Assessment of the gender data and capacity gaps at the AUC

Currently, most of the gender statistics stra¬tegic and support work to African Union (AU) member states is being executed under the umbrella of the Africa Program on Gender Statistics (APGS), with the AGGES leading this work.

A partnership consisting of the AUC Women, Gender and Youth Directorate (WGYD), STATAFRIC, UN Women, ECA and PARIS21 collaborated during 2023/2024 on the assessment of the gender data and capacity gaps at the AUC. This was necessary because despite the focus on gender equality and associated indicator frameworks and the existence of the Africa Gender Statistics Observatory and the challenges regarding gender statistics data and capacity gaps remain. These gaps persist within the AUC and across member states, underscoring the need for concerted efforts to expand on gender indicator frameworks and data availability, quality, and utilization.

The assessment identified several institutional gaps at the AUC. These include a lack of human and financial resources at AUC and more specifically STATAFRIC to limited knowledge and skills on gender statistics, weak coordination and collaboration, and inadequate statistical capacity of the AU member states. Some of the data gaps include: AUCRF framework does not have sufficient data and data is not updated regularly; lack of awareness within the AUC, RECs, and member state level of the existing indicator frameworks in the AUC and data requirements for them; lack of systems at the country, RECs, or regional level to ensure that the re¬quired data is collected for the indica¬tor frameworks that exist.

The report also includes several recommendations on how these gaps can be addressed.