All of the ADB’s Central and West Asian developing member countries (DMCs)¹ are state parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). In acceding to this treaty, the governments have to fulfill their state obligation of reporting their progress in implementing CEDAW to the United Nations. However, the quality and quantity of gender data, which could enable evidence-based documentation and monitoring of the status of women, and planning for gender equality results, remain inadequate.

While there are established data collection mechanisms on concerns such as labor and employment, incomes, education, health, etc., technical capacity to undertake and coordinate collection, analysis and dissemination of sex-disaggregated data is not yet fully developed in Central and West Asia DMCs. Articulation of the need for support in further capacity building was affirmed in the institutional assessment report² and during the validation workshops held with DMC stakeholders.³

The ADB organizeed this conference in cooperation with the UNESCAP to support the strengthening of capacities of key state institutions mandated to measure, plan and monitor development strategies in their respective countries. Inter-agency cooperation for mainstreaming gender into statistics production and use in development planning was a key approach, premised on the acknowledgement of women’s issues as cross cutting. Knowledge gained by participants from this conference would enhance their ability to gender mainstream national planning for better development results for men and women and to track results in gender equality, which was also relevant for international reporting.

Most importantly, increased capacity of government institutions to produce and use high quality and robust gender data was expected to contribute to reducing inequalities between women and men, allowing gender-inclusive growth.