| The proposals for indicators were developed by Thelma Gálvez Pérez, a consultant with the Women and Development Unit of ECLAC. Review and cross-matching by subject of the Regional Programme of Action for the Women of Latin America and the Caribbean, 1995-2001, the Beijing Platform for Action and the Plan of Action of the Second Summit of the Americas, and the selection of objectives and declared aims, were carried out by the Women and Development Unit of ECLAC.
Abstract
In response to the need, expressed by the member countries of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, for accurate instruments to identify progress and reverses in the situation of women in the countries of the region, ECLAC has been carrying out work, of which the present study forms a part, to produce a system of indicators that can be used to follow up and evaluate regional and international agreements concerned with improving the situation of women and promoting gender equity. It is also intended that the indicators should facilitate and orient the work of collecting quantitative data on both women and men and then analysing these data as they relate to the gender aspects of development.
To this end, the present document provides a set of indicators devised on the basis of the measures recommended to Governments in the Beijing Platform for Action, the Regional Programme of Action for the Women of Latin America and the Caribbean, 1995-2001, and the Plan of Action of the Second Summit of the Americas. Given the scope of these recommendations, we have selected those aspects that are the easiest to measure with the statistics available in most of the countries, while remaining mindful of the variety of issues covered by the documents.
When the indicators proposed here were designed, the objective was that they should provide accurate measurements of changes occurring over time and enable comparisons to be drawn between countries. Wherever relevant, they are formulated for both sexes, and in some cases the emphasis is on the gap between the two, rather than on the actual level of one or the other. Some of the indicators measure developments in the situation that gave rise to the corresponding recommendations, while others show how much progress has been achieved by implementing the suggested actions.
Finally, this work forms part of regional preparations for the eighth Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean and the special session of the General Assembly of the United Nations entitled "Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century", both of which are to be held in the first half of the year 2000. |
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