the efforts exerted but also the constraints
faced by the producers while the producers get
a much better feel of the statistics that are
relevant to the needs of data users. This results
in a much better appreciation and acceptance
of the statistics generated. But it is equally
important to include the data providers because
without their cooperation, the reliability of
the statistics will suffer particularly in completeness
and coverage.
Build the institutional
capabilities of the statistical offices as well
as the agencies which address gender concerns.
The appreciation of gender issues by statistical
offices generally has not reached the level
that will allow these offices to generate the
appropriate statistics to monitor progress in
the resolution of these issues. In this regard,
the NCRFW is actively pursuing programs on enhancing
the gender sensitivity and gender responsive
planning in government through workshops and
seminars. But equally as important is the need
to develop the statistical capabilities of personnel
in the agencies addressing women concerns. In
the Philippines, this is being addressed by
the close collaboration between these agencies
and the PSS.
Statistical offices have generally learned
to live with the fact that statistical work
is not accorded top priority in the allocation
of government resources. And while donor agencies
have been supportive of efforts to improve the
generation of gender statistics, the sustainability
of these efforts necessarily depends on the
additional funds to be provided by the governments
themselves for integrating gender statistics
in the regular data collection system. In the
Philippines, the passage of relevant laws and
directives has helped in drawing attention to
the need for gender-based statistics. It is
critical that compliance with these laws/directives
be monitored and adhered to by all concerned.
The NSCB for its part is committed to play
its vital role in the institutionalization of
the generation of gender-based statistics in
the country. Based on its mandate, it will designate
the relevant statistics and indicators that
should be produced by agencies in government
specifying the level of disaggregation, the
frequency of generation and the time lag for
each. The NSCB will also enhance coordination
efforts with concerned statistical agencies,
the national machinery for women and the women
NGOs so that the PSS can respond more effectively
to the demand for gender statistics.
But while the production of statistics remains
the major responsibility of the statistical
offices, it is important to recognize that the
success of a program on the generation of relevant
gender statistics will depend on the successful
collaboration among the data producers, the
data providers, the data users and the government
including international organizations.
ACRONYMS
| ESCAP
| ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION
FOR ASIA AND THEPACIFIC
|
| GAD
| GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT
|
| GAD-IS
| GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT
INFORMATION SYSTEM
|
| MTPDP
| MEDIUM TERM PHILIPPINE
DEVELOPMENT PLAN
|
| NCRFW
| NATIONAL COMMISSION ON
THE ROLE OF FILIPINO WOMEN
|
| NEDA
| NATIONAL ECONOMIC AND
DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
|
| NGO
| NON-GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION
|
| NSCB
| NATIONAL STATISTICAL COORDINATION
BOARD
|
| NSO
| NATIONAL STATISTICS OFFICE
|
| PDPW
| PHILIPPINE DEVELOPMENT
PLAN FOR WOMEN
|
| PPGD
| PHILIPPINE PLAN FOR GENDER-RESPONSIVE
DEVELOPMENT
|
| PSDP
| PHILIPPINE STATISTICAL
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
|
| PSS
| PHILIPPINE STATISTICAL
SYSTEM
|
| PSY
| PHILIPPINE STATISTICAL
YEARBOOK
|
| SNA
| SYSTEM OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTS
|
| SRTC
| STATISTICAL RESEARCH AND
TRAINING CENTER
|
| VAWC
| VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
AND CHILDREN
|
October 27, 1997 NSCB,
Philippines
IMPROVING GENDER STATISTICS
IN THE PHILIPPINES
ABSTRACT
In recognition of the important role of women
in nation-building and pursuant to the commitment
of the Philippine government to the various
declarations made in the international conferences
on women, several laws, policies, and mechanisms
have been institutionalized in the Philippines.
Towards the monitoring of the implementation
of the policies and programs to promote women's
rights, the Philippine Statistical System has
undertaken several activities aimed at generating
gender statistics. The outputs of these activities
include statistical publications, databases,
indicator systems, policies and resolutions,
a task force to generate statistics on violence
against women and children and a memorandum
from the President of the Philippines directing
the computation of gender-related human development
indices at the provincial level.
In addition, the PSS is currently involved
in an number of projects that will further enhance
the availability of gender statistics in the
Philippines. This includes the following: refinement
of an existing gender and development indicator
system, conduct of a pilot time-use survey towards
the development of a framework for measuring
women's and men's contribution to the economy
and the development of a training program for
gender responsive local development planning.
But there are many issues and concerns that
need to be addressed with respect to the quality
of gender statistics. This includes accuracy,
reliability, consistency and validity; adequacy
and relevance; timeliness, accessibility and
cost; integrity, objectivity and independence;
and comparability. In responding to these issues,
it is particularly noted that in the generation
of gender statistics, there remain gray and
difficult areas on concepts, definitions and
methodological approaches. This is especially
true in the quantification of housework, measurement
of women's contribution to the economy and monitoring
rare and/or sensitive issues such as violence
against women, victims of rape, etc.
In addressing these issues and concerns, some
strategies that can be pursued are; improve
the utilization of existing data, prioritize
statistical activities, develop appropriate
methodologies, strengthen networking and institution
building. These activities are the collective
responsibility of the data producers, the data
users, the data providers and the government
including international organizations.
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