United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) was established in 1947 and promotes sustainable economic growth among its <a href="http://www.unece.org/oes/member_countries/member_countries.htm">56 member countries</a>. It is one of five regional commissions under the administrative direction of The United Nationas headquarters, and reports to the <a href="http://www.wikigender.org/wiki/united-nations-economic-and-social-council-ecosoc/">United Nations Economic and Social Council  (ECOSOC)</a>. As well as countries in Europe, it includes the United States of America, Canada, Israel and the Central Asian republics. UNECE provides a forum for communication between members; negotiates trade, transport and environmental agreements; and supplies statistics and economic and environmental analysis. Its headquarters are in Geneva, <a href="http://www.wikigender.org/countries/gender-equality-in-switzerland/">Switzerland</a>.
<div id="toc">
<h2>Table of Contents</h2>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_work-on-gender"><span class="toctext">Work on gender</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#w_working-group-on-gender-and-economy"><span class="toctext">Working Group on Gender and Economy</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_work-on-gender-statistics"><span class="toctext">Work on gender statistics</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-2"><span class="toctext"><a href="#w_task-force-on-measuring-gender-based-violence">Task force on measuring gender-based-violence</a></span></li>
<li class="toclevel-2"><span class="toctext"><a href="#w_task-force-on-gender-statistics-training-for-statisticians">Task force on gender statistics training for statisticians</a></span></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-3">References</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h2 id="w_work-on-gender">Work on gender</h2>
The UNECE Gender Mandate is based on several intergovernmental mandates which call for the mainstreaming of gender perspective in all UN activities and policies. UNECE has been incorporating gender issues into its work since 1994. UNECE focuses its efforts in four major areas:
<ul>
<li>Providing a forum for regional discussions on mainstreaming gender into economic policies.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Promoting entrepreneurship among women.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Mainstreaming gender into subregional economic policies, through the Working Group on Gender and Economy within the United Nations Special Program for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA).</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Developing methodologies and collecting gender-disaggregated data within the United Nations ECE <a href="http://www.wikigender.org/wiki/unece-gender-statistics-database/">Gender Statistics Database</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="w_working-group-on-gender-and-economy">Working Group on Gender and Economy</h3>
SPECA, supported by UNECE and the <a href="http://www.wikigender.org/united-nations-economic-and-social-commission-for-asia-and-the-pacific-unescap/">United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific</a>, aims to strengthen cooperation among Central Asian countries and their intergration into the world economy. Its members include: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

The SPECA Project Working Group on Gender and Economy (PWG) was established by the SPECA Governing Council in June 2006. Currently, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are the Co-Chairs of the Working Group.

PWG main objectives:
<ul>
<li>Raising awareness on gender and economy issues through policy-oriented research, development of gender-disaggregated data and capacity building activities.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Working together with other SPECA activities.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="w_work-on-gender-statistics">Work on gender statistics</h2>
The UNECE Statistics Division has been active in the past ten years to improve the quality, availability, and use of gender statistics in the region within the framework highlighted in the Beijing Platform for Action and later in the Social Summit.

Under the guidance of the Conference of European Statisticians, UNECE has continued to offer to its member countries a forum where gender statistics experts can meet and discuss selected topics. Traditionally, meetings are held every two years while workshops are held on demand.

In collaboration with the UNDP Regional Support Centre in Bratislava the UNECE Statistics Division finalized in 2002 the <a href="http://www.unece.org/statistics/areas-of-work/statssoc/gender-statistics.html">UNECE Gender Statistics Website.</a>

UNECE also continues its efforts to help less developed countries to strengthen their capacities in producing, disseminating and analyzing gender-related data. A series of training workshops have been held and training tools have been developed in collaboration with the World Bank Institute and other partner agencies.
<h3 id="w_task-force-on-measuring-gender-based-violence">Task force on measuring gender-based-violence</h3>
The objective of the Task Force is to continue to improve and harmonize statistics on gender-based violence.

The Task Force recently prepared a <a href="http://www.unece.org/stats/documents/ece/ces/ge.30/2006/6.e.pdf">comparative analysis of 25 National Surveys carried out by 17 Member countries to measure gender-based-violence</a>.

In October 2007 the Task Force hosted the <a href="http://www.unece.org/stats/documents/2007.10.gender.htm">Expert Group Meeting on Indicators to Measure Violence Against Women</a> organized jointly with the UN Division for Advancement of Women, the UN Statistical Division and in collaboration with other UN Regional commissions. This Expert Group Meeting convened with the objective to commence work on a list of indicators.
<p id="w_activities">The main activities of the Task Force are:</p>

<ul>
<li>to continue to promote training for NSOs and users in the field of gender-based violence;</li>
<li>to define common concepts, to define and contribute to the development of a core set of indicators and identify a minimum set of questions for a 1) specialized surveys and 2) inclusion of a short module on Gender-based violence in on-going surveys.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="w_task-force-on-gender-statistics-training-for-statisticians">Task force on gender statistics training for statisticians</h3>
The main objective of the Task Force is to assist national statistical offices to integrate the gender perspective into their data collection, processing, and dissemination through training workshops and technical cooperation activities.

The Task Force developed a series of <a href="http://www.unece.org/stats/gender/training.htm">training tools</a> which include multimedia presentations, activities, case studies and a gender statistics training manual (forthcoming).
<p id="w_activities_2">The main tasks of the Task Force are:</p>

<ul>
<li>to continue to develop <a href="http://www.unece.org/stats/gender/training.htm">training materials</a>(multimedia presentations, case studies, participatory-based activities, etc.) for future use in regional and national training events;</li>
<li>to finalize the training manual on gender statistics.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="w_sources">References</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.unece.org">UNECE Website</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.unece.org/speca/">SPECA Website</a></li>
</ul>